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Rating:
The comeback with a bang or the definitive misstep?
This is the question everyone is asking about the new release from Linkin Park. Released unintentionally early (ah, piracy!), the album sounds like something you wouldn't expect. Nu-metal? Well, already with "Minutes Of Midnight" one could think that they had distanced themselves from their "primal" genre, but this "A Thousand Suns" locks it away in a drawer and throws away the key.
And in the drawer are also the guitars tuned to DADGBe, the growl voice, and everything that made them famous, to make way for keyboards, synthesizers, and drum machines. A concept album with serious themes, electronic and rich in interludes (at least six disguised as tracks), but it also brings back Shinoda's rap singing (somewhat set aside in Minutes of Midnight). Challenging and risky, yet at the same time innovative: the "Zooropa" of Linkin Park, as U2 in the '90s (allow me the comparison) tried to experiment, ignoring past successes.
The album opens with a double interlude that serves as the opening credits of the "film" that awaits us and immediately the thrilling "Burning In The Sky" where Shinoda's and Bennigton's voices intertwine over a piano and guitar backdrop with a captivating final solo. In "When They Come For Me" and "Wrectches And Kings" Mike Shinoda returns to rap (in a Bomfunk MC style, I would say) while the piano in "Robot Boy" makes you clap your hands in time with the music hoping (perhaps in vain) that Chester will explode.
The sweet "Waiting For The End" acts as an interlude to Blackout where Chester first raps and then screams in the chorus. The nu-metal song of the album? No, the sound is damn electronic and new-wave, making it perhaps the most successful experiment of the album, upbeat and joyful.
"Iridescent" seems to be from a Coldplay or Muse album, while "The Catalyst" (the hit that made many fans frown for its almost club-like sound) stands out as the moment of the final battle before the end credits that appear with the acoustic ballad "The Messenger".
The album, influenced by the Fort Minor and Dead By Sunrise experiences of the two leaders, however, suffers from its duration (only 47 minutes) and might be considered a bit too ambitious.
We don't have "Dark Side Of The Moon" in front of us, but still something interesting to listen to. An Alternative-pop album.
Tracklist Samples and Videos
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Other reviews
By Gallagher87
"The mistake the company made is that this time the product won't work! You can't sell trinkets pretending they are gold and silver if you don't even polish and take care of them."
"An LP poor in ideas indeed, an album composed of 15 tracks, of which 9 are actually such and everything else is an unseasoned side... 'A Thousand Suns' is simply not an album."
By Reehkallak78
"It’s like fans love and give 5 stars to the album and at the same time hate it, to the point of throwing it at us if they could."
Linkin Park seems really more credible with this Pop / Pop-Rock 'attire' than the fake Nu Metal of previous albums.
By Sleepin' boy
"The Catalyst, I was literally stunned because I would have never expected such a song."
"Wretches and Kings... finally they show some balls damn it!!"
By Kerplunk
"This album is in every way a pop album, which only in a few songs still presents the screams that vocalist Chester Bennington consistently misses at every concert."
"'A Thousand Suns' is a decent album for a neutral listener, but absolutely inadequate for a fan."
