Customer Reviews

A Thousand Suns

5 star:		(213)
4 star:		(86)
3 star:		(40)
2 star:		(69)
1 star:		(177)

 

 

If you can believe it, this is the first review I've ever written for an album, despite being an amazon customer for years. Why? Because I'm just so damn disappointed in all the negative reviews of A Thousand Suns.

First of all, let me say that I'm not a lyrics person. What I take away from LP's music is a feeling, an emotion, and so far I gotta admit that I'm loving the feeling I get from this album. No, it is not like any of their previous works (though I think we all saw where they might be going as a band after MtM). No, it is not nearly as angry as Hybrid Theory. And no, it is not nearly as catchy as Meteora. So what the hell is it?

To me, it's a recovery album. This may be lost on some readers, but if i picture LP's albums as a man going through life, I see their early music as a very wounded and angry man. The catharsis in listening to those albums comes from realizing that not only does someone else out there hurt as much as you, someone out there may actually hurt even more. I revel in listening to those early CDs for that reason. When Reanimation came out, I saw a slightly more playful side to LP. The wounds were still there, but they were being examined now, looked at in an almost clinical, curious way. Minutes to Midnight disappointed me at first, I'll admit it. The wounded man was no longer angry, but I still was. It took me several looped listens to come to terms with the fact that he had moved on, and was beginning to let some of the old grudges go. It's not a tired album - far from it - but MtM does give one the sense that LP was getting tired of fighting all the time. That they were searching for solace.

A Thousand Suns, then, in my view, is Linkin Park's first glimpse of solace. Listening to it, I see the wounded man internalizing his anger differently now than in Hybrid Theory, taking the weight of his troubles on his own shoulders rather than throwing them onto others. A salve of sorts is applied to some of the old scars, though a few new cuts are evident too. It's not a happy album by any means, but it is peaceful, in a way only LP can make industrial noise sound. It's also not a simple album; I am sure that future listens will reveal even more about the music to me. But for now, I felt the need to let other hesitant buyers know that I trust LP pretty implicitly with my musical soul. Whatever journey they want to take me on, I'm willing to go for the ride. And I'm willing to grow up with them too, if that's what they ask of me.

What do you do when you're a top-selling rap-rock act and your genre has long since expired? The answer is simple: Evolve. In 2007, Linkin Park did just that. With the release of their polarizing third album, "Minutes to Midnight," they brought an unmistakable pop-rock element to the table, downplaying both the rap and the rock elements that made them such a hit in the first place. While it performed well enough commercially, it alienated a good chunk of their fanbase, paving the way for a predictable "return to their roots" album. Unfortunately for that chunk of fans, the band's latest offering, "A Thousand Suns" is anything but predictable or reminiscent of the Linkin Park of yesteryear. And believe it or not, it's a good thing.

Trading in the undeniable hooks and chunky guitar riffs that populated their earlier albums for synthesizers and hip-hop beats, "A Thousand Suns" is certainly a tough cookie to swallow. While the tasty licks of guitar-God Brad Delson (sarcasm) will forever be missed, the band more than makes up for it in ample amounts of ambience. A semi-concept album, "A Thousand Suns" brings to mind a more angsty version of "Year Zero," with its themes of war and humanity. You may wonder if a band like Linkin Park is up to the task of making such a bold artistic statement, but surprisingly enough, they pull it off rather competently. With Rick Rubin once again serving as co-producer, the band gives the set a centralized theme and sound, even if the songs themselves wander down different paths. Sure, if you strip away the various spoken word and instrumental interludes that fill out the record, you're only left with nine full-length songs, but within these tracks, the band runs the gamut from hip-hop and electronica to pop and even progressive. Somehow though, these songs manage to sound alien when placed outside of their element, thus ensuring that "A Thousand Suns" is an album that can only be appreciated in its proper form, from front to back.

While "A Thousand Suns" may not be exactly what everyone wants from Linkin Park, at the end of the day, no one can accuse them of repeating themselves or recording the same album twice. At this point in their career, it would be all too easy to rest on their laurels and keep churning out "One Step Closer" clones. It's an album that lacks commercial edge and takes more than a few listens to fully sink in, but when approached with an open mind, it reveals itself as one of the band's most inspiring and definitive pieces of music. If you're hoping to get your white-boy angst on with this record, you may feel Linkin Park owe you a thousand apologies for "A Thousand Suns," but in the end, they don't, and really, you should have grown out of it by now.

Linkin Park have been a tight, incredibly solid band for the past decade. Both "Meteora" and "Minutes to Midnight" were fine records that were well-arranged and filled with excellent, even profoundly well-crafted songs, including those that did not make it to the radio.

With "A Thousand Suns" the group maintains its inspiration and creative juices, but only a little more than that.

Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington ooze passion and commitment, yet very few of the songs catch hold, and the ones that do - including singles "The Catalyst" and "Waiting for the End" - are not as strong as the vast majority of the songs from their last two albums.

The guys attempt a great deal and make some heavy artistic statements about the state of the world and our collective understanding as a people, both on the local and global level, but these messages - admirable though they may be are - are buried in generally uninteresting, though pleasant, songs.

The best by far is "Wretches and Kings" with its message of recognizing the real enemies (as George Carlin called them, "The Big Club") who walk among us and immobilize the lower classes. However, the rousing speech from political activist Mario Savio is stronger and more memorable than the song itself.

The album is still a fine, if, essentially, forgettable, listening experience. "Blackout" is fueled by intense, boiling-over-the-top anger, sadness and frustration, and "When They Come For Me" has more energy and precision than the majority of the tracks. "Robot Boy" also has some smooth, chilled grooves that work well.

The best thing about "A Thousand Suns" is its consistent efforts to scintillate with musical pleas for elevated social consciousness. That central theme is never strayed from, so the record manages coherence.

Linkin Park have their first mild album here. It is not a poor record by any means, but it is filled with artistic promise that it only sometimes fulfills. It pales in comparison to what this band has previously proven itself capable of.

The fact that there are roughly the same number of one star reviews as five star reviews is evidence that opinion is very much polarized. You love it or you hate it.

I'm firmly in the latter camp. This is a groundbreaking album that goes against the grain of instant gratification in a low-attention, i-tune obsessed, twittering world.

Do yourself a favor. Keep an open mind, listen to it straight through with no interruptions and without multi- tasking. Repeat and then repeat again. If you still hate it - fair enough. For me, this is one of the best albums of recent years - a truly monumental work...

I got hooked on Linkin Park about 5 or 6 years ago when I really started listening to music, and when I say hooked I mean hooked. I would not only listen to Hybrid Theory and Meteora non-stop, but I would listen to any unreleased song I could find. I was a die-hard fan. So naturally when I heard that they were going to put out Minutes to Midnight, I would look high and low for any glimpses of what the new material would be like. When the album finally dropped, I bought it, but was a bit let down. I expected the Mike Shinoda's raps over the rock beat with Chaz shredding the chorus with sing-scream lyrics. Instead, I got a few hard songs, and a bunch of soft ballad-esque songs. But the ballads grew on me, and Minutes to Midnight became one of my favorite CD's. So flash forward 3 years to the release of A Thousand Suns, I basically knew what to expect. The soft songs took some getting used to, but in the end they became favorites.

1 - The Requiem - Leadoff song with an apocalyptic feel. The distorted refrain from The Catalyst adds a chilling perspective to it. Overall a good way to start the album off.

2 - The Radiance - More of a driving beat, with an excerpt from the speech from Mr. Opphenmeier talking about the atomic bomb and relating it to the Bhagavad Gita (a text I just finished for one of my college courses). Not anything really special, just a filler

3 - Burning In The Skies - Really soft electro song with Mike singing the verses and Chester singing the chourus. Beat is made up of electronic drum and a toned down electric guitar and piano. Bridge of the song has some pick-up of the guitar to give it more of a driving beat

4 - Empty Spaces - Think Civil War. Sounds pretty cool.

5 - When They Come for Me - This is one of those songs that will grow on you. Has a bass drivin tribal drum beat with some synthetic guitar elements. Mike kills the verses while Chester does an arab/indian imitation over the chourus that sounds really good actually

6 - Robot Boy - Really basic song, probably my least favorite on the album until it grew on me. Chester and Mike harmonize singing verses over a power ballad beat. Vocals on this song are great.

7 - Journada Del Muerto - Instrumental leading to Waiting for the End. Really expected something darker due to the title (Spanish for Journey of the Dead) but instead got something that is 80's synthesizer sounding.

8 - Waiting for the End - Really a feel good song. One of my favorites on the whole album. Mike drops 2 sick reggae style verses over a electrodrum and piano beat. Chester comes in with a beautiful chourus, and the song is capped off with a fist-pumping head nodding (not banging) bridge and finish. Really wish they would play the intro with actual guitars live, because it would sound sick.

9 - Blackout - The intro had a weird yet cool 80's feel to it. Chester comes in with 2 scream/rap verses and finally lays waste to his vocal chourds on the chourus. After the second chourus the 80's beat is replaced with a hard driving head-banging electro beat with the chourus being chopped and screwed and basically remixed by DJ Hahn. The song changes once again to end with a soft singing verse by Mike over a beat almost identical to the intro.

10 - Wretches and Kings - Best song on the album. Starts off with a speech by Mario Salvo, then launches into a head banging guitar beat. Mike drops 2 dirty verses with Chester sing/screaming the chourus ala old Linkin Park, with DJ Hahn dropping a turn-table solo at the end. Lyrics and beat make the song a staple for any pre-game playlist.

11 - Wisdom, Justice, and Love - Dr. Martin Luther King delivers a speech over a piano, and his vioce gradually changes to evil robot

12 - Iridescent - One of my favorites. Starts off with a slow piano and deep lyrics, then gradually builds and builds into a full-fledged song with guitar, drums, lead vocals, and gang-vocals in the background. Truly worth your listen

13 - Fallout - Chourus from Burning in the Skies is repeated with distortion. Leads up to The Catalyst

14 - The Catalyst - First single, and a really good song. Starts with a fast paced electrodrum and turntable scratch beat with Mike and Chester trading vocals. The song adds more and more layers until it breaks into the bridge, where it gets really good. Bridge breaks into piano and drum beat with Mike repeating "Lift me up, Let me go." Then Chester belts out the same lyrics along with Mike, and the original beat is fused with the current one forming an epic finish.

15 - The Messenger - Not sure why everyone is down on this one. I believe it's a very good song, and Chester belting out the lyrics over acoustic guitar makes it captivating. Beautiful ballad with good lyrics to live by.

I personally like it when bands change, grow and evolve as artists. Linkin Park's new album only took me a few listens to really like it. It has has all of the Linkin Park flavors, some anger, a little ambient, love, faith and some rap, but it's mixed in a unique way that you can't really put in a particular genre. I also love how there's these interludes between certain songs that keep the album flowing and your interest peaking.

I agree this is definitely different that anything they've done before, but personally I love it when bands change things up. Sometimes it doesn't work out, but when they do, the albums can become classics, even standing the test of time. This album in my opinion, will stand the test of time. Therfore, if you're expecting Meteroa or Hybrid Theory, then don't even bother. If you're interested in hearing musicians evolve as artists, then continue to listen to Linkin Park.

So if you're a fan then buy it and give it a few listens. Absorb the new Linkin Park and I think you'll be glad you did!

Why is everybody whining about it not being like the first two albums? When was being different a bad thing? It amazes me how people can't seem to accept the fact that LP wanted to go a different direction with this album instead of doing the exact same thing as Hybrid Theory and Meteora. If you would like to know Mike's take on the subject, just listen to "When They Come For Me", which is where the above quote came from.

I personally really enjoy this album. It's almost a mix of old-LP and Pink Floyd, and it's awesome. By that I mean I feel like the vocals are much closer to their old sound, but they are experimenting A LOT with the instruments. It honestly sounds like Hahn is doing all the work (which is why I was confused when it was announced that six songs are going to be in Guitar Hero). My other complaint is that there are really only 9 full songs on this album; the rest are filler songs that sound like they came from a Pink Floyd album, hence the comparison.

Personal favorite songs include "When They Come For Me", "Waiting For The End", "Blackout", and "Wretches and Kings" as my overall favorite from the album.

I've listened to linkin park my whole life. Well, since they first put out Hybrid Theory. Crawling was the song that sealed the deal: favorite band.
Meteora was great, different from the first album, but still similar, and still amazing.
Minutes to Midnight was different, yet pivotal. A different sound but LP was still there, still making great music, still the best, and still my favorite.

A Thousand Suns was as different from Minutes to Midnight as Minutes to Midnight was from Meteora. The release of ATS snuck up on me, so I didn't have to wait too long after I found out about the release till I actually got to listen to the whole thing. I was scared at first, based on other reviews, but something told me I didn't need to worry, because Linkin Park always makes good music.

As I first hit play on my mp3 player my heart was pounding, and hearing the first few songs slowed my pulse: different, but great. I listened to the first 4 songs and enjoyed them, and then "When They Come For Me" came on and the powerful message was within Mike's lyrics.

I'm not a pattern to be followed/I'm not a robot/a monkey/everybody wants the next thing to be just like the first/try to catch up

Still, the song was different but good. I had heard "Waiting for the End" before I actually had the cd, because it was posted on youtube, however, I listened to it anyway, because that was the way the cd was written to be heard. At this point I had come to terms with the new sound, it was different, unique, but I still loved it.

And then Blackout came. This song almost brought me to tears, because when I first heard Chester scream, I was relieved in a sense. Relieved that Linkin Park was still holding on to some of their roots, still sounded the same, while sounding different. It was such a great experience, to hear Blackout for the first time. I would say this is my absolute favorite LP song.

Blackout was the climax and after that song, I kept thinking "Let the album end soon! Please just finish the cd!" Because I was so tense as I listened. And after hearing Blackout, I was in love with the cd, and I was scared that the remaining songs might change my mind. However, the rest of the cd was as great as what came before it.

I heard some people complain that Chester sounded the worst he ever had in "The Messenger" and whoever said that, just wow, I don't even know what to think. His voice was so amazing in that song, it was just raw Chester, and it was such a great ending to such a freaking amazing cd.

I realize that the cd is different than before, but if you know anything about the band or have watched any of their videos and documentaries, they want to be creative, and different, and change if that's what they feel like doing. And for me, this cd was a major success. It would be a sad story if LP got deterred by this album and started to regress back to their old style. Of course the old style was so amazing, but if I want it I'll put in the old cd. It's a journey with LP, and I'm glad they are taking me along. I'm excited to see what comes next. What challenges they make for themselves and how well they do.

The best band in the world, past, present, and future.

Been a fan of Linkin Park for quite some time so I was quite eager to hear this direction of their musical journey. I had heard from several others the negative opinions of this album however when it comes to music I reserve the right to form my own thoughts. This album is not for you if you are just looking for an album of 4-5 minute standard tracks as you would normally get. It is mixed with some interludes and some wandering thoughts. It is by all means an artistic album and one of experimentation. Linkin Park simply allows us to go on that journey with them. It is actually quite good with several songs that are the familiar Linkin Park sound but there are new background additions that add to the mix. You have to listen to the album from cover to cover and simply be open to going on a journey of discovery and through it you will find yourself questioning the world around you. If you are just looking for a typical rock album...not for you but if you are looking for an album of artful exploration with some great tunes then this one will not disappoint. I can think of many experimental 'rock' albums that were misunderstood but endured. For the naysayers....they have their opinions and are entitled to them but music is a personal connection with your soul so be open to go to new places.

I understand that the style of the album is completely different than previous LP releases, but it is very enjoyable, so there is no need for so many negative reviews. I love it! The only reason I gave it four stars instead of five stars, though is because there are only nine actual songs on the c.d. The other stuff (tracks 1, 2, 4, 11, and 13) is pointless to listen to because it's just some guy talking and screaming and other nonsense. Track 7 is just the same sentence over and over again, but it's not a song I always have to skip. The nine songs that are actually worth listening to are incredible.