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Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight
Of all the new albums that will find their way into the racks of music stores Tuesday, I'm not quite sure why I feel compelled to place Linkin Park's new record
Minutes to Midnight in the featured position of the Small Swords listings. If I had chosen my favorite group with a new album this week, Wilco's
Sky Blue Sky would be at the top. Had I used the sweetest album art of the lot, I would have surely selected Megadeth. And if I had gone with the most influential artist, it would have unquestionably been Joe Strummer (apologies to those who believe Megadeth takes this one too). But alas, Linkin Park, the six-member California-bred rap/rock group, undeniably owns this week's biggest release.
One thing...I don't know why.
Despite Linkin Park's numerous accomplishments, which include Grammys and MTV music awards, their music is for people who don't like music. Although lead singer Chester Bennington's insists that Minutes to Midnight sounds like "things they wouldn't have touched a few years back," the new album sounds somewhat like their last two, except less energetic, less true to their "sound" and less appealing. The music is simplistic; the two singers, Bennington being the "rock" and Mike Shinoda being the "rap," are just as annoying as always and quite simply, the album is testament to why the sub-genre of rap-rock was a short-lived fad of the late 90s/early 00s that didn't stick.
As well as providing the melodramatic staccato rhymes, Shinoda co-produced Minutes alongside the all-mighty fairy godfather of pop music, Rick Rubin. While Rubin has proven time and time again why he is the man to go to for a hit record, the new Linkin Park falls short of his recent successes-- Stadium Arcadium, FutureSex/LoveSounds and the Johnny Cash American Recordings. Rubin simply doesn't elevate the impact of the music the way he did for the Chili Peppers, Justin Timberlake and even The Man in Black.
Perhaps there is only so much Rubin can do with shitty lyrics and melodies straight out of a high school movie. In the third track "Leave Out All the Rest", Chester belts out a chorus emblematic of his own shortcomings as a songwriter. He sings: "don't resent me/when your feeling empty/keep me in your memory/leave out all the rest." Six songs later Bennington sings about being lonely on Valentine's Day. Seriously. I would have trouble distinguishing Chester's lyrics with the melodramatic poetry of a teenage loser.
Surprisingly, Minutes to Midnight does away with the rap-infused alternative that drew audiences to their 2000 debut Hybrid Theory and their 2003 follow-up Meteora. Shinoda raps on only two tracks, "Bleed It Out" and "Hands Held High." Shinoda's opening verse on "Bleed It Out" is the lone bright spot on the record.
It seems that Linkin Park, once the pre-eminent rap-rock band in America, has been reduced to a sappy emo group. While
Minutes to Midnight, a catchy album title alluding to the Doomsday clock, may help Linkin Park rediscover itself moving forward, the album fails to recapture the uniqueness of their first album. And when all is said and done, Linkin Park looks to be headed down the same path as Fred Durst and Kid Rock and all those who cashed in on the rap-rock trend and soon faded away.
Wilco
- Sky Blue Sky The Chicago band returns with its sixth studio album, another dose of the of twangy alternative country that has helped Wilco define a increasingly popular American genre. The twelve new Wilco
tracks are mellower than previous music and are the product a more
collaborative effort in songwriting. Sky Blue Sky is the first Wilco album since adding two new members to the band-- guitarist Nels Cline and keyboardist Pat Sansone. Wilco won two Grammys for their last studio album
A Ghost Is Born (2005).
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Joe Strummer - The Future Is Unwritten  Not really a new Joe Strummer album. The man who was The Clash died in 2002.
The Future Is Unwritten is the 25-song soundtrack for the Julian Temple documentary by the same name chronicling the life of Joe Strummer. The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The album features three never before heard versions of Clash songs, plus tracks from Elvis, Dylan, Woody Guthrie and Nina Simone. Between tracks are snippets from Strummer interviews and rants. Although it's impossible to fully accredit the influence of the man behind "the only band that matters," the far-flung and pantheic artists featured on the album go a long way to place a music legend in company with other great songwriters of the 20th century. |
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Pink Martini - Hey Eugene!  This week, the Portland, Oregon 12-piece band, Pink Martini, puts out its third album. Their sound is one part Judy Garland, one part Celia Cruz and one part that woman who sang in the lounge bar of the nicest hotel you've ever stayed in. On
Hey Eugene!, lead singer China Forbes even sings one in Japanese. Ok, you got me. The only reason this album is included is because the singer's name is China. |
The newly-sober popera star falls back on his operatic roots in his fifth studio album
Release the Stars. The new album, executive produced by the Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant, touches on themes of addiction and resentment towards America. In "Going to Town," Rufus repeatedly whines, "I'm so tired of America." On May 22, Rufus kicks off a world tour in Paris.
Megadeth front man Dave Mustane is a born-again Christian now. Seriously. He doesn't even cover
"Anarchy in the UK" anymore in live concerts because of the "I am an anti-Christ" lyric. Yes, Dave Mustane. The guy who got kicked out of a band called Alcoholica for drinking too much. Expect this latest Megadeth
record to feature some Christian-themed material. Also present is the anti-U.S. government thing that was such a success on the seminal albums,
Rust in Peace (1990) and Countdown to Extinction (1992). 2007's
United Abominations has Megadeth returning to cleverish album
titles and the classic Thrash Metal sound that they pioneered in the 80s and 90s.
-Small
Swords Staff
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