Now u-rate-it is officially dead and buried, I'm thinking of posting my reviews from there over here...
Now u-rate-it is officially dead and buried, I'm thinking of posting my reviews from there over here. Anyone interested?
Member since:16.06.2001
Reviews:71
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Billy Connolly once lamented the lack of a polite English equivalent for his favourite expletive-directive, but if he has a listen to “A Place For My Head” on this debut album from Linkin Park, I think he will be forced to concede that “Go Away!” can have the desired impact after all. In fact, it comes as rather a surprise that an album raging with emotion yields nothing more vulgar than “Shut up”…
“Hybrid Theory” at first appears to be little more than a tribute to Faith No More (albeit a very good one), but closer listening in fact reveals a high degree of invention under, between and over Brad Delson’s potent bass riffs and Rob Bourdon’s crashing drums. While the scratching in “Cure for the Itch” is obvious, you could easily miss it colouring the background in several places, most notably in “Pushing Me Away”. Joseph Hann and Mike Shinoda are far from trendy add-ons; their skill with the decks and digitiser is an integral part of Linkin Park’s sound. In fact, the band were originally known as Hybrid Theory (perhaps eponymous albums are no longer in vogue and they were forced to change their name?) and it should therefore come as no surprise that voice also gets the treatment. Shinoda takes emcee duties, his rapping wrapping round Chester Bennington’s full-power Patton-esque vocals, with useful backing contributions from all.
Of course, the rap element generates the need for a whole load of lyrics, and even given the album’s regrettably short 37m51s total length, I find myself spoilt for choice trying to decide what to present here. Take this from the opener “Papercut” for example; “Everybody has a face that they hold inside/ A face that awakes when they close their eyes/ A face watches every time they lie/ A face that laughs every time they fall/ And watches everything”. Now voices in your head are nothing new, but whole faces? Brings a new aspect to paranoia. Here’s another favourite line, this time from “By Myself”; “Do I trust some and get fooled by phoniness,/ Or do I trust nobody and live in loneliness?” And I must mention the full context of my opening remark should the Big Yin happen to read this review; “I’m so/ Sick of the tension/ Sick of the hunger/ Sick of you acting like I owe you this/ Find another place/ To feed your greed -/ While/ I find a place to rest/ You try to take the best of me/ Go away”. It is the force with which the final line is repeated that knocks you sideways. Have a listen for yourself and you’ll understand.
Music has always been about borrowing the best ideas, and there’s enough invention here from the southern California outfit to advance the genre. Their grunge-metal-scratch-rap one-volume (loud) hybrid theory is well worth checking out.
Track listing: Papercut, One Step Closer, With You, Points of Authority, Crawling, Runaway, By Myself, In The End, A Place for My Head, Forgotten, Cure for the Itch, Pushing Me Away
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Ahh, Linkin Park. One of my favourite bands (behind Metallica of course). Heard most of this album, and loved every track. Great op, keep em coming!
-Karnage
Sleepflower 24.12.2001 22:36
I see you have a wide knowledge. But your views on topics of paranoia do not fit with mine. I do not think any of them suffer from it so who are they to talk of it? Aslo why do they feel they need to bring it up so many times? Very thorough though...
Disillusioned 08.12.2001 23:44
An excellent review. I own the album and there are a couple of good songs on there, I really like "In the End" but when you see 8 year olds walking round in Linkin Park hoodies you realize that Linkin Park really are the manufactured, cheesy mainstream grunge band taht critics have been saying all along. Cheers, James.
It may be too cynical to assume Hybrid Theory changed its name to Linkin Park in order to ... more
appear right next to Limp Bizkit in your local record bin. But rock-rap workouts like "One Step Closer" and "Papercut" do make Linkin Park a comfortable fit with ...
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Nov 15th, 2001
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