The album’s biggest highlight comes in the somber, enchanting “Roads Untraveled,” a ballad rooted in gorgeous rhythm brought to life by a kaleidoscopic wall of shimmering chimes, Shinoda and Bennington trading verses in spoken word delivery, a strong guitar solo and a massive swell of a melody. On the backside of Living Things, from “I’ll Be Gone” to “Powerless,” Linkin Park proves they have been around for 16 years, can deliver with confidence, write a hook and take an occasional leap of faith. Living Things is a back-loaded album for the listener who is at least partially inclined to appreciating risk and bands stepping outside of their comfort zone. It’s a testament to a band that has been around the block (landing an impressive estate on the cul-de-sac time and again) and a producer with a knack for big names, genre fusion and radio hits with lifetime musician’s cred. It’s a pedestrian rallying cry adaptable to anyone and everyone yelled in a fevered pitch.Īfter “Lies Greed Misery,” Living Things thankfully (for casual fans, perhaps not necessarily for the steadfast Linkin Park faithful) gets more interesting and less predictable. By the time Bennington unleashes his throat-shredding string of “You did it to yourself,” the song distinctly sounds like yet another rock band with rap tendencies still trying to emulate the most quoted parts of Rage Against the Machine’s catalog two decades later. “Lies Greed Misery” starts off enough with Shinoda – who positively shines on Living Things – dropping rhymes with cocksure attitude and a confident rhythm, but the song retires to the formulaic alt-radio-ready structure as it loops around to Bennington’s screamed refrain, “I wanna see you choke on your lies / swallow up your pride / suffer all alone in your misery.” It, too, seems very familiar and safe despite how passionately the band plays it. If you’ve been in Linkin Park’s corner since Hybrid Theory, you know “Burn It Down” front-to-back, but you’ll be as addicted to it as much now as you were in 2000. It has the blunt edges, the big Bennington-belted hooks and vague lyrics filled with all the safe pronouns expected from Linkin Park, but you can happily sing along with in angst every time the song lights up the dial. By the time “Burn It Down” comes around, there’s zero doubt which single from Living Things is gearing up for a run to the top of the alt-radio charts. The songs aren’t bad or poorly conceived by any stretch they just feel safe and indistinct from a dozen or so other songs Linkin Park has released since Hybrid Theory. The album kicks off breaking little new ground with two songs that hardly break new ground for Linkin Park. That’s not to say there aren’t a few strokes of genuine risk from the band that both expand their sound and deviate from their countless radio smashes. If you are a longtime fan of Linkin Park (sales figures and radio airplay indicate you very well are), you’ll have a firm grasp of what to expect.
Shinoda has described Living Things as the band’s “acceptance and eagerness to use all the tools in the toolbox … blending (six different musical tastes) into one.” Once again, Linkin Park has enlisted Rick Rubin to oversee production (Rubin also produced Minutes to Midnight and A Thousand Suns), and Rubin’s skilled ears and deep industry knowledge flesh out some worthy moments on Living Things. The California six-piece fronted by the recognizable duo of Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda have survived for years beyond the nu-metal contemporaries they were quickly lumped in with at the turn of the millennium with their breakout RIAA Top 100 Album, Hybrid Theory. Linkin Park’s fifth official album, Living Things, finds the hugely popular band (now in their 16th year) embracing every aspect of a formula that has won them millions of loyal fans around the world, a litany of Grammy and MTV awards, Billboard recognition and an ability to sell units in a new musical frontier that should earn the Linkin Park brand a Purple Heart for business sense and resiliency.
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