I noticed there was a thread for Meteora, but what about Minutes to Midnight? I think this album was excellent. It barely has any flaws in my book, and even though their first two albums gave me plenty of good memories, I think this is their best work. You get a good variety of music whether it be heavy rock songs, soft electronic ballads, or hip hip songs, you are getting a great collection of music here. Not one song you listen to will sound like the previous and that's what I enjoy about the album the most. The songs are a tad bit formulaic but in some cases like Hands Held High and The Little Things Give You Away, they are not. The lyrics improved greatly, the variety is outstanding, and overall you are getting a great collecion of music. It's their best work behind A Thousand Suns and Reanimation in my opinion. Your thoughts?
I think it's great for what it is supposed to be. "Breaking The Habit" of doing their older nu-metal songs (c wut I did thar?) It was a nice change-up, and I hate all the crap that some people give it because it's not Hybrid Theory Part Trois (that is three in French btw)
Minutes To Midnight has a lot of high and low points. Leave Out All The Rest, What I've Done, and In Between are putrid.
I think those songs were awesome for what they were. Leave Out All The Rest is a happy warm song with dark cold lyrics about death. What I've Done was a great rock song with nice piano elements to give it a nice spooky feel. In Between has a decent vocal performance, and the bridge has some of the best lyrics they have ever written.
I personally don't like the fact that the songs sound so different from one another. ATS is their best work because it has the same amount of diversity but they still sound like they belong together. I'm also not a fan that they crammed all the singles to start the album. Gu/LOATR/BIO/SOTD don't go together at all. With that said, I think all the songs (except Given Up) are all above average tracks. I too love LOATR. TLTGYA is a masterpiece. Valentines Day get's be every time with the ending. There are a lot of positive points in M2M. I just wish it flowed better.
This for me is their second best album, only slightly behind ATS because of Given Up and No More Sorrow. I love every other track so much it's hard to rank my favorites, unlike Meteora. It shows they put their all into every song.
And I hope Meteora burns inside the fires of the destroyer of worlds as it swims through the smoke of bridges it's burned, because it's a tough one to swallow but if I hold on the weight of the world will give me the strength to let it go. My fists are flying on the air while listening to Minutes to Midnight because Meteora left me with a sinking feeling, but we the animals took control in the dark and bloody battlefields. After listening to that garbage called Meteora I decided to let all of the sadness and frustration go, and I didn't have to apologize because I'm losing what my ears don't deserve. So it burned inside the fires of a thousand suns, because Minutes to Midnight was a broken album living under a loaded gun, and finally love kept me kind.
Ben I remember how you said MTM wasn't as cohesive as the first two, I highly disagree. Each group of songs on Minutes has a certain theme. The first five deal with personal problems such as drugs, relationships, and death. Tracks six through eight deal with political thoughts and emotions. Tracks nine through eleven deal with love and relationship. The last track deals with all three. Hybrid Theory and Meteora are cohesive because most songs are formulaic and sound the same. They only connect with simple fade in and outs.
And we did get some amazing b-sides from the album too might I add. No Roads Left, Across The Line, and Blackbirds.
Minutes To Midnight has grown on me in a way I never saw coming. Following its release I would play it (often mind you) but never really got "into it." Always missed their nu-metal sound (and to a degree still do) However right before the release of ATS (as the puzzles were just coming in) all a sudden I listened to Minutes, and almost "discovered" something about it, that in its own way it was indeed a solid album. Its odd, because for over 2 years I would always listen to it, but yearn for the old style while listening, all a sudden right before ATS releases I began to really like it. I don't know how that works, but I guess it does.
You actually have a good point there. I never thought about it that way. But even though they flow lyrically, they sonically are nothing a like save the last few songs. Mike himself said that with ATS they tried to have more of a "Sonic Identity." And I'd say they accomplished that quite well. But like I've said in the past, I still give this album 8.5/10 or maybe higher. It's just that Linkin Park is such an exceptional band that an 8.5 is only average for them.
Yeah I never thought about it like that until I looked back on pre-release mtm interviews and remembered Mike said for those who download the leak, listen to the songs in order. It took me 2 years to figure out why they are played best in order.