New Music Review: Linkin Park - A Thousand Suns

As stated in tip 8, for those of you who have been paying attention, I personally have felt for a while like the changes on the most recent Linkin Park album made sense for the direction they have been heading. Regardless, I purchased the new album with some hesitance. I realize now I had nothing to worry about. The album is definitely a shift, but the undertones are still the same LP I fell in love with over 10 years ago, they have just evolved. By far this is the first Linkin Park album where I could say it was a progressive story as opposed to just another grouping of (albeit fantastic) singles. The most interesting aspects of the album to me are the intervals through the album filled in with audio from J. Robert Oppenheimer, Mario Savio, and Martin Luther King. Listen with an open mind, this is not at all "Minutes to Midnight", nor is it fully any of the other albums. This is a mash-up of all of them, including the Hahn demos and side projects. Fans of the California reggae-rockers Insolence will find a new interest in LP with this album. My current favorite track, "Wretches and Kings" is a perfect example of the new changes. Chester is amazingly capable of making reggae truly rock without killing the genre. Another example is the interval track “Jornada Del Muerto”, which is in Spanish, something that is even more unusual for the band. So far as trying to get something to sound more like the original LP, you'll want to buy the iTunes special edition to get the bonus track "Blackbirds" (formerly from the 8-Bit Rebellion game). Otherwise this album will change your perception of the group. Still though, I will advise you to go pick up the album and listen from a perspective of a new band. Don't ask LP to stay 100% the same forever. If you do people will begin to complain that they have gone the way of Disturbed with 200 songs that are good but can be easily overlaid and still sound the same. The question you have to ask yourself is this: Upon closer inspection, has the band ever truly let you down, and if this was the first Linkin Park album you ever heard, would it be enough to interest you in the others? Personally, I can’t wait to see what the future holds for LP’s music, and I hope to see them around for many years to come.