I don't understand why more people don't love this album, it's my personal favourite. It's defenitaly the most under rated LP album. This album is probably the best LP album for lyrics and the unique thing about it is if you listen to this album in order every song is a different genre from the one before it for example... 1. Wake - Aint shit 2. Given up - Hard rock/Metal 3. Leave Out All The Rest - Soft rock/pop 4. Bleed It Out - Rap/rock/ 5. Shadow Of The Day - Soft rock/pop 6. What I've Done - Alt rock/Hard rock 7. Hands Held High - Rap 8. No More Sorrow - Hard rock/Metal 9. Valentines Day - Alt rock/Pop 10. In Beetween - Pop 11. In Pieces - Alt Rock 12. The Little Things Give You Away - Soft Rock/Alternitive Tell me what you guys think and why you don't think it's as good as your favourite LP album.
I love Minutes to Midnight, it's my second favorite behind A Thousand Suns. The reason I prefer ATS is simply that it's more special, among other reasons.
I think my problem with M2M (also if i think that isnt a bad album , its good) is, that the softer tracks (beside SOTD,HHH) arent that good imo. In Between makes it a bit boring, i just dont like to listem to the whole second half.
While I love Wake/Given Up it just feels like the the first half is so unfocused. The songs just doesn't fit(through the interludes between songs help a little) I really don't like the arena/stadium rock/U2 feeling from some of the songs. Everything after WID is pretty good. Especially the last three tracks are probably the strongest songs on the album IMO. + This album probably has Chesters' best vocal performances. One of their best albums for sure.
For starters "instrumental" isn't a genre On the whole MTM is an alternative rock album with a few hip-hop, pop and punk thrown in. It's a great album and it's probably just off the top 3 for me. It's certainly their most unfocused album so far, but that's kind of why I enjoy it. No track sounds the same and each one is unique as the one before it. (Unlike Meteora or Living Things)
I think a lot of it is the reputation from when it was released, at the time it was jarring to hear a rap rock band doing straight up alt-radio and fullblown pop tunes, even if they did have their Breaking the Habits and Numbs floating around. I really believe a lot of the reputation it has is more from how people remember it from 2007 as opposed to how it actually is now. The constant genre jumping on the album is still noticeable even now, but I actually think MtM has aged the best of all of their older albums. Hybrid Theory and Meteora definitely sound like a product of their time, Minutes doesn't.
I think Minutes to Midnight is a respectable effort, considering that they were sincerely making an effort to depart from the music they had done prior and try new things. It's not really a bad album, but at the same time I wouldn't consider it to be their most memorable. You make a good point by pointing out how the different songs really touch on different genres, but in regards to why I don't necessarily esteem this record as much as I do, say, A Thousand Suns, is because it's all been done before. It's the same story with The Hunting Party. The two albums are similar in that Linkin Park was trying to take their music into a different direction and fill some sort of void, whether it be their own or in the music industry generally speaking. However, neither record produces anything that's new to me. It feels like you're taking generic alternative music or hard rock music and running it through a Linkin Park filter. It's not that I don't like it - I think most of it is likeable music. At the same time, I can't really put it on the same level as A Thousand Suns or Reanimation because I can't necessarily say I got something different out of it. I've said it before, but when I look at A Thousand Suns, I can't attribute that record to a single recognizable genre. I can't necessarily even listen to the record and say, "You know, this has been done before." Perhaps I don't have the same musical knowledge as others, but a lot of it felt really new and fresh. You don't really get that with most of the Linkin Park records. Minutes to Midnight is not a bad album, and it's not that Linkin Park didn't try anything different or didn't mix it up on that album - but for me to sit here and tell you that it hasn't been done before would be a lie. It's not a bad thing - that's just not the kind of music that really intrigues me.
The style of music doesn't matter to me, I feel like when I listen to Minutes To Midnight or even A Thousand Suns, you can really tell they took there time on those records, there's no stupid ass lyrics or anything that really feels like a un complete song. Good Music is good music. I feel like Minutes to Midnight is just well written music.
I think Minutes is great! I don't want to say it's a lesser album to any of the others, it's just the others might hit closer to home with me (and/or for nostalgia reasons). But I love the shit out of that record.
It is the only Linkin Park I album that doesn't contain a single song I dislike. Plus it contains some of my favorite songs ever (TLTGYA, VD, HHH)
Minutes To Midnight is actually my favorite Linkin Park album. Each song is exceptional and there is very good song writing and lyrics on this album. Chester's vocal delivery is very good as well.
Simply,M2M feels too much like a transition from their original formula (HT,Meteora) to their new style (ATS). It's not a BAD album but it feels too much confused. The Little Things Give You Away is still one of their best songs,tough.
I like the album pretty much only because it's just different from "Hybrid Theory" and "Meteora"; "Minutes To Midnight" was simply the band fighting tooth-and-nail to come up with anything, anything other than straightforward rap-rock (and even "Bleed It Out" sounds different to anything that they'd made up until that point) they broadened things in terms of songwriting in the process as well. They kept electronic elements to a minimal and emphasised live instrumentation with a rawer sound - not necessarily my thing, but I like that they did it, because, firstly, again, it was different for them ... and, secondly, when they bounced back in the other direction and landed at the opposite extreme with "A Thousand Suns", it was so rewarding as a listener and a fan! Nowadays, the only tracks on it which I completely like are "Wake" and "Little Things". I'd appreciate "Shadow" more if it weren't for the blatant similarities to "With Or Without You". But, still, in the context of the discography today, "Midnight" was a transitional work - a stepping stone which simply served to help the band break out of whatever box they were in, and I feel that it should be appreciated as such. Something which some people don't like is the tracklisting - musically, each song is drastically different compared to the one before it. I personally think that that worked very well because there was a consistent sound and approach which tied all of the songs together. On later albums, there are sequences of songs which are seem even more ridiculous on paper but I love it when the band do that - the switch from "Victimized" to "Roads" on "Living Things" is so cool. To me, that stuff just works a lot of the time.
Yeah your right about the With or Without You shit, I know I'm getting off topic but back in the day that Deftones singer "Chino" said all Linkin Park songs are a dead rip off of our songs, they sound nothing alike what so ever.
For me, Minutes To Midnight will always be cherished for its radically organic sound. The signature electronic synths of Linkin Park's nu-metal past are all but forgotten in favour of raw instrumentation that's either heavy and powerful or subtle and beautiful. The production values and mixing are pristinely clear, which further emphasizes the humbly organic presentation. To me, Minutes To Midnight also presents some of the band's best material. In my opinion, "Given Up" and "No More Sorrow" annihilate everything heavy the band had done previously, both on a vocal and instrumental level. Then there's "In Pieces" which is both haunting and magical, along with the band's first real foray into the experimental with "Hands Held High". "What I've Done" is the Linkin Park personified. And who could forget the sublime journey of "The Little Things Give You Away"? While personally, the album feels sonically cohesive to me, it fails to deliver a compelling flow, and lacks an energy. With so little heavy or energetic music spread few and far between, the album just slows to a crawl at times and feels absolutely monotonous. It confuses me to this day why the band didn't bring "What We Don't Know" and "Across The Line" into the final track list, as they were not only fantastic Minutes To Midnight material, but also filled with energy enough to revitalize the album from it's several moments of slumber. That said, the album is still my third favourite from the band. It just has several glorious highs along with several sleepy lows.