REVIEW: Linkin Park fails to meet expectations
When I am unfortunate enough to recall my years in junior high, a few memories seem recurring. Among those are high-water pants, gallons of cheap hair gel, that cute little redhead who so endearingly cussed me out all the time, and, of course, Linkin Park.
Iconic from the beginning, Linkin Park has for years inspired adolescents to change the world, starting with listening to loud, angry music and hating their dads. The two things that parents hate most, rap and metal, were fused into one.
Combine that with angry lyrics and screaming, and eighth-graders worldwide had hit the jackpot. Everything they needed to tick off their parents was right there in one little album with some sort of butterfly-man on the front – and on sale at Wal-Mart for $11.99.
And of course we can’t forget the incredible music that the band offered to the world.
Yeah, right.
Let’s admit it, the only reason anyone ever listened to Linkin Park was because they were 13 and they thought it made them bad-A. Not that they were wrong. It even made me feel tough enough to talk crap about the cute little redhead behind her back.
But, with time, all good things come to an end. I turned 14 and realized that Linkin Park wasn’t cool anymore, and subsequently neither was I.
Then, a few years ago, the band released their hit single, “Shadow of the Day.” Hoping that I had finally found an excuse to blow the dust off my copy of “Hybrid Theory” and feel tough again,
I found myself disappointed. Definitely not the Linkin Park I remembered, the song sounded like it should have been on a Dashboard Confessional album. I mean, there wasn’t even any smack talk OR drug references!
Linkin Park’s newest release, “A Thousand Suns,” follows suit. The album begins with a few lines that ask if we are all going to “burn in the fires of a thousand suns” for our sins.
I would have thought we were back to the good old Linkin Park if it weren’t for the apologetic tone in those words. Evidently the band is seeking forgiveness for something, and it doesn’t sound like they are sorry for drug use or promiscuity.
Songs such as “The Messenger” reach out to youth with a message of love. “Iridescent” gives a message of hope for the downtrodden.
That’s all well and good, but it seems a little weird to me that a band who used to sing lyrics such as “…crawling in my skin,” and “…I think of how I shot myself in the back again,” are now singing “…remember all the sadness and frustration and let it go” and “…when life leaves us blind love keeps us kind” How sweet. Someone must have been pouring the sugar on thick the day they wrote that song.
I see only two explanations for this sudden shift in lyrical motifs. One, that Linkin Park has released this album as some sort of penance for causing so many 13-year-olds to commit various sins such as taunting the cute little redhead.
Or two, their tour bus doesn’t get any TV except for the Oprah Winfrey show, Touched by an Angel reruns, and Hallmark movies.
Apparently realizing that they were about to be asked to start careers as motivational speakers or White House Press Secretaries, the band members managed to fit enough profanity in to ineffectively mask their newly-found feminine natures, a technique unused in their early albums.
And if that wasn’t enough of a contradiction, they even put a song that seems to glorify violence right before one that uses the audio from a Martin Luther King, Jr. quote against war.
Granted, they do digitally alter King’s voice as to make the most non-violent American in history sound like a serial killer, but I’m not sure it helps their case.
In short, this album was anything but what I expected. From what I can gather, they fired their drummer and replaced him with a synthesized beat machine.
They strayed from the time-proven method of making money by giving kids new ways to make their parents mad. They turned sissy, leaving all of us that need the occasional angry song to make us feel tough out in the cold.
Now, I don’t know if I’ll ever have the guts to confront the cute little redhead and her husband. But, if you want to hear a song that has a Spanish title and Japanese lyrics, then this album is for you!
Don’t ask. I don’t get it either.
–rex.colin.mitchell@aggiemail.usu.edu