5 minutes to kill, here's an old review of Meteora I made.

Don't delete this topic. Listen to the opinions I raise and actually think. I'm right, you know.

Those who know me will know I never shut the f**k up about Linkin Park, and my contempt for them. This rather pointless, silly hate for the band stems from this album: Meteora.

Linkin Park emerged onto the music scene with Hybrid Theory, back in 2001. It was grossly commericialised and very pretentious, but it had an interesting edge to it, a feeling of ever-so-slight potential to be a cut above all the other nu-metal screamos out there. Nothing too good, but at least I could put up with them even at the young age of 10.

massive sales followed. You have to hand it to LP, they're shrewd money makers. They knew that their music had appeal amongst emos and depressed teenagers, who somehow feel for shallow lyrics all about "pain". And thus, they went down the root so many bands go down: making a self-parodying, soulless and predictable cash cow. Hence emerged Meteora in 2005.

Meteora doesn't have much to surprise. The subject matter either involves inner pain, manipulation or just general contempt for something or someone, nothing else. These themes have no emotional depth: it is not "psychological trauma" or "reclusiveness via mental breakdown": these guys aren't Radiohead. It's just "pain" "pain" "pain" "pain". Linkin Park know that such ludicrously general and basic themes will appeal to all those 'depressed' kids out there, because the subject matter lacks any challenge: they've hooked onto the idea that kids these days find such depth in shallowness.

Musically, Linkin Park use the predictable formula people saw emerging in Hybrid Theory: 9 of the 12 tracks begin with a quiet, often electronic and very simple melody, before being hit with heavy guitars about 20 seconds in. The guitar parts all follow the same 3-to-4-power-chords-over-and-over-again pattern, the songs lack any real development as they go on. The only exceptions to this rule are Breaking the Habit (has almost no progression, has no heavy guitar, but still starts quiet) and the half-decent Session (which is purely electronic anyway).

Next, the lyrics. Linkin Park's lyrics are diabolical, to say the least.

We have gems like "And I got nothing to say / I can't believe I didn't fall right down on my face" from Somewhere I Belong, to pearls of wisdom such as "I don't know what's worth fighting for / Or why I have to scream / I don't know why I instigate / And say what I don't mean".
The pretention is so thick you could cut it with a knife. The characters and subjects in the lyrics are just stereotypes: they go from being in pain, to hating someone, to being in pain again, to being controlled by someone, to being in pain...there really ARE no characters, just a big "I", who seems to suffer from every social and mental ailment imaginable. But the kids love it of course. They see it as deep and emotional. Poor kids.

Even more annoying than this is Mike Shinoda, Linkin Park's "rapper": this man has no knowledge whatsoever of the basic principles of rap music. He merely "raps" (by this I mean stomps along in a gruff, heavy 'gangsta' voice) conventional A/B/A/B song structures. The results are extremely funny, especially if you watch a Linkin Park promo video and see him waving his arms about like the caracature he is, as if what he's "rapping" has any relevance or soul to it at all. The worst examples are in the appalling From The Inside.
Even worse, on the song No One's Listening, he reinforces his status as a stereotypical wannabe by rapping about...lyrics, and rapping. Still sticking with the inner pain and contempt for others themes, he goes on about how "I hate my rhymes/ but hate everyone else's more", and "With these non-stop / lyrics of life living / Not to be forgotten / but still unforgiving". The fact is, what right do talentless hacks have to go on about music and lyrics as though they're masters themselves? Someone like Gil Scott Heron could do that, even f**king Eminem, but one of the worst lyrical bands currently still working? Of course, they can do what they want, but that's not the point: it proves something's desperately wrong with their egoes.

All in all Linkin Park's Meteora is more of a commodity than an album. There's no soul, no depth, no emotion and no talent on this mess. There's just one hell of a lot of f**king money.

I'm VietNamese,and my English isnot good. I could juz understand a lil. I'm not agree wth u.I'm 22,not old but not too young. I love Lp, I could feel parts of my life in LP's songs.
I was stuck in problems of mine, and I found LP one day. Each time I listened to Lp's songs , I felt so much better cuz it seemed like they were sharing the bad things witm me.
If you were mine,you wouldn't say all those things.
About money, I hate much. But I have to have money to do the things I wanted to do. Lp, they have to live, and they have to earn money. Could u live without money? I couldn't. I dun care 'bout how much money LP earnt for their Album, I juz love their musik,that's all with me.
At all, I'm not agree with u. Think back man!

It's Nobody's Listening, not No One's Listening. And if there's no depht, no talent, no soul and no emotion in the album, they wouldn't have sold hundreds or even thousands of records. But if that's what you think.. owell.