Just saw this thread at work, thought I'd add my 2 cents: When band's in general release their sophomore effort, people tend to want more of the same thing. Pretty much: Meteora was KEY to Linkin Park's success today. If LP had gone and done a Minutes to Midnight instead of Meteora, their popularity might not have grown so much, since tracks like 'Somewhere I belong' and 'Numb' and 'Breaking the Habit' were key to a LOT of their success. If Linkin Park had released Minutes to Midnight too early, this TOO rapid of change could have reduced their fanbase too rapidly, but by making sure Meteora came out first, their fan base was big enough already, where, they KNEW they were going to lose some of their fans, but, that was there choice. [Honestly, I love the new album]. People hate change: In the music industry, a band has to establish themselves by showing they are a good, strong, band, usually with two to three albums before they try anything radically different from their original sound, so the world knows they are there to stay, and can be a power house in multiple genres. By showing they can produce TWO albums with HUGE singles, people knew that, and LP had successfully established themselves. They just first needed a bigger fan base. Pretty much: Marketing.
No, it wasn't. Meteora had a higher score on Metacritic than Minutes To Midnight, scoring 62/100 over Minutes To Midnight 56/100. Meteora is mostly underrated for LP Fans and critics and Minutes To Midnight is underrated heavily by critics, and some fans as well. Meh.
Well, while we're in this thread, I thought I could point out how much I agree with neotriples post above.
I can't say Meteora was key to Linkin Parks success. Or even a big factor in it, really, since I don't think a lot of people really remember how mammoth they were in that 2001-2002 period. I highly doubt they premeditated everything out enough to think about how they should make a samey-enough album with just enough newness to shoehorn in something new so it would take. Look at Meteora, and most of the 'newer' elements were already on Hybrid Theory and most of the time it was better (Numbs screaming sissy rawk is a poor mans Crawling, Somewhere I Belong is almost exactly In The End part 2). That really brings me to my own problem with 'Whats wrong with Meteora', like 80% of it they already did, and did way better right before.
Meteora was more or less the creation of Warner Bros. because they wanted to capitalize on the success of HT. LP used to tell the story that they "wrote a second album, then trashed it to avoid the sophomore curse." Translation: We were writing an album that sounded more down-tempo and industrial (see demos: Halo, Unfortunate) but Warner wanted to milk the cash cow that was nu-metal so they sent in Don Gilmore to help us make Hybrid Theory part 2. That's what's wrong with Meteora. It isn't all bad, Breaking The Habit and Easier To Run are good songs. Nobody's Listening, though not the greatest song ever, gets some creativity points for the Japanese flute. But it seems like too much of an attempt at re-creating success rather than being honest art (which is what music is; art).
Meteora was my first LP album. I love it! So, I don't think there is anything wrong with it. Yeah, it was the same thing as Hybird Theory but I don't see the problem. :/ They were still a new band and most bands don't changed their sound on a second album. In fact, it seems most bands don't change their sound until their 3rd or 4th album.
I don't think there is anything wrong with Meteora. I love a lot of the songs on the album and Faint was the song that got me hardcore into Linkin Park. Meteora sold a lot of copies and was a pretty big album. The only thing I had a problem is if that LP tried to recreate Hybrid Theory and Meteora for MTM, but luckily they didn't. Which is why MTM is still my favorite LP album.
Wow, Sucre's digging deep with this necroposting spree... In any case, I think the better question is "What ISN'T wrong with Meteora?" Mostly because that list is a lot shorter.
As well as the fact that nearly every song on the album sounded like they could have been on Hybrid Theory...but to each his own.
I would also add "Catchy as fuck" to the list. Because it is (which is why I'll give it a spin every now and then).