Linkin Park has gone through so much criticism for changing their sound through the course of their career and I personally had no problem with that. I have admired them since the start and as long as they produce good music I have no issue progressing and experimenting their sound into different directions. The only problem I had before was the release of The Hunting Party when they served the fans what they wanted by producing such a hard hitting rock album which appeared to be a setback for the band, but nonetheless they produced a well-made and quite intricate album. Anyway, I had conflicted emotions with this album because the ideas are worn out and there’s nothing new that has been covered here but the band seem to make it clear for us that the lyrics meant more important than the music itself throughout the album.
Nobody Can Save Me
starts off as this bland opener, using the cliché pop tropes like The
Chainsmokers-style pitchy vocoders and goes for Good Goodbye as well and its only redeeming factor is Stormy’s verse and that
doesn’t help make the typical ‘Don’t Care Attitude’ hip-hop track. Talking to Myself is like a mixture of Living
Things and one of the radio friendly tracks in The Hunting Party, and it’s one
of the few tracks to clearly hear the guitars being the catchy hook and even
that sounds very simplistic, but we hear a more vulnerable side to Chester as he sings about his struggle with drug and alcohol abuse through his wife's point of view. Throughout the next few tracks they almost sound
so similar as the creativity with chord progression is completely limited. Invisible sounds like a OneRepublic
track, and it’s bold for Shinoda to sing throughout but just ended up sounding
very flat, but it seemed important to him as he expresses his thoughts about disciplining his children and how much he cares about them. In Battle Symphony they
cover the vocoders once again because it seems like the hip cool style that
will stick to everyone’s heads right? But Chester focuses on personal conflict here and the sensation of your own personal thoughts. While in the main single Heavy, Chester’s graspy hard rock vocals
just don’t suit the genre as it just sounds like he’s struggling the high notes but Kiiara’s
vocals complements the pop ballad track well. Sorry For Now is a very strange track, as The 1975 influences are very clear with its funky breakdowns, and Shinoda
improves his lyrical abilities and vocals here exploring the sacrifices he has to make for his children as he goes off on tour, while Chester raps like in A Thousand Suns’ Waiting For
The End, but it’s overall a confusing song mixing so many different sounds. Halfway Right uses the same chord
progression as Invisible and seemed
like another throwaway track considering there are only ten tracks in the
album, but the lyrical content still makes quite an impact as Chester "writes" a letter to his fragile 7 year old self and the abuse issues he has gone through in his problematic adolescent years. One More Light stands out the most, which is very reminiscent to the Minutes to
Midnight-era, it’s emotional and bittersweet as Shinoda writes about the traumatic experience of losing a friend and stresses out the importance of not taking personal fortunes for granted and letting your loved ones how much you care about them. But sadly finishes off with a predictable
folk-type Sharp Edges which again sounds like a OneRepublic track where Chester reminisce his childhood years.
It's difficult to compare this album with their previous efforts because they all sound vastly different. They are more vulnerable and goes through personal issues and stranding away from political messages that made them an important band to begin with, they are fathers now and they are more mature and focused on their own personal matter which I admire them for. But the main problem I have with Linkin Park and this album is that they try
to relate more to current radio pop music but they fail to do so because for an
alternative band to attempt such style makes the overall sound more outdated, almost like someone’s
dad trying to keep up with music today when the music they actually listen to
already is good enough as it is. I’m sure these tracks will sound much better
live but the mixing throughout this album undermines the guitars, bass and even
the drums turned into this hip hop sound and it sounded like the creativity
they had has been stripped back. It’s a different scenario if they surface and
experiment around the idea of pop music like what they did with Living Things,
but covering the whole territory was a big misstep for them. Yes I gave them so much negativity throughout this review but that's because I know they can do so much better, I just wished they were more unconventional like A Thousand Suns with this album because that was their true evolution ingenuity but I didn't get a single fresh and inspiring idea in this album.
Overall: Worn-out pop sounds to make them seem more relevant failed to deliver an expressive and/or satisfying album and it's massive setback for the band when it comes to evolutionary experimenting. But their personal themes of family, desolation, and Chester's struggle with drug abuse gives the album the redeeming factor. Nonetheless, it's Linkin Park's worst album to date.
Check Out: One More Light, Sorry For Now, Heavy
5/10
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