Minutes To Midnight - Linkin Park

For some reason, I have every Linkin Park album. If pushed I wouldn't admit to actually liking any of them. At best they've had a couple of good singles and whilst I would say I enjoyed their debut album at the time, it's aged about as well as Limp Bizkit have.

Still, I'm nothing if not a glutton for punishment and whilst I may have hated the video to recent single What I've Done with a passion (but that's another rant for another time) I did find the single catchy, albeit that it signalled that whilst the message may have changed, the tune was pretty much the same.

And that's the overriding sense you get when you hear the album. They may have taken the ubiquitous "War Is Bad" road and they may have jettisoned some of the "rap" parts of their sound (and really, after that excruciating Jay-Z collaboration they had to change something) but you'd be hard pressed to notice many differences from their previous sound.

And ironically, its one of the small number of songs where Mike Shinoda contributes something noticeable, Bleed It Out, that is the standout of the set. For three minutes, at least, Linkin Park sound like a band from 2007.

Yes, they've tried to change, but as they've borrowed most of their new sounds from elsewhere, to little obvious effect, you never feel as if you're hearing nothing else. All in all, it's a rare misfire from record-producer Rick Rubin who's magic touch has seemingly been mislaid for this one.