I voted Meteora as being bad. Really I think the only people who can mindlessly listen to music. Like Mike has said in the past is that Linkin Park is "good at polishing a turd." They can make a "bad" song like Somewhere I Belong SOUND like a good song even though the lyrics are terrible and it's structure is taken straight from In The End.
But the lyrics themselves aren't bad because they're angst-ridden. The problem is that they're angst-ridden while seeming to be forced and written by a 14-year old. I will never forgive Don Gilmore for butchering the lyrics on that album by making Mike and Chester re-write the lyrics over and over so some slow-witted 13-year old in Ohio can get it.
Take the Faint demo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtqVUsOQtrw
Mike's lyrics aren't mind-blowing in this demo by any means but it feels real and his rhyming is a bit more clever. Faint is one of the songs I can still listen to on Meteora but the energy is night and day. Don Gilmore made them re-write the lyrics to the point that they made Linkin Park a caricature of themselves and it's impossible to tell what these songs are about other than trying to recreate the magic of HT.
Look at the lyrics on Forgotten vs. Somewhere I Belong. How anyone can say Meteora isn't worse lyrically is beyond me.
Forgotten
There's a place so dark you can't see the end
(Skies cock back) and shock that which can't defend
The rain then sends dripping acidic questions
Forcefully, the power of suggestion
Then with the eyes tightly shut looking thought the rust and rotten dust
A spot of light floods the floor
And pours over the rusted world of pretend
The eyes ease open and its dark again
SIB
(When this began)
I had nothing to say
And I get lost in the nothingness inside of me
(I was confused)
And I let it all out to find
That I’m not the only person with these things in mind
(Inside of me)
But all that they can see the words revealed
Is the only real thing that I’ve got left to feel
(Nothing to lose)
Just stuck, hollow and alone
And the fault is my own, and the fault is my own
"I had nothing to say and I get lost in the nothingness inside of me." Really?
