Ah, Linkin Park...this band put me through hell when it came to discussing music with other people.
I absolutely LOVED their first album when I first discovered them...besides being quite different from the hip hop and urban pop I was so used to at the time, they did such an awesome job blending and balancing hip-hop with nu-metal/funk-metal. Upon discovering their independent EP from 1999 I instantly pegged them as my new favorite music artist, and the
Reanimation remix album is sitll one of my favorite albums of all time. But when
Meteora came it didn't seem quite right...the lyrics got simpler and the genre-blending seemed a bit less natural, plus the dreary subject matter became a bit overbearing at this point (though I did appreciate the inclusion of a straight hip-hop track). And when
Minutes to Midnight came about, I was glad they wanted to ditch the whole "emo" overtones of their old work, but their music (the most important part) became a bland rock sound, losing the funk and edge that appealed to me in the first place. But having heard a few tracks from their recent album, I might be willing to give them another chance, this time knowing things are different now.
Mike Shinoda really needs to release another Fort Minor album. I've always felt he's at his best when he makes more hip-hop oriented music (my own genre bias aside), and he did as good a job as anyone could to give Styles of Beyond the broader recognition they deserve.
(and I just realized that all the people named Shinoda who are relevant to my interests have first names that start with M--Mike, Miho, Mariko
)