Toonari Post continues an in-depth review of Linkin Park’s new album ‘Living Things’, going into the less fortunate tracks on the otherwise great album. While these last few tracks are good, they do not match the expectation. On the other hand, the second half features one of the best songs on the entire album and Linkin Park lead guitarist Brad Delson sings for the first time on this studio album so fans definitely have something to look forward to.

While blessedly short, “Victimized” is an odd one out since Bennington screams six lines of the song, two of which are in the chorus. The rest of the song, if you can call it that, is rapped by Shinoda. With a title like “Victimized” the most straight forward interpretation is the subordinate rising up against the leader. This song made very little sense in its arrangement on the album and seems like track filling. A sad mark against an otherwise great album.

“Roads Untraveled” may have ended up like a slow version of “New Divide” but is instead a deep and meaningful version of “In The End.” While both songs are good in their own right, “Roads Untraveled” has its own expression of hope while maintaining its sad, melancholy tinged vibe.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about “Skin to Bone” is rapper Mike Shinoda’s vocal singing. In fine form, the rapper sings well with Bennington in a deeper vocal range that is seldom seen from Shinoda. A song with lyrics as dark in emotional concept as they are in visual imagery, “Skin to Bone” is hair raising where “Roads Untraveled” is enlightening. “Skin to Bone” celebrates the ending of a relationship, treading the edge of gleeful satisfaction.

“Until it breaks” is a song that requires patience since the rap style in the first minute is hard hitting like on “Victimized.” After this unfortunate rap inclusion though, the dichotomy of Chester Bennington and Brad Delson is a welcome reprieve. This happens often throughout the song in a battle of sorts between the three vocalists, with rap vocals winning out a majority of the time. Feeling disjointed, this song joins “Victimized” as an odd addition for this album. It is not a bad song, but is fails to carry the Linkin Park sentiment to full capacity, seeming partly good and partly misplaced. This is the first time Delson sings on a studio recording.

“Tinfoil” is one minute and 12 seconds of instrumentation that sounds like old school Linkin Park. It is unfortunate that this is just an instrumental song instead of a full-fledged vocal track but it does serve as a good lead into “Powerless” despite looking like a track filler.

“Powerless” is the wrath of disappointment embodied in a song. Sounding as ripped out of early Linkin Park albums with its excellent piano work and electro sounds, this song features in the new movie ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’. The music video is filled with scenes from the movie and accentuates the sense that momentary powerlessness does not mean you should live in fear forever. It could be about addiction but is definitely about struggle, where the observer powerless to help the situation.

The pacing of the beats in concert with the vocals on “Powerless” will be familiar to ‘Hydrid Theory’ alumni with the drum, bass, guitar and piano bringing back memories from days long past. This is the song that “What I’ve done” and “New Divide” from the previous albums should have become. It is the quality of emotional connection in this song that Linkin Park should strive for continuously. Bennington’s vocal holds several notes in every verse that stretches to emphasize the raw depth of inability to change the situation.

Overall, this is a very solid effort from Linkin Park. What the album lacks in quantity of album length and three very odd song choices, it makes up for in sheer quality of emotional connection and lyrical excellence. The majority of the songs on this album reflect many real life relationships. Combined with the singing from three vocalists on this album and fantastic musical instrumentation, Linkin Park has found a way to perfectly mesh together their recent mainstream melodies and original rap-rock vibe from their ‘Hybrid Theory’ album. Inspiring yet another generation of listeners across multiple genres, Linkin Park has managed to recreate itself yet again to hopefully provide another decade of great music.

Rating: 4.5/5 for a rocking good time with strong anthems and ballads that emotionally connect on a meaningful level, despite a few odd song choices being included.

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Linkin Park has a favorite place within the halls of Rock and Roll. Celebrated as the creators of ‘Hybrid Theory,’ they changed the music of an entire generation and will always be remembered for that album if nothing else. Since then, there have been other albums and side projects, some of which were quite experimental in sound. Prior to ‘Living Things,’ many of the Linkin Park singles were quoted by fans as being more ‘mainstream’ and ‘melodic’ in nature. A more in depth look into the history of Linkin Park Albums can be found here.

The newest Linkin Park album though, is something of a conundrum. It does feature the more mainstream sound that fans talk about, yet it also has some memorable hooks as well as that emotional quality that fans connected with for the first time on ‘Hybrid Theory.’ So if the question is, has Linkin Park redeemed itself with ‘Living Things?’ The answer is … sort of.

Song by song, each reveals a layer of Linkin Park’s quality. The first song, “Lost in the Echo” is the second single released off this album. With strong drum and bass work, this first track features Mike Shinoda right off the bat. In perfect unison during Shinoda’s rap, Chester Bennington’s haunting vocal suffuses background of this track right before Bennington starts his individual section of the vocal. It has always been the vocal tag team that made Linkin Park’s sound so unique in comparison to other bands with the same instrumental background.

In the same spirit, the second track “In My Remains” begins with a guitar riff that could have been taken right off the ‘Reanimation’ album for its remix sound before Benningtons’ rock vocal adds the real emotion behind the song. “In My Remains” could sound similar to “What I’ve done” with its guitar and drum arrangement except it features both Shinoda and Bennginton carrying an overlapping vocal note that gives the song a serious tone and will definitely connect with fans.

“Burn It Down” is the first single and third track on the ‘Living Things’ album. It features the inclusion of another style of music, chiefly electronic musical arrangements overlaying the bands rock and rap origins. It is not quite as big a departure as one might think since Linkin Park has been known to excellently mix other styles of music into their albums. The electronic notes resonate with excellent timing to fit snuggly into the vocal and instrumentals, taking this song to the next level.

That said, the song is complicated since it echo’s Linkin Park’s sentiment that ‘Living Things’ is an album about relationships and the people in them. As the first single, “Burn It Down” completely embodies the cycle a relationship can go through before ultimately failing. The song can be about addiction, abuse, disappointment, bad relationships, revenge or any other myriad of emotions. It has appeal on many levels but doesn’t stick to a main theme, leaving the more specific driven songs for other tracks on the album.

The 4th track “Lies Greed Misery” is a very specific revenge song. In essence, it carries the message that you reap what you sow. A classic song for the angry listener, it gives the impression that Linkin Park speaks to someone in frustration. It is an up-tempo screamer of a song mixed in with rap and big hits of bass to achieve that head-thrashing, middle finger-flashing, rock anthem feel.

Dovetailing off of that vengeful note, the 5th track titled “I’ll be Gone” takes the other route of ending a relationship, peacefully leaving and never looking back. Whether this song is about suicide or simply walking away from the bonds of a relationship is up for debate but the song is very powerful. No doubt it will either be a future single or a very popular Karaoke song as an excellent ballad for the heartbroken.

“Castle of Glass” sets off a profound and haunting spine chilling tone for this 6th track on the ‘Living Things’ album. Completely open to interpretation at first, a closer examination of the lyrics reveals a song about war. The musical arrangement has a constant drum beat that speeds up and slows down like a soldiers march.

The second verse is about flying out of the warzone on silver wings, through the aerial cannon fire and the dreamlike feeling of coming home after such a long time. Duty and honor is not a shiny medal and a pat on the back; many times its about witnessing  horrors, maintaining a semblance of sanity and surviving to get home again. That distinct feeling is what this song embodies, especially for our returning soldiers.

Toonari Post’s Review of the ‘Living Things’ Album continues in Part 2 for Tracks 7 through 12.

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Linkin Park has never been afraid to experiment with new sounds and music styles, that much is evident from albums like ‘Reanimation’ and side projects such as Fort Minor. Still, many fans wondered what 2005 and beyond would hold for Linkin Park. The answer to that ironically lay in a large blockbuster movie featuring robots fighting for intergalactic dominance.

Following the success of the Fort Minor side project, it took a while before the next Linkin Park album, ‘Minutes to Midnight’, was released in 2007. It was from this album the feature song on the first ‘Transformers’ movie came from. However, die-hard fans complained that Linkin Park’s sound had become too main stream during the years of side projects. Reviews were a mixed bag with several critics calling the album a successful bridge between rap and rock music while others said that Linkin Park had lost their way.

Still, many of the singles from ‘Minutes to Midnight’ were a smash success. While some fans loved the new sound others lamented the loss of Linkin Park’s edgy angst-ridden quality. Complaints were abundant that while the album was good it wasn’t great, not connecting as well with listeners as anticipated. The singles released included the aforementioned ‘Transformers’ theme song “What I’ve Done” in addition to singles like “Bleed It Out”, “Given Up” and “Leave Out all the Rest.” The last single is oddly enough the one that connected the most with fans, bringing the most emotionally evoking experience of this album.

2010′s ‘A Thousand Suns’ only served to highlight Linkin Park’s changing sound. The dichotomy between what was great and what was subpar stretching just like the theme of miss-communication and growing apart from the “New Divide” single, prompted many fans to finally accept that Linkin Park had changed for good. Fans accepted that while they would always love Linkin Park, the days of ‘Hybrid Theory’ with its dark emotionally connecting truths were a thing of the past.

It isn’t a question today of whether an Linkin Park albums is good, but rather, how good it is upon release. ‘A Thousand Suns’ did have songs that connected with people, but they were softer and mellower than ever before. The word ‘delicate’ has been used to describe certain songs, not because the lyrics were safe and boring but because most of the vocal arrangements inspires casual camp singing with s’mores instead of head banging air guitar playing. This is necessarily a bad thing since the album was a huge success, gaining Linkin Park new fans all over the world. Depending on whom you ask this album was either fantastic or a total dud.

Fast forward to 2012 and the debut of the “Burn It Down” single officially released in April much to the trepidation of fans. Would it be more of the same style seen from the ‘A Thousand Suns’ album? At first glance this single sounded a lot like the others that had come before it. ‘Burn it Down’ marks the continuation of a sweet melody and hook style cultivated through Linkin Park’s last two albums however, it is the lyrics and transitions that set this single and indeed the entire album apart from its predecessors.

“Burn it Down” is the tip of the iceberg, showing that yes, Linkin Park is keeping its softer musical style. However, the lyrics have returned to a true hard-edged white-knuckle experience. Once more, Linkin Park songs will connect with listeners on an emotional level. Truths will once again be expounded upon in true Linkin Park style featuring that edge of angst and anger combination vocal that once made ‘Hybrid Threory’ so great.

‘Living Things’ is an album that celebrates the collaboration between Linkin Parks new school sound and the bands return to old school lyrical truth. For an in depth review and analysis of the ‘Living Things’ Album, check back with Toonari Post. Congratulations Linkin Park, this album is one step closer to greatness.

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