Linkin Park and the evolution of sound (DBO)

by Harmanimus , Tuesday, April 10, 2018, 00:06 (2422 days ago) @ stabbim

Minutes to Midnight is such a different album from what Linkin Park put out before it, but also shows one more step in their rapid change and response to the cultural and musical environments they found themselves in with each release (to include Reanimation [Actually my first Linkin Park album beeteedubs] and Collision Course released up to that point).

Minutes to Midnight was a lot grittier, where Hybrid Theory was more clearly defined by rough guitar and percussive songs (not counting Cure For The Itch) being an obvious blending of hip-hop into a metal derived sound and Meteora embraced and brought forward the more electronic background that Hybrid theory had. Hybrid Theory to Meteora was a linear progression that made sense. Minutes to Midnight? Not so much. The album is more distinctly political than their prior releases, too. (It also came out the same year Nine Inch Nails put out Year Zero which was also uncharacteristically political.) A lot of folks really fell off with LP at that point. Whether because they were "selling out" or what not. I would say they were growing. And they've kept growing and each album has its own charms.

Also, Mike Shinoda brought a lot of the feeling of his interim work on Fort Minor with him into Minutes to Midnight and you that extra visceral tone was in stark contrast to what a lot of people were expecting from a new LP album at the time. I was disappointed when I first got the album. It was the spec. ed., too. But it grew on me fast.

We listened to the entire discography, by release date, when we heard about his passing in my office. No work got done for like three days. Illustrative of how influential some music can be to folks.