‘In Between’ and ‘In Pieces’) contains some of the most conspicuous album fillers of all time that don’t contribute any kind of zealous mentality or imagination to the track listing. Don’t get me wrong, Shinoda can rap like an absolute beast but what is that wearisome and dull funeral-like backing track he’s rapping to? It would be more forgivable as a minute-long interlude but four minutes? Pass! The second half of this album (e.g. ‘Hands Held High’ is a track that makes zero sense. ‘Shadow Of The Day’ sounds like Linkin Park trying to compose their own version of ‘With Or Without You’ by U2 but conversely exhibits itself as a sub-standard Poundland knock-off. For other tracks, it’s not the same story.

In addition, its Linkin Park’s highest charting single to date. But it’s ‘What I’ve Done’ that is possibly the band’s most accessible track for newcomers – it’s the easiest song in the world to effortlessly listen to. Then after the pause all the instruments collage into a storm of headbanging delectation. It opens with a guitar melody of distinct awe with looping thick guitar riffage and banging snare drums.

‘No More Sorrow’ is one of Linkin Park’s most underrated tracks going. ‘Given Up,’ a notably heavy metal track, pushes Bennington’s vocal abilities further with a mind-blowing 20-second scream towards the end. ‘Bleed It Out’ thereafter became their official live setlist finale. Brad Delson’s guitar riff is highly encapsulating and Bennington screaming “ I’ll make you face this now!” makes one wonder how he prevented his vocal chords from snapping. The stand-out track is arguably ‘Bleed It Out’, with Shinoda dishing out verse after verse of combustible, rebellious lyricism (“ Throw ‘em up and let something shine / Going out of my fucking mind”). With the title taken from the Doomsday Clock concept, Minutes To Midnight is an album defined mostly by its singles – and not much else unfortunately. The band started to shift towards a new sound and would begin an era of experimentation. This would be the case up for the group’s future albums up to Living Things. Minutes To Midnight was the first Linkin Park record to be produced by the infamous Rick Rubin and Mike Shinoda. One More Light was a ludicrous, full-on quasi-mainstream pop myopia, and unsurprisingly failed. This latest album takes no mirroring concept of previous albums at all. Previous Linkin Park LPs, despite what one thinks of the music, all have that undeniably proactive agenda. The underlying and fundamental problem with One More Light is that it never ignites. Where are the snippets of tenacious rapping for which Shinoda is so famous? Where’s the energy for God’s sake? It’s Shinoda’s worst vocal performance and those obnoxious, silly high-pitched electronic chirps are absurd, especially for artists of Linkin Park’s calibre. Other tracks like ‘Talking To Myself’ and the closer ‘Sharp Edges’ only add fuel to the cringe-fest fire but ‘Sorry For Now’ is the ultimate bane of this album. ‘Battle Symphony’ does offer more of a desire for leniency with a more stimulated Bennington making a headway but still leaves a void of dissatisfaction. ‘Heavy’, featuring Kiiara, is so melodramatic one cannot stop laughing throughout the brain cell-dwindling lyricism. Take ‘Invisible,’ with Shinoda on vocals, which evokes a hurting desperation to get on the Billboard Top 40 – even though Linkin Park have that potential and privilege already. Every other track on One More Light is conversely cringeworthy and downright capricious. After eight previous tracks of ad-nauseam eardrum torture, there’s at least a glimmer of confidence.

The vibrating intro and subtle guitar is like the outro for Coldplay’s ‘Politik’ – very heart throbbing. Where do we even begin? Well, the title track is rather decent in all honesty – something positive to take away from an absolute turkey of an album. You don’t want to kick them off the bus because they’re going to leave if you come out with another album like this.” All this album represents, in retrospect, is a horrendous business move – a 100% rejection of their origins. Famous music critic Anthony Fantano (a.k.a theneedledrop on YouTube) sums it up perfectly in his video review of One More Light: “All you’re going to do is alienate the listeners that stuck with you from back in the day,” said Fantano, “You don’t want to shake that boat. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that I’m upset because it’s not another hard-and-heavy Hybrid Theory or Meteora-type record, those albums would not fly as high in the market today, but let’s also be serious about this. This is an emotionally over-the-top, insipid pop album. There’s simply no other way to put it: One More Light is bad.

Linkin park discography playlist