Truly a Midnight album.

After one and a bit of a listen, my civic conscience prompts me to tell you all that despite what is labeled on the cover, this is NOT LINKIN PARK. For my proof, let me summarize each and every song for you. Since not a single song is worth remembering the name, I’ll just use their track listings.

Track 1: N/A. I can't get past the horrible static.

Track 2: Chester Bennington. Hardrock. LP worthy.

Track 3: Chester Bennington. Some rock. Some emo.

Track 4: Mika Shinoda & Chester Bennington. Pop-rap/rock. LP with a good new sound.

Track 5: Chester Bennington. Some rock. Some emo.

Track 6 (What I’ve Done): Chester Bennington. Some rock. Some emo.

Track 7: Singer: Mike Shinoda & Chester Bennington. Rap. Talking. Boring.

Track 8: Chester Bennington, Hard rock. LP worthy.

Track 9: Chester Bennington, Some rock. Some emo.

Track 10: Mike Shinoda. Talking. Promising opening. Unfortunately it lasts till the end.

Track 11: Chester Bennington. Some rock. Some emo.

Track 12: Chester Bennington. 6 minutes 20 seconds of audible torture.

I’ve never had to do this before. Before, the summary for every Linkin Park song was the same: Mother Effing Good. On this album, only the three in bold sound original and great to me. But remember, this album is not Linkin Park. From above, you can see that its 95% Chester Park, and another 5% Shinoda Park. Even then, this isn’t Chester at his best. I believe he’s saving his best for his own solo project. And as for Shinoda being absent 95% of the time, I think it’s cause he was so busy doing Fort Minor. For a band with such high-standards, this release is unforgivable. Of over 100 songs, these are the 12 best??? You could say that my judgement comes too early, what with only one listen. But with an album like this, it's gonna be really difficult to get through a complete second round, and even more impossible to start the third.

I do not know why they did this. Hybrid Theory was the ultimate defining sound for Linkin Park. And it launched them to instant fame. To date Hybrid Theory has achived 2x Diamond status. That’s 20x Platinum. That’s 20 million copies sold. I don’t think Minutes to Midnight will even reach 3 million. At least not in the next 5 years. For all the fans of Linkin Park, I would say that this is a real utter disappointment. If this album sells, it will only be because of the Linkin Park name on it. Only 2 types of people will get this album. Die hard fans like me who loved the original LP sound and will buy their albums even though they start singing haiku, or people who have never liked LP’s sound before and will come and support this new album just because it does not sound like their previous albums. To make things worse, the first three tracks on my disc are so full of static. (Apparently this is a problem with all the first batch of Made in Malaysia discs. Go figure.)

To me, this album is as bad as every other forgettable release by forgettable American bands out there. For those who do like other forgettable albums, they might like this forgettable album too because it’s not really that bad. It just not worthy of the original Linkin Park. It will not have the LP logo branded on it. Instead Linkin Park has chosen a new logo that looks like some gay sign. This is a Linkin Park that has supposedly ‘grown-up’/ ‘matured’/ ‘found a new sound’/ ‘explored new horizons’ or whatever excuse they will call it. They spent the most time on this album: 14 months compared to 3-6 months for their previous albums. But it looks like all their effort came to nothing. In the end, this album is not only NOT Linkin Park, but it also succeeds at being NOTHING else. What direction has Linkin Park gone in? Anywhere except their successful winning formulas of the past. This album has no defining sound or style. You can't even say it's a mix of different styles. At best, you can say it was an experimentation gone noisily wrong.

Linkin Park will go only two ways from here. The best they could do, is admit that this evolution/ deviation was not a right path, and they will go back to being the sound that won the adoration of millions around the world. Otherwise, given the fame and fortune they have already achieved; they could ignore the millions, press on with this new noise and say that they will keep doing it because they ‘enjoy the process’, which to them; is of the ultimate importance.

Looks like any other forgettable band now. Where did the artist in Linkin Park go???

Their new sign. The result of trying too hard to find inspiration that just didn't exist.