At first glance just the CD cover looks like an emo album ready to go.  While most people say that you can’t judge a book (or CD) by its cover it appears as though in this case, you can.  Four years since their last full album release fans were most likely anticipating an album full of Mike Shinoda’s smooth rhymes and Chester Bennington’s voice that goes from smooth to screaming to smooth in quick succession.  People expecting this won’t be disappointed, as long as you only listen to around half of the CD.  The remaining half is just as the cover indicates: an emo album where Chester is sad and Mike sings some pseudo-political drivel.

If you’ve heard the single (“What I’ve Done”) and like it don’t jump out and buy it yet.  It seems that the album does have several songs that sound the same as their music from Hybrid Theory and Meteora but this doesn’t carry through the entire disk by any means.  If you’ve heard their “My December” single some of the rest of the disk is very similar to that.  In their attempt to re-invent themselves and their sound they seem to have stripped themselves of what made their sound so attractive to begin with. 

Songs like “Given Up,” “What I’ve Done,” and “No More Sorrow” stand out as great tracks that continue in the same vein as their previous releases without sounding pre-packaged or repetitive, while “Valentines Day,” “The Little Things Give You Away,” “In Between” and others lose the edge that’s expected from Linkin Park.  Even Mike’s normal rhythm and rhyme seems to sound more like his Fort Minor side project than what Linkin Park normally sounds like.

Overall, I give this CD a B+.  There are some songs that are downright great and I look forward to listening to them again and again while others I’d rather just be rid of entirely. The “growth” of this album seems to be a progression into a sound adopted by many other bands instead of an independent sound.  Don’t get me wrong, several tracks of this CD are the epitome of what most people have come to know and love about Linkin Park, while others reek of Mike’s side project (Fort Minor), and others simply reek.  If you are a hardcore Linkin Park fan you will be disappointed by this CD.  They seem to have moved from their “Nu Metal” roots for parts of the CD going to a calmer, slower, more “emo” sound.

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