Album Review: Living Things

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Linkin Park released their fifth studio album, Living Things, at the beginning of June, and if you are a long term Linkin Park fan, this album should be in your collection. The album is a mix of the sound from Minutes to Midnight with the original angst of Hybrid Theory. Combine this angst with some sweet rock rapping from Mike Shinoda and you’ve got the gold which has always been Linkin Park.

The first single you’ve probably heard on the radio is Burn It Down and it epitomises this angst. Lead singer, Chester Bennington, sounds fantastic in it. To me, it sounds like Chester has manage to nail his vocals without putting too much strain on it, something he struggled with in the previous two albums. And, as a bonus, the title track of the album had nothing to do with a Transformers movie. It seems  Linkin Park have realised they don’t need Michael Bay to sell more records.  

The track which kicks off the album is Lost in the Echo and it’s classic Linkin Park. Some guitar, Shinoda with his raps and Chester coming over the top and into the chorus – how is it this combination never gets old? The song also sets up the rest of the album nicely. There’s a flow throughout the album, continuing with the classic Linkin Park in tracks like In My Remains and I’ll Be Gone, and then a bit of a fresh twist in tracks such as Lies Greed Misery.

Linkin Park have a few standard formats of songs off all their albums and Living Things picks up on these. First, the song Until it Breaks is their one drum heavy song on the album (think Nobody’s Listening off Meteora). They drop down the tone with Castle of Glass and Roads Travelled. Critics mind view this as going soft, but I like the softer side of Chester’s voice still amongst the guitar and drums, and it is nowhere near as bad as that Valentine’s Day song. Finally, Chester gives us one last yell with Victimized; it seems he can’t resist bringing up that strong voice which originally got us into Linkin Park.

I suppose the big letdown is the lack of really new, really fresh stuff. Chester said Living Things is “embracing everything that [they] have done in the past" and taking the “best pieces”. Yet, remember when Linkin Park released Breaking the Habit?  It was so different and yet everyone raved about what a great song it was. That’s what this album needed; something completely different. On the other hand, Linkin Park ain’t broke, so I guess it wasn’t the time to fix it.