Amped. I still listen to songs like Hit The Floor, From The Inside, Nobody's Listening and Faint before any soccer game or trip to the gym. Some songs I've never really been a fan of (Easier To Run, Don't Stay), but two of the most notable "Linkin Park" songs are featured on this album: Numb and Breaking The Habit. Just like Hybrid Theory put the guys on the map, Meteora was intricate in solidifying them as a commercial success. It's because of this album that a project like Collision Course with one of the biggest names in music happened. Even if we make fun of it in 2015, in 2003 it was on every radio station and probably in your CD players. That means something.
I agree with this one, in particular. That's what this album was, by and large - proof that the formula was not something created by someone else for Linkin Park to perform. Instead, it was a showcase of how they were for real and not a product of ghostwriters and the record industry. It meant, in some sense, having to emulate the formulas of songs written on Hybrid Theory, sometimes at risk of having them sound too much the same. However, as I argued in the equivalent thread for HT, this album was instrumental in solidifying the band as a highly successful mainstream rock band. For me, though, the word is nostalgic. This was the album that got me into Linkin Park, and it will always be an album that I hold dearly. I know that so many people bash on it, and perhaps for good reasons, but we ought to respect that Meteora raked in a lot of the band's fan base and that a lot of these songs were both successful and what people remember about the band from its early days. I still remember being on Yahoo! Music and listening to "Somewhere I Belong" and "Lying From You" for the first time, and then waiting for the premiere of the "Numb" video. I remember watching "Numb" on MTV's Top 10 Countdown in the mornings and watching the band repeatedly compete with and destroy Good Charlotte in the countdowns (back when MTV was still relatively about music). I remember those times pretty fondly. I used to take my CD player and listen to Meteora while walking to school. There are so many memories this album brings back, so nostalgic is really the right word here.
Sequel Even though fundamentally Meteora is definitely a progression from HT with a more aggressive and more polished sound, it still feels like a continuation (perhaps a growth, or evolution, if you will) of Hybrid Theory.
Refined. Meteora took what Hybrid Theory established as a foundation for the band and refined most of its elements. Even if the same structures were used and similar lyrical themes prevailed, I look to Meteora as being a critical point in the band's long history. It was more polished but in a good way, and had solidified just how masterfully LP could layer various sounds and instruments to forge a unique signature sound. Songs that I have always enjoyed from this album include Don't Stay, Somewhere I Belong, Hit the Floor, Easier to Run, Figure .09, and Nobody's Listening. Songs/instrumentals like Breaking the Habit and Session are truly in a league of their own. All of this said, Meteora is no longer my favorite album from LP but will always surely have a place in having helped me discover a love for music.