Artist: Linkin Park
Album: A Thousand Suns
Out: September 14th, 2010
I feel like Linkin Park is almost every one's guilty pleasure. They make out of the box rock-rap-metal-pop music. Its a bizarre collection of sounds, that generally comes out a bunch of ear-candy.
The coolest part of Linkin Park? They don't need to throw their release date and promo in your face to get a hit record. Only a month ago, the public was treated to a new single by the band called, The Catalyst. It was a dark, moody, electro-metal song that was instantly catchy. The songs that Park creates, are layered heavily. It requires many listens to fully comprehend the idea behind the lyrics, the amount of instruments that are used and everything that encompasses the song. Shortly after getting a listen to this song, the band announced that their new album would be out September 14th. If you did the math, that was less than five weeks away. The average wait time for most artists from first single to album release is two and half to three months, now a days, some even longer. A lot of bands and artists need to release two or three singles before the album fully hits shelves, so that the public knows they are going to get a good album.
Well, needless to say, I was excited. I hate the waiting game.
Linkin Park, delivered. Last week I listened to the album for the first time, and its their most theatrical and diverse album yet. They've thrown a huge element of euro-trance beats in to the mix with this one, but the heavy rock and hip hop flows are still intact. Being a theatrical person, I also enjoy the album. I'm not one to keep things like interludes and intros and what not on my iPod, because when listening to the album out of order, it just doesn't make sense. This album has plenty, its technically has seventeen tracks, but a good four or five of them are intros/interludes/etc. In fact, the album opens with an intro to the album, and then continues to an intro to the first song, meaning the first real song doesn't come until track number three. I've never seen this on any record, and it really sets the tone for the theatrics.
Linkin Park's music has always been super industrial, and its apparent on the album's first legit track, Burning In The Skies. It has a soft piano line, with a melodic harmony line in the lyrics. A track about accepting life as it is and building forward with your accomplishments. A severe guitar line brings the song home in a way only a modern rock band can.
After yet another intro, the album begins to show you what its going to accomplish, with When They Come For Me. A huge underground style drum beat sits aside an electric beat, and slowly Mike Shinoda, the groups MC, gives you the heavy hip hop style Linkin Park is known for mixing in with their heavy rock beats. A soaring electro chorus of computerized noises swell the song through the end, giving you chills, the only way they know best.
Without an intro or an interlude, Robot Boy explodes with a piano intro and quick electro-beat. Background harmonies swell through the song. Typical Linkin Park song, political and outspoken.
Another interlude, and then Waiting For The End. A strongly political song, with a violent rhythm. There is a Jamaican under tone that plays through the song, mixing both Chester Bennington's vocals and Mike's MC skills as well. It makes you stop and think, which Linkin Park loves to do. I definitely listened to this song multiple times while thinking of how I can help make a change, in my own life and in the future of America.
The next song Blackout, is rather skipable and completely unmemorable. It's too slow moving and the lyrics just don't stand out. But Wretches and Kings is a stand out track from this seriously focused and experimental album. With an attached intro from Mario Savio's famous "Put Your Bodies on the Gears" speech from 1964, its a heavy, dark and moody number that once again combines Chester and Mike's vocals and dives deep into a political stance. This has no potential to be a radio hit, but this song will course through you. Its a hard song, with deep meaning.
The next intro is my favorite intro on the entire album, and actually stands as one of my favorite tracks on the whole CD. It is a Martin Luther King, Jr. speech set to a piano under tone. It's a beautiful one minute track that nearly brought me tears. A beautiful moment in the middle of a heavy album. The track Iridescent follows the brilliant intro as a beautifully deep ballad about forgiveness, strength and the ability to over come. This a serious stand out section on the entire disc. It gives young people hope.
Final interlude before first single The Catalyst appears before the surprise ending. Linkin Park closes A Thousand Suns with a simple accoustic ballad called The Messanger. A simple song about death and love. A beautiful moment in a disc filled heavy electro-rock, and politically charged and angry songs.
Bottom line: Political, strong, beautiful, dark, deep, moody. Its everything we've come to know from Linkin Park, with a few surprise turns thrown in.
Must hear song(s): When They Come For Me & Wretches & Kings.
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