ATS> HT> Meteora> MTM. The quality of work in ATS and HT is profoundly better than Meteora and MTM minus TLTGYA. You can just tell that Meteora was their sellout and MTM was them trying too hard to fit in the rock scene. Just my opinion.
Saying A Thousand Suns is "rushed" and "unpolished" is practically saying it isn't Meteora, which is a good thing. As for what fans want during live shows, I can't really knock some of the songs from Meteora when played live. They come off very different, and while still not their best, I can definitely appreciate those songs more when played live. Especially at first. That Nottingham show in 2003 ruled hard and it's on my iPod for a reason.
To be fair, I can enjoy all of Linkin Park's songs. I do consider myself a hardcore fan of all their music and when I was much younger I used to worship Meteora as blindly as Bliss does. In fact I can't flat out say I hate any of LP's songs, but if I were to pop Meteora in the CD player for a casual listen I'd find myself skipping most of it. It's not simply the poor lyrics, simple guitar riffs...etc... These days they just run together and sound too similar-- It's fairly boring. But in a concert or party setting I could still appreciate them. I suppose it at least says something for their energy.
1. ATS: I'm not sure Linkin Park will ever come close to topping this record. It was a few subpar lyrics away from being a perfect album for the band. 2. Hybrid Theory: Old Linkin Park at their best. 3. M2M: Despite it's lack of creativity/cohesiveness, there are a TON of good jams on M2M. I probably play songs from this album more than Hybrid Theory nowadays to be honest. 4. Reanimation: There are a lot of good songs, but there's also a lot of really average stuff imo. That's why I seem to have this lower than most fans' lists. 5. Meteora: Loved it when I first heard it, and I still appreciate how it got me further into Linkin Park and music in general. Still listen to Faint/Breaking the Habit a lot. The other stuff not so much.
ATS - Their most mature work till date. Lyrically, composition and theme wise. HT - Insanely replayable. Lots of catchy songs and probably the epitome of nu-metal. MTM - Second most mature work in terms of songwriting. But falls short on being too generic and not having enough replay-value. Meteora - Worst. Bad and predictable songwriting, repetitive compositions. Most of it is cringe-worthy to me now. If we're counting Reanimation, then that would be right in between HT and MTM.
Damn, I thought it was an anonymous poll... : ) Here's my situation: When I first heard ATS, I fell in love with it instantly... I almost cried when I heard BITS and WTCFM. But after just one year of listening to it, I got bored by it...there's is nothing wrong with it, but other that BITS, WTCFM and The Catalyst, I don't feel like listening to it. I don't have any emotional connection with it. On the other hand, I hated MTM and Meteora first couple of months, but they grew on me later... Meteora is full of flaws like cliche lyrics and all songs have same structure, but I still listen to it almost every day. Half songs on MTM are just meh but the other half still gives me shivers after 5 years.
I also get tired of ATS sometimes but when I go back to it after a few weeks break it sounds great again!
Hybrid Theory - A nice mix of alternative, rap, metal, rock and electronica. Even with this, I still find their lyrics and guitar riffs awkward. "A Place for My Head" still retains as my least favorite LP song. Reanimation - The band learns from their mistakes in Hybrid Theory. All featured vocalists and remixers deliver. On "H! Vltg3", Mike raps like he's the Asian Kanye West. We realize Phoenix knows how to play the cello and violin. Meteora - My favorite album, despite many haters. Sure, it has repetitive lyrics, but the band's sound becomes louder and bolder. If it wasn't for "Numb", I wouldn't know LP existed. Collision Course - This one's a mixed bag. Some mash-ups are good ("Dirt Off Your Shoulder"/"Lying from You" and "Numb/Encore") while others are uneven between Jay-Z and LP ("Izzo/In the End") while some are just plain odd ("Big Pimpin'/Papercut"). Minutes to Midnight - It's their most radio-friendly, "normal" rock, and political album. Many songs are addicting and have a lasting appeal, but I felt it's not as special as the other studio albums. A Thousand Suns - LP ditches the sound that gave them a gazillion of dollars and polarizes fans and critics with their newfound style. Not perfect, but hypnotizing.
I will never understand the hate Meteora is getting on these forums. Meteora>ATS>HT>(Reanimation)>MTM I never liked MTM, Shadow Of The Day, Little Things Give You Away, Valentine's Day, Leave Out All The Rest...what?
At this moment in time: 1. A Thousand Suns (near damn perfection) 2. Hybrid Theory (what got me into LP in the first place) 3. Meteora (same as HT, but not as solid) 4. Minutes To Midnight (some decent tracks, but too much filler for my liking)
Which is interesting, because the people who don't like Meteora have explained why they don't like it 10,000 times. Never once have I seen the Meteora fans give a decent rebuttal for the album. All I hear from them is, "No! It's their best album!" Which is about as good of an argument as the pancake on a kitten's head meme. Apparently, Meteora defenders were not on the debate club during their angsty high school career.
Some Meteora fans make it look worse than it is, not everyone who claims it's their worst album hates it. I just like it a lot less than all their others.
Best: A Thousand Suns – Worst: Hybrid Theory, not Meteora because Meteora was the album which brought me into LP.
Minutes To Midnight - Great balance of catchy melody, great drumming, relatable vocals and some mature, less commercial music, Little Things Give You Away was the beginning of the ATS era IMO. A Thousand Suns - Their most self indulgent album to date, it's got more balls as the band weren't thinking so much about what we'd think of it, it's songs don't stand up on their own compared to other albums, but it is intended to be one big thing, and it works as that. Hybrid Theory - Loud and fun. Meteora - Even though I call this my least favourite.. I still love it, it just doesn't work as much as an album, it's funny though that an album which did so well because of it's genre versatility now fails because of it's repetition, the whole album just has a certain identity to it because the mixing and everything is too coherent. Minutes is still my favourite, but genius of A Thousand Suns lies in how incoherent it is in a certain way, it's a concept album with a personality disorder, which makes it interesting above anything else.. as Mike would say: Meteora is more a mcdonalds album, a tasty one, but one you'll get tired of if you eat it for three days. P.S. Do not attempt to eat any Linkin Park merchandise. This thread has an exclusive concept to it as I titled it "best and worst" I should have called it "favourite and least favourite" :/