7. One More Light (2017)

There’s simply no other way to put it: One More Light is bad. Very bad.

This is an emotionally over-the-top, insipid pop album. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that I’m upset because it’s not another hard-and-heavy Hybrid Theory or Meteora-type record, those albums would not fly as high in the market today, but let’s also be serious about this. Famous music critic Anthony Fantano (a.k.a theneedledrop on YouTube) sums it up perfectly in his video review of One More Light: “All you’re going to do is alienate the listeners that stuck with you from back in the day,” said Fantano, “You don’t want to shake that boat. You don’t want to kick them off the bus because they’re going to leave if you come out with another album like this.” All this album represents, in retrospect, is a horrendous business move – a 100% rejection of their origins.

Where do we even begin? Well, the title track is rather decent in all honesty – something positive to take away from an absolute turkey of an album. The vibrating intro and subtle guitar is like the outro for Coldplay’s ‘Politik’ – very heart throbbing. After eight previous tracks of ad-nauseam eardrum torture, there’s at least a glimmer of confidence. Every other track on One More Light is conversely cringeworthy and downright capricious. Take ‘Invisible,’ with Shinoda on vocals, which evokes a hurting desperation to get on the Billboard Top 40 – even though Linkin Park have that potential and privilege already. ‘Heavy’, featuring Kiiara, is so melodramatic one cannot stop laughing throughout the brain cell-dwindling lyricism. ‘Battle Symphony’ does offer more of a desire for leniency with a more stimulated Bennington making a headway but still leaves a void of dissatisfaction.

Other tracks like ‘Talking To Myself’ and the closer ‘Sharp Edges’ only add fuel to the cringe-fest fire but ‘Sorry For Now’ is the ultimate bane of this album. It’s Shinoda’s worst vocal performance and those obnoxious, silly high-pitched electronic chirps are absurd, especially for artists of Linkin Park’s calibre. Where are the snippets of tenacious rapping for which Shinoda is so famous? Where’s the energy for God’s sake?

The underlying and fundamental problem with One More Light is that it never ignites. Previous Linkin Park LPs, despite what one thinks of the music, all have that undeniably proactive agenda. This latest album takes no mirroring concept of previous albums at all. One More Light was a ludicrous, full-on quasi-mainstream pop myopia, and unsurprisingly failed. (LISTEN…if you must)

6. Minutes To Midnight (2007)

Minutes To Midnight was the first Linkin Park record to be produced by the infamous Rick Rubin and Mike Shinoda. This would be the case up for the group’s future albums up to Living Things. The band started to shift towards a new sound and would begin an era of experimentation. With the title taken from the Doomsday Clock concept, Minutes To Midnight is an album defined mostly by its singles – and not much else unfortunately.

The stand-out track is arguably ‘Bleed It Out’, with Shinoda dishing out verse after verse of combustible, rebellious lyricism (“Throw ‘em up and let something shine / Going out of my fucking mind”). Brad Delson’s guitar riff is highly encapsulating and Bennington screaming “I’ll make you face this now!” makes one wonder how he prevented his vocal chords from snapping. ‘Bleed It Out’ thereafter became their official live setlist finale. ‘Given Up,’ a notably heavy metal track, pushes Bennington’s vocal abilities further with a mind-blowing 20-second scream towards the end. ‘No More Sorrow’ is one of Linkin Park’s most underrated tracks going. It opens with a guitar melody of distinct awe with looping thick guitar riffage and banging snare drums. Then after the pause all the instruments collage into a storm of headbanging delectation. But it’s ‘What I’ve Done’ that is possibly the band’s most accessible track for newcomers – it’s the easiest song in the world to effortlessly listen to. In addition, its Linkin Park’s highest charting single to date. For other tracks, it’s not the same story.

‘Shadow Of The Day’ sounds like Linkin Park trying to compose their own version of ‘With Or Without You’ by U2 but conversely exhibits itself as a sub-standard Poundland knock-off. ‘Hands Held High’ is a track that makes zero sense. Don’t get me wrong, Shinoda can rap like an absolute beast but what is that wearisome and dull funeral-like backing track he’s rapping to? It would be more forgivable as a minute-long interlude but four minutes? Pass! The second half of this album (e.g. ‘In Between’ and ‘In Pieces’) contains some of the most conspicuous album fillers of all time that don’t contribute any kind of zealous mentality or imagination to the track listing.

Linkin Park’s first experimental effort left reviewers in a purgatory state and those who did give a decent mark, did so with less inclination than usual. However, while nu-metal may have been a banished cultural memory by 2007, Linkin Park were still a very viable proposition despite this perplexing LP, thanks to their fans’ support. (LISTEN)

5. The Hunting Party (2014)

Linkin Park decided to return to their heavy roots with their sixth album The Hunting Party – a temporary departure from the electronic rock enmeshment. Shinoda accused other mainstream rock bands of trying to copy their peers or playing too safe, so The Hunting Party is essentially their rebel album. This is Linkin Park’s first album to be co-produced by guitarist Brad Delson, along with Shinoda. In addition, the group collaborated with other artists for the first time too.

The track ‘Rebellion’ is the highlight track on this record for one very good reason – Daron Malakian, esteemed and highly endorsed guitarist from System Of A Down, is the featured guest. Everything he touches musically turns into gold. Need proof? Listen to anything from System’s discography. Malakian is a well-oiled alternate picking machine and the riffage on ‘Rebellion’ reminisces the ‘Toxicity’ breakdown riff especially. Meanwhile Bennington and Shinoda sing about rebellion against the mainstream rock modus operandi. “We are the fortunate ones / Imitations of rebellion” is the band recognising their fanbase is so dedicated that they can go against the simulacrum of modern rock and still prosper.

Another notable guest is current Prophets Of Rage, and ex-Rage Against The Machine, guitarist Tom Morello on the track ‘Drawbar’ – but the news is not so positive. The track is not bad by any means, a lovely, ambient 2-minute interlude, but Morello leaves no impact on the album. One could easily think that it was just another Linkin Park song, had they not mentioned that Morello was a guest appearance. Page Hamilton, from alternative metal band Helmet, features on ‘All For Nothing’ which seems to be Shinoda giving another middle finger to the mainstream. Finally, legendary MC Rakim collaborates on ‘Guilty All The Same.’ There’s a hint of influence from the power metal sub-genre on this track (without the blast beat drums and high-pitched vocals). Delson’s guitar riffs do impress but Bennington’s vocals are incomprehensibly inadequate and ruins the overall texture.

‘Wastelands’ and ‘Mark The Graves’ feel like rock prowess, with the former being sufficiently tolerable, on the surface but slightly unsubstantial at the core. The latter is sloppily written and slapped together leaving an unstructured mess. On a more positive note, ‘War’ is an explosive punk-orientated effort as Bennington kills with usurping lyricism and ‘Keys To The Kingdom’ is a fantastic opening track. Whilst Linkin Park are producing something different, The Hunting Party, as an album, is disappointingly underwhelming for the potential it had, but is certainly more thrilling than Minutes To Midnight. Shinoda said mainstream rock was all about playing safe, but the excruciating irony is that the band are also playing it safe in terms of their own song writing capabilities – there’s a lack of adventure and discovery. But, unlike Minutes To Midnight, the band’s objectives are clearer and there is extra consistency in the scheme of things.

Critics praised this album for Linkin Park’s re-emergence from the early noughties, but failed to recognise the desensitisation of the music. Just copying the old days would’ve been another situation entirely but Linkin Park could have rekindled the spirit and essence from that period for The Hunting Party – but didn’t. (LISTEN)

4. A Thousand Suns (2010)

Linkin Park’s fourth album A Thousand Suns is their definitive electronic rock album. It’s also their most critically polarizing, as the love-or-hate reaction divided their fanbase, particularly as the first single ‘The Catalyst’ made its way onto MTV and radio stations. In this case, the band certainly made the right choice to go down this path. There are very few bands that can sustain a successful by knocking out album after album in which virtually all their songs sound the same (e.g. AC/DC, Motörhead, Status Quo etc.). Linkin Park’s discography feels like a satisfying process of evolution, with natural selection dictating that the nu-metal sub-genre was no longer in fashion by the end of the noughties. Minutes To Midnight started the deviation but A Thousand Suns solidified the transition – like Radiohead going from OK Computer to Kid A.

A Thousand Suns was also to be Linkin Park’s first official concept album (although one could easily tag Hybrid Theory and Meteora as concept albums) and the second album of their experimental phase. The album’s title quotes the Hindu Sanskrit scripture Bhagavad-Gita but was metaphorically used to mimic the atomic bomb by J. Robert Oppenheimer – the designer of the bombs used to devastate the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima and bring about an end to World War II. Hence, the predominant focus of this album is nuclear warfare. The opening track ‘The Requiem’ opens with an eerie high E piano key along with unprecedented ambience. Then a robotic female voice sings “God save us everyone / Will we burn inside fires of a thousand suns” which imbibes and pushes the apocalyptic landscape into the listener’s thoughts. Following this, the minute-long ‘The Radiance’ entails Oppenheimer talking about the Hindu scripture mentioned a few sentences ago.

‘Burning In The Skies’ encompasses the detonation of the bomb as people “hold their breath when the clouds began to form” and getting “lost in the beating of the storm.” Shinoda’s voice in the verses is indulging and Bennington intrudes in the chorus to create a spine-tingling sensation. As the listener will discover, A Thousand Suns is Linkin Park’s most mellifluous album to date and the band seem a lot more comfortable with what they are doing than they did on Minutes To Midnight. ‘Iridescent’ is a superlative post-nuclear aftermath song with heart-wrenching lyricism and instrumentation that gradually builds to a point of feeling uplifted after a sorrowful beginning. Another track which is sometimes overlooked in conversation is ‘Blackout’ – this is the album’s turn-it-up-to-11 track! The doom-laden piano chords and exhilarating drum beats set Bennington up enliveningly for him to exorcise his omnipotence. Then suddenly there is a change in tempo and Joe Hahn uses his turntables to haphazardly mix Bennington’s lyrics before Shinoda takes over for the second half of the track.

‘Waiting For The End’ and ‘The Catalyst’ are ultimately the live staples from A Thousand Suns. The former starts off with the high E piano key from ‘The Requiem’ but then transcends to a rap frenzy from Shinoda, debatably his most prominent since ‘Papercut’ or ‘In The End’ from Hybrid Theory, and Bennington is given the mic soon after. “All I want to do is trade this life for something new / Holding on to what I had is gone” is one of the greatest lines of desperation in Linkin Park’s entire discography.

‘The Catalyst’, on the other hand, is the album’s magnum opus. The second those organs play, one knows that they are in for a treat. Rob Bourdon’s drums, coupled with Joe Hahn’s backdrop turntables, commandeer the song’s kinesis prior to Shinoda’s overwhelming vocal work with the opening lyrics: “God bless us everyone / We were broken people living under loaded gun / It can’t be outfought / It can’t be outdone / It can’t be outmatched / It can’t be outrun, no!” Unsurprisingly, Bennington intervenes and competes with Shinoda, nailing every note with uttermost ease. Eventually, the panorama of the song changes from rife hysteria to Linkin Park’s typical elevating dogma. “Lift me up / Let me go” is reverberated by Bennington until the song concludes.

A Thousand Suns got undeserved negative criticism, for being different more than anything. Admittedly, it’s not a phenomenal album but nonetheless it was a necessary move to break them out of their nu-metal shell for good as the 2010s dawned on them. (LISTEN)