Review This Again: Minutes To Midnight By Linkin Park!

The Good: Good lyrics, Most of the vocals (all of the vocals are, at the least, expressive), Some wonderful tunes
The Bad: Short, Moments of flat-out noise.
The Basics: Minutes To Midnight by Linkin Park holds up surprisingly well as an angst-filled and politically-charged album.


There is a big meme in the art community going around now called "Draw This Again." In the meme, artists illustrate how they have grown in their chosen medium by putting side-by-side pictures of art they created in the past and now. My wife had the great idea that I should do something similar with my reviewing. So, for the rest of 2016, I will be posting occasional "Review This Again" reviews, where I revisit subjects I had previously reviewed and review them again, through a lens of increased age, more experience, and - for some - greater familiarity with the subject. Music reviews are generally ideal for me for this project because the bulk of my music reviews are based upon my listening to an album eight times in a row on heavy-rotation. Most of my music reviews are not based upon listening to the album over the course of several years. So, without going back and reading my previous review of the subject, I am now re-experiencing several works. Today's is the Linkin Park album Minutes To Midnight, which was originally reviewed here!

Minutes To Midnight was Linkin Park's third album and it is an interesting transition from the first two albums the band produced, in that it marks a departure from songs that are mostly about personal and relationship angst. Instead, Minutes To Midnight infuses the familiar themes with a few tracks about political disenfranchisement and angst . . . and the band works harder to present more overtly musical songs. Opening with guitars that are doing more than thrash on "Wake" and songs like "Hands Held High" and "Shadow Of The Day" have traditional melody and harmonies to them; in other words, they are easily recognizable as music, instead of musical accompaniment to the vocals.

Despite infusing some of the songs with overtly political lyrics and having instrumentation on some songs that clearly carries a tune, Minutes To Midnight is not a complete departure from the sound and feel that earned Linkin Park a fanbase. "Given Up" is exactly the incoherent, primal, screaming and guitar thrashing that one might expect from Linkin Park when they are worked up about something. The contrast between the familiar Linkin Park and its more evolved sound makes for a fractured album that nevertheless progresses well and is surprisingly enduring.

With only a dozen tracks, clocking out at 43:23, perhaps the biggest strike against Minutes To Midnight is that it is short. For a band that clearly had grown between albums, Minutes To Midnight seems like it would have been chock full of material from the band! That said, Minutes To Midnight appears to be the album that Linkin Park intended to make at the time. Bandmembers Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington wrote all of the lyrics and they collaborated with the full band to compose all twelve tracks. The bandmates provide all of the vocals and, outside some of the backing strings for the orchestral accompaniment on a handful of tracks, they play all of the primary instruments on Minutes To Midnight. Shinoda worked with Rick Rubin to produce Minutes To Midnight, so if any creative control was ceded, it seems like Linkin Park's members at least had their voice in the process.

Musically, Linkin Park seems very much in a transition period with Minutes To Midnight. Minutes To Midnight has remarkably traditional sounding pop-rock ballads, like "Shadow Of The Day" and (more on the rock side) "Valentine's Day." The raps go from the musical and socially-active like "Hands Held High" to the more traditional "Bleed It Out," which calls back to the Beastie Boy style sound that Linkin Park had established itself with on earlier albums. Minutes To Midnight is an odd mix of the beautifully-composed - "Leave Out All The Rest" - and the noisy (I keep coming back to "Given Up!").

Vocally, Minutes To Midnight presents the men of Linkin Park in a good light. On songs like "What I've Done," the singers harmonize and the lead vocals are not incoherent screaming. Indeed, on Minutes To Midnight the men of Linkin Park not only are able to carry a tune, but they hold notes! In addition to raps that involve speaking fast with music in the background, the men of Linkin Park sing out on Minutes To Midnight. The bulk of the vocals are actually smooth-sounding male vocals that sound like very traditional pop ballad vocals.

One of the biggest surprises for me in returning to Minutes To Midnight was how well "Hans Held High" held up over the years. With lines like "For a leader so nervous in an obvious way / Stuttering and mumbling for nightly news to replay / And the rest of the world watching at the end of the day /In their living room laughing like 'What did he say?'" ("Hands Held High"), Linkin Park clearly made a song that illustrated their discontent with the Bush Administration and the policies enacted during that time period. That seemed like it would put a shelf life on the song. Instead, the universality of the observations ". . . this war's really just a different brand of war / Like it doesn't cater to rich and abandon poor / Like they understand you in the back of the jet / When you can't put gas in your tank / And these fuckers are laughing their way to the bank and cashing the check / Asking you to have compassion and have some respect" ("Hands Held High") make the song as relevant today as it was when it was first produced!

Blended with songs of political angst are songs that are thematically familiar to fans of Linkin Park; songs that are about personal emotions and relationship dysfunctions. While the level of diction is familiar in the lines "You promised me the sky / Then tossed me like a stone / You wrap me in your arms / And chill me to the bone / There's truth in your lies / Doubt in your faith / All I've got's what you didn't take" ("In Pieces"), the poetics are new.

But, not all of the lyrics are winners. "Leave Out All The Rest" has some wonderful sentiments, but is hampered by the predictable rhymes "When my time comes / Forget the wrong that I've done / Help me leave behind some / Reasons to be missed / And don't resent me / And when you're feeling empty / Keep me in your memory." None of the lines on Minutes To Midnight are truly bad, but some do not rise to the memorable quality of the bulk of the songs.

In the (new) final analysis, perhaps as a result of having heard the album so many times now or hearing music that incorporates anger into it more effectively, it is hard not to listen to Minutes To Midnight and appreciate it. Minutes To Midnight has angst, but it is presented in a surprisingly musical way that holds up well over the years.

The best tracks are "Hands Held High" and "Shadow Of The Day," the low point is probably "Given Up," which seems a desperate attempt to keep Linkin Park sounding like it originally did.

For other reviews of Linkin Park albums, please check out my reviews of:
Hybrid Theory (Deluxe)
Meteora
The Hunting Party

7.5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Angst Improves For Linkin Park On Meteora

The Good: Good lyrics, Interesting sound
The Bad: Vocals are not overly impressive, Even the deluxe version is short
The Basics: The deluxe version of Meteora shows some lyrical growth for Linkin Park over its debut album . . . though much of the rest of the band's sound is the same.


For the next two months, rather than picking a new Artist Of The Month each month, I am doing some projects that have me returning to prior Artists Of The Month. I'm starting this new retrospective with continuing last month's Artist Of The Month exploration (which is making my wife very happy) by beginning with Linkin Park's sophomore album, Meteora. For the review, we tracked down one of the many deluxe editions of Meteora.

Meteora shows some lyrical and thematic growth for Linkin Park from its debut to its second album. But, while the lyrics have gotten a bit deeper and the album has some recognizable hits - most notably "Numb" and "Somewhere I Belong" - most of the music on Meteora is still dominated by a chaotic mix of metal and rap. That said, there are some actual tunes on Meteora and a bit less screaming, which makes the album a bit easier to listen to than some of the other Linkin Park albums.

With sixteen tracks - fourteen songs, two live renditions of songs that appear on the album as studio cuts - clocking out at 45:53, Meteora is very much the work of Linkin Park. The bandmembers wrote all of the songs, they provide all the vocals and play their own instruments with only some additional strings for the few orchestral backing moments on the album. Linkin Park is credited as a co-producer of the album, as well, so it does appear like Meteora is exactly the album the band intended to release.

Musically, Meteora is very much what one expects from Linkin Park. For those who are unfamiliar with the band, Linkin Park produces heavy guitar-driven songs that blend the strong guitar/bass/drums combo with occasional keyboards. The instrumental accompaniment on most of the songs, on the guitar-based songs, use the instrumental accompaniment more to keep time than to deliver memorable tunes. The guitars are thrashing and help keep time, which compliments the raps and near-spoken word sections of songs.

Vocally, Linkin Park continues to illustrate that the lead singers were raised in a rap tradition, clearly influenced by the Beastie Boys. The lead vocalist, Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda pass lines back and forth between them, most notably on "Hit The Floor." Bennington shouts through several songs and the screams play off the more smooth harmonies from Shinoda. The net result is that Linkin Park, on the guitar-driven tracks, produce songs that are more yelling and rapping. Songs that have more of a keyboard and bass presence, like "Easier To Run" create clear tunes and the vocals are carried in a very traditional melodic presentation. On Meteora almost all of the lines are actually performed with clear deliveries that make it very easy to understand every word.

On Meteora, Linkin Park is preoccupied with expressing emotions and singing about relationships. Linkin Park takes up the challenge of making some uncommon choices in themes to make a compelling series of poems, most notably on "Lying From You." Exploring the nature of honesty in relationships is not a common theme for music - save the lack of being able to trust cheaters, which is fairly common in music. Linkin Park manages to make the complicated exploration of honesty in relationships musical with lines like "When I pretend everything is what I want it to be / I look exactly like what you had always wanted to see / When I pretend, I can’t forget about the criminal I am / Stealing second after second just cause I know I can" ("Lying From You").

Angst is the clear emotion being expressed on the bulk of Meteora. Instead of just singing about abstract emotions, Linkin Park sings about relationships with a decent amount of insight. When the artists sing "Something has been taken from deep inside of me / The secret I've kept locked away no one can ever see / Wounds so deep they never show they never go away / Like moving pictures in my head for years and years they've played / (If I could change I would take back the pain I would) / (Retrace every wrong move that I made I would)" ("Easier To Run"), it is clear they understand the feelings of regret and loss.

While most of the lyrics on Meteora have a fairly fresh sound to them, Linkin Park still has some room to grow. Not all of their poetics are winners or are very original at all. With the occasional predictable rhyme scheme - "Too many times that I’ve held on when I needed to push away / Afraid to say what was on my mind afraid to say what I need to say / Too many things that you've said about me when I’m not around / You think having the upper hand means you gotta keep putting me down" ("Don't Stay") - Linkin Park's members show that while they have something to say, they are not breaking all conventions to make their thoughts comprehensible.

Ultimately, Meteora is a good album that is listenable and has something to say, but its hits stand out somewhat incongruously from the rest of the sound and feeling of the album. The result is an interesting album, but not one that is timeless or truly essential.

The intro song "Foreword" is a weird, pointless track; "Lying From You" is the superlative track on Meteora.

For other reviews of Linkin Park albums, please check out my reviews of:
Hybrid Theory (Deluxe)
Minutes To Midnight
The Hunting Party

6.5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Worst Of The Band? The Hunting Party Is Disappointing Linkin Park!

The Good: Moments of vocals, One or two stray lyrics
The Bad: Musically awful, Vocally inconsistent, Overproduced, Short, Terrible rhymes and lines
The Basics: As I progress through the works of Linkin Park this month, my hope is that The Hunting Party truly is the bottom of their barrel!


When my wife suggested Linkin Park as my October Artist Of The Month, she did so because she loves the band's early works. Given that Minutes To Midnight (reviewed here!) is one of her favorite albums, I was open to putting on a lot of Linkin Park. But when I listened to the debut album of Linkin Park, Hybrid Theory (reviewed here!), we decided to leap forward to Linkin Park's latest album, The Hunting Party.

And it sucks.

Yes, as a reviewer, I want to give sophisticated analysis, but sometimes the bottomline right off the bat is worthwhile. The Hunting Party is a huge departure from early Linkin Park - so much so that my wife stopped us on our first listen and had me listen to some Dio and Dragonforce just to hear some metal that was not just flat-out terrible. Like Blue October leaping over into Christian Rock and mortgaging their fanbase, Linkin Park goes in a terrible new direction on The Hunting Party with a metal rock sound that is sloppy, loud and far more chaotic than it is ever musical.

With only a dozen tracks clocking out at 45:12, The Hunting Party might be awful, but it is very much the album Linkin Park intended to make. All twelve tracks are written by Linkin Park (three are co-written by the group). Linkin Park's members contribute all of the lead vocals and the primary instrumentals. Two of Linkin Park's members are credited as co-producers on The Hunting Party, so it appears they had almost entire creative control out of the work.

That, alas, does not make it any better.

Opening with the screaming of "Keys To The Kingdom," Linkin Park makes a noise akin to death metal in its sound. The song transitions to something more musical before it ends with a clip of a child talking?! Most of the instrumental accompaniment on The Hunting Party just guitars thrashing to keep tempo and some of the most generic drumming I've ever heard. The guitarwork and percussion on "Guilty All The Same," for example, sounds like any of a hundred garage bands playing across the U.S. tonight.

Vocally, The Hunting Party has all of the elements one expects from a Linkin Park album. There is singing, which tends to transition into screaming. There is screaming, which often leads into rapping. And there is rapping which competes with the instrumental accompaniment and often leads to more screaming. On The Hunting Party, the screaming sounds less an expression of angst and more a formulaic element that is expected and predictable than audacious.

On the lyrical front, Linkin Park seems somewhat tapped out on The Hunting Party. The Hunting Party features songs with lazy, generic lyrics like "There's no peace / Only war / Victory decides who's wrong or right / It will not cease / Only grow / You better be prepared to fight" ("War")! Linkin Park once had something to say and on songs like "War," it feels like they've forgotten how to say anything well!

The rhymes on The Hunting Party seem less original than on other Linkin Park albums. While the band uses many obvious rhymes, they still manage to use better diction than some pop-rock artists. On "Final Masquerade," Linkin Park mixes the banal with the sophsticated when they sing "The light on the horizon was brighter yesterday, / With shadows floating over, the scars begin to fade. / We said it was forever but then it slipped away, / Standing at the end of the final masquerade" ("Final Masquerade").

The raps on The Hunting Party seem similarly unimpressive. With rapped lines like "Roll credits, to get it, / The show's done, / They're talking for just talking, / But meaning they got none, / None of 'em come proper, / They talk like a shotgun, / But how many got bred with integrity, / Not one / So no, I'm not afraid to see these suckers hold a blade to me / Ain't a way to shake the ground I built before you came to be" ("Wastelands"), Linkin Park seems to simply be rapping because it is what fans expect of them occasionally, as opposed to using that style well.

Ultimately, The Hunting Party is a flat-out disappointing, musical mess that is more jumbled than it is stylistically diverse. It is a compelling argument that Linkin Park jumped the shark some time ago.

For other Artist Of The Month works, please check out my reviews of:
Unplugged: The Complete 1991 And 2001 Sessions - R.E.M.
Blackstar - David Bowie
Tunnel Of Love - Bruce Springsteen

2/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Linkin Park Is My October Artist Of The Month! I Start With Hybrid Theory!

The Good: Moments of sound, Some of the lyrics (level of diction), Some of the vocals
The Bad: Frequently overproduced, Short, Yelling, A couple very stale rhymes
The Basics: Hybrid Theory began the mainstream popularity of Linkin Park and is where I begin my exploration of their musical works for the month of October!


My wife puts up with a lot of musical crap in our household as a result of me being a reviewer. I have a ton of music on each year that is not her style and some that she outright loathes. After a month of Selena Gomez recordings (check out the review of For You here!), I gave my wife a chance to pick what would be in heavy rotation for my reviews next. Without hesitating for even a moment, she suggested Linkin Park. So, Linkin Park is my October Artist Of The Month, which is interesting to me because Flobots was recently my Artist Of The Month and stylistically there are many similarities between Linkin Park and Flobots. As it stands, until today, I had only listened to and reviewed the Linkin Park album Minutes To Midnight (reviewed here!) quite some time ago. With making Linkin Park my October Artist Of The Month artist, I decided to go back to their beginning and review Hybrid Theory.

For my review of Hybrid Theory, I picked the fifteen track deluxe edition of the album. As it turns out, there are at least five different versions of Hybrid Theory, plus a live recording of the album. When I put Hybrid Theory on, my wife prompted me for multiple songs - like "Crawling," "A Place For My Head," and "One Step Closer" - saying that I had heard them before . . . from mixes she made at the beginning of our relationship. And yet, the only song I would have sworn I had heard before today from Hybrid Theory was "In The End." For me, that did not bode well for Hybrid Theory and the truth is, many of the songs had a similar sound and feeling to them, which made them blend together more than stand out.

And Hybrid Theory was just not my thing, which might bode poorly for the rest of the month for reviewing Linkin Park.

With fifteen tracks - fourteen songs with a second, live, rendition of "Papercut" - clocking out at 49:03, even in its deluxe rendition, Hybrid Theory is not overly long. Despite that, for a debut album, Linkin Park got a lot of creative control over Hybrid Theory. All of the lead vocals come from the band members and the group wrote or co-wrote all of the songs, save "My December," which is just credited to lead singer Mike Shinoda and not the full band. The group plays all of their own instruments. The only major credit that the group did not get for Hybrid Theory was producing the album; Don Gilmore got that honor.

Instrumentally, Hybrid Theory aged somewhat poorly. The average Linkin Park song on Hybrid Theory includes a general rock and roll sound with vocals that blend rap and screaming. The instrumental accompaniment is a mix of keyboards, guitar, bass, percussion and sampling. The most recognizable and musically complex tune is "In The End" which might have all of the elements of a typical Linkin Park song, but it also has a melody and harmony to it that easily balance with the vocals to create something musical. "Papercut" has a generic guitar-rock sound by comparison and while it precedes "Valentine's Day," it is hard not to feel like the quiet instrumentals and haunting vocals on "My December" were just reused for the later track. Most of the rest of the songs are fairly musically indistinct with angry guitars thrashing somewhat amelodically and providing more of a baseline for the vocals than making musically distinct tunes. "With You" opens with an almost techno sound to it before transitioning into screeching guitars that are very metal before the song goes into more of a rap song. The issue with some of the music on Hybrid Theory is that it sounds more sloppy; like the band is trying to figure out what instruments will work for a song before they settle on the sound, rather than sounding like a well-constructed musical composition.

On the vocal front, Linkin Park offers a lot of intrigue on Hybrid Theory. The vocals are an intriguing mix. The live rendition of "Papercut" proves that the lead vocalists can hold notes and make surprisingly beautiful harmonies together. Most of Hybrid Theory does not allow either of the lead vocalists to present their smooth vocalizations that the album's lone live song allows, but it is clear that when they want to, the men of Linkin Park can carry a tune. "One Step Closer" opens very well, for example, with vocals that are clear and smooth and sound like those from a traditional garage rock band. And the raps on Hybrid Theory are competently executed with fast vocals that are fairly articulate and well-executed.

Then there is the screaming. Yeah, Linkin Park has a rage sound to several of its songs on Hybrid Theory where the vocalists just let loose with lines that transition into yelling or just random screams. The percussion and yelling on Hybrid Theory establish Linkin Park as an emotional, angry, group of young men.

Lyrically, Hybrid Theory has a lot of anger in it, which means the words fit the music and vocals well. With lines like "I hit you and you hit me back / We fall to the floor, the rest of the day stands still / Fine line between this and that / When things go wrong I pretend the past isn’t real / Now I'm trapped in this memory / And I’m left in the wake of the mistake, slow to react / So even though you’re close to me / You’re still so distant and I can’t bring you back" ("With You"), Linkin Park tells a musical story about bad human relationships.

Anger aside, Linkin Park actually has a decent level of diction on Hybrid Theory. There are few artists with a poetic sensibility and vocabulary as extensive on a debut album as Linkin Park has on Hybrid Theory. When they sing "There’s a place so dark you can’t see the end / Skies cock back and shock that which can’t defend / The rain then sends dripping / an acidic question / Forcefully, the power of suggestion" ("Forgotten"), the men paint a very vivid picture.

Despite that, not all of the lyrics are intense and great. The rhyme schemes in "Points Of Authority" are not particularly complex. Opening with "Forfeit the game / Before somebody else / Takes you out of the frame / And puts your name to shame / Cover up your face / You can't run the race / The pace is too fast / You just won't last" ("Points Of Authority") the simplicity of the rhyme scheme is off-putting.

Linkin Park nails the angsty sound and feel with Hybrid Theory. Perhaps I'm just not at that place in life anymore where that grabs me or I'm past it for songs about relationships - I, for example, enjoyed some of the angsty yelling on Flobots albums when the band is singing about chaos in the world. That said, a number of the songs on Hybrid Theory rapidly grew on me and I could see why Linkin Park was a band my wife wanted me to listen to (and why it would have been the soundtrack to her teen years!). Hybrid Theory is a decent album for angst and chaos where the sound matches the lines well, but too much of it is just too noisy to satisfy me.

The best track is "Crawling," the low point is "Cure For The Itch."

For other, former, Artist Of The Month works, please check out my reviews of:
The Circle In The Square - Flobots
Modern Times - Bob Dylan
18 Singles - U2

5.5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized, comprehensive listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Minutes To Midnight Might Not Sound Like Other Linkin Park, But It's Still Short/Repetitive.

The Good: Politically smart, Decent instrumental accompaniment.
The Bad: SHORT, Many lines are oft-repeated.
The Basics: A very good album, Minutes To Midnight illustrates that Linkin Park can be both emotive and political, melodic and noisy.

Back in June, I listened to a LOT of different musical artists and my wife took the opportunity to push some of her c.d.s onto me. For years, she has tried to sell me on Linkin Park and so I took out Minutes To Midnight and I listened to that on pretty high rotation the last few days. Despite some issues with repetitive lines and the fact that the album is dreadfully short, I am able to give the album a very enthusiastic "recommend."

Minutes To Midnight is an album that oscillates radically between the deeply personal ("Leave Out All The Rest," "Valentine's Day") and the political ("Hand Held High," "The Little Things Give You Away"). There is a pretty generic sense of teen rebellion and angst in "Bleed It Out," but much of the album actually makes musical a scathing critique of the failures of the Bush Administration. The result is an album that is slightly dated, but more often than not resonates with an educated anger for those growing up in these times.

With only a dozen songs occupying 43:28 on c.d., Minutes To Midnight is arguably best known for the single "Shadow Of The Day." This album is very much the creative work of the band Linkin Park, who wrote all of the songs on the album and the men of the band provide all of their own lead vocals. They also play all of the major instruments and Mike Shinoda - who has some lead vocals on the album - is credited as a co-producer. It is hard to argue, then, that this is not the album that the band intended to make.

What that album is is a very contemporary rock album with a few more traditional rock ballads thrown in. There is screaming for some of the vocals, but it is offset by a greater number of tracks where the band is careful to let their voices be heard in ways that are not harsh to the ears. Minutes To Midnight is a very produced-sounding guitar and keyboard-driven album punctuated by bass and percussion. The songs tend to be riffs that build into a more traditional melody and the songs vary greatly between the amelodic chant/rap "Bleed It Out" to the hummable and danceable "What I've Done." Oftentimes, Linkin Park allows the melody to become musically submerged to a single line or refrain which then dominates the listener's impression. For example, while "Valentine's Day" features a whole musical story, the tune is utterly forgettable in the face of the lead singer belting out the titled two words. While "No More Sorrow" might be less stellar in its vocals (it's a screaming song), the guitar riffs are energetic and fun to listen to.

Vocally, the band moves between the polar opposites of yelling and singing with surprisingly smooth tenor voices. While some of the raps, like the bulk of "Hands Held High" are less melodic than they are informative, the ballads "What I've Done" and "Shadow Of The Day" are presented as perfectly musical storysongs. Linkin Park might scream and shriek through some of the songs, but the bulk of the songs feature the guys actually trying to be heard and clearly understood. As such, the vocals are frequently produced so they hold their own with all of the instrumental accompaniment. In fact, it is only on "No More Sorrow" I found myself cringing to the vocals.

And what the band is trying to say on Minutes To Midnight is largely smart and empowering. Take "Hands Held High," for example. At a time when youth are facing an uncertain economy, a political landscape that is particularly unfriendly to their survival and prosperity and wars, Linkin Park may be heard singing “Healing the blind I promise to let the sun in / Sick of the dark ways we march to the drum and / Jump when they tell us that they wanna see jumping / Fuck that I wanna see some fists pumping / Risk something, take back what's yours / Say something that you know they might attack you for / Cause I'm sick of being treated like I have before / Like it's stupid standing for what I'm standing for / Like this war's really just a different brand of war / Like it doesn't cater the rich and abandon poor" ("Hands Held High"). Rather than trying to sulk or hide youth in fear, Linkin Park here attempts to engage the young people and get them involved in the process. That is admirable.

And beyond youth, it is always refreshing to hear songs that have an almost Folk sense of politics and political observation. The band calls out George W. Bush with lines like "And now there will be no mistaking / The levees are breaking / All you've ever wanted / Was someone to truly look up to you / And six feet under water / I / Do / Hope decays / Generations disappear / Washed away / As a nation simply stares" ("The Little Things Give You Away"). The lines may have come too late to do anything, but it is always reassuring to hear that people were awake and observing at the time. Despite the new political climate, Minutes To Midnight does not seem dated in its sense of politics.

It does, however, feel a bit dull at times. Songs like "Bleed It Out" might appeal to the metal/goth crowds or teenagers with an inflated sense of pessimism and angst, but as one who listens to a lot of music, I find songs with a lot of repetition to either be lazy or trying to stretch a good idea. In "Bleed It Out," the repetition of "I bleed it out digging deeper / Just to throw it away" ad nauseam suggests the latter more than the former.

Ultimately, Minutes To Midnight is a good album and one that I enjoy listening to, but it holds up poorly over multiple listens in a compressed time. Moreover, there is a sense that the band has a multiple personality disorder to them in the way they put the soulful "In Between" right after the frenetic "Valentine's Day." There is a good mix of songs on the album, but the sense of transition between them is sometimes unpleasant to the ears.

Even so, I enthusiastically recommend Minutes To Midnight and those looking for something good that doesn't quite sound like anything else, this is a good album for that!

The best track is "The Little Things Give You Away," the low point is "Wake," the instrumental opening.

For other groups that are primarily male, please check out:
They Might Be Giants – Then: The Early Years
Crash Test Dummies – God Shuffled His Feet

7/10

For more music reviews, please check out my index page!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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