Many albums grow on you. It’s a certain fact of musical life. There are certain albums where, upon an early listen, you may not think it’s anything special – in fact you may even hate it when you first hear it.
Many albums grow on you. It’s a certain fact of musical life. There are certain albums where, upon an early listen, you may not think it’s anything special – in fact you may even hate it when you first hear it. If you’re patient and persist with it, however, and after maybe five or ten listens, sometimes those albums start to work it’s way into your psyche. By 15 or so listens you’re somehow completely hooked. After six months, it’s one of your all time favourites. Sound familiar?
The newie from Linkin Park is one of those odd records that does the complete opposite. It grows off you, to coin a phrase. First impressions are impressive, as it’s a something of a change for Linkin Park, a turn, as it were, into left-field territory. They appear to be experimenting, expanding, progressing. Employing some newfound variation. Some of the songs seem uplifting, some are a little industrial, some are kinda rappy, some are very electronically orientated. Hell, the closing track, The Messenger, is a stripped back, voice and acoustic guitar ballad, with singer Chester Bennington sounding not unlike Bryan Adams.
With that all sorted out, many props to a band such as Linkin Park for trying something new. They’re a band who could have easily mined the same musical vein for at least a few albums more, and fleeced a few more quid from the gullible punters.
Five or six listens in, and A Thousand Suns fails, somehow, to completely take hold. In fact, you actually start to realise just how cheesy it seemingly actually is. There are many musical forms and ideas swimming around within the grooves of this album, but none are truly explored to their fullest extent. That’s the problem. It becomes clear that this is a pop/rock band experimenting for experimentation’s sake, and little of it is actually all that convincing.
It does, however, have its moments: When They Come For Me has a nice, powerful industrial feel, although the rapped vocals end up feeling simply annoying. The piano-driven Robot Boy is kinda fun and has some very tasteful ambient effects going on. And the aforementioned The Messenger is nicely done. But overall, under close inspection, you’re strangely left feeling cold from A Thousand Suns.
Linkin Park’s new album A Thousand Suns is out now through Warner Music.
