Linkin Park's second full-length album, released in the United States on Tuesday, March 25th, 2003. The successor to 2000's Hybrid Theory, (for those who don't know, Reanimation, released in 2002, was a remix album) it continues the style expected of Linkin Park, with a hint of softening of their sound. This does not diminish their impact, however. The expressions of anger, frustration and agitation are still very dominant themes. Vocally, they're also still quite solid. Mike Shinoda's vocals flow well, and are a good balance to Chester Bennington's raspier voice. The band as a whole works well together, and creates a good set of songs. Their sound, as I said, has softened slightly. This is not something that should turn any current fans off, but it is probably noticeable if you're paying attention.
That being said, I think Hybrid Theory was the better overall album. Their previous effort seemed to have more consistancy, quality-wise. However, this doesn't speak as much as it could against Meteora; consider the quality of Hybrid Theory. Even something slightly lesser in quality is still a good album.
Track Listing*:
- Foreword
- Don't Stay
- Somewhere I Belong (this was the first single)
- Lying From You
- Hit The Floor
- Easier To Run
- Faint
- Figure.09
- Breaking The Habit
- From The Inside
- Nobody's Listening
- Session
- Numb
There were two versions released. One was an enhanced CD, containing the album itself, with the addition of several features accessible on a computer, one of which being a seventeen minute documentary on the art created for the CD. The other was the enhanced CD, packaged along with a making-of DVD with slightly more than thirty minutes of footage about the creation of the album.
Another interesting fact of this release, is that while this CD was in production, there was a significant amount of security to prevent any leaks onto the popular file sharing networks. Either Linkin Park or their label took notice of the constant pre-release availability of tracks from various high-profile albums. So, in response to this, the pre-release albums were supposedly guarded 24/7, and as new versions of the pre-production CD were created, old ones were destroyed.**
* I'm not sure which of these tracks were released as singles. Anyone with any info, please /msg me and I'll add it to this w/u.
CzarKhan helpfully informed me that the first single was Somewhere I Belong, and mentioned several of the extras on the CD.
** ditto with any information about how effective these measures were at protecting against leaks.
Apparently, not very. ch'i-lin informs me that Somewhere I Belong was available on Kazaa before the CD was released. |
