Living Things
Linkin Park
Label: Warner Bros./Wea
Release Date: June 26, 2012
Review Date: July 1, 2012
Their fifth album in twelve years, Living Things just may be Linkin Park’s best CD yet. The band has matured in both their sound and their creativity which will, no doubt, translate well into their live performances.
Produced by Rick Rubin and Mike Shinoda, the results are nothing less than remarkable. Tight. Layered. Intricate. This CD reveals something of itself with each and every listen.
Right out of the chute, the album starts with Lost in the Echo. Boomerocity predicts that this tune will be a crowd pleasure with the band’s fans during the current tour. I always measure Chester Bennington’s vocals by how scared they make me and my reluctance level about going to bed. Let’s just say that I had to change the sheets . . . twice. How does he do that with his voice?
Another predicted favorite is the bone-chilling I’ll Be Gone. I don’t know what the intended theme of this tune is for sure but, from where I sit, it strikes me as being words of someone dying – possibly even someone committing suicide. If it’s either, I’d like to think it’s the former and not the latter. Beautifully written and performed with passion and conviction, this is at the top of the Boomerocity favorites from this album.
Victimized is a short tune that sounds like either powerful protest against our government and the messes it has gotten this country into or a very angry break-up song. Because of the segue into the very gentle Roads, I would say that it’s a break-up song and that the lyrics to Roads Untraveled are some of the most poignant I’ve heard in years Untraveled (“Give up your heart left broken, And let that mistake pass on, ‘Cause the love that you lost, Wasn’t worth what it cost, And in time you’ll be glad it’s gone”).
Linkin Park fans are going to eat this album up and love every musical morsel of it. People not familiar with Linkin Park would do well to make this album their first purchase of the bands work. They’ll be hooked for life and quickly buy the other five albums.
Written by Randy Patterson
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