Release Date: May 15, 2007
Genre(s): Rock, Alternative
Record label: Warner Bros
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Linkin Park consider their third album to be such a departure from their nu-metal core values that the CD booklet explains each track's conception. For example, the pop-metal moanfest What I've Done "is intended to work on many levels, including freedom, art and death metaphors", which shows the breadth of their ambition. But even with rock's Mr Fix-It, Rick Rubin, on production detail, and a willingness to try random new things, the California rap-rockers are stymied by their decision to stay roughly within the shrieky boundaries of their genre (albeit with less emphasis on the rap).
To the list of America’s most endangered professions — lighthouse keepers, Detroit autoworkers, record-store clerks — add rappers in rock bands. Linkin Park certainly haven’t failed to notice the nü-metal market withering since their last multiplatinum album in ’03. They probably read the self-pitying blog ramblings of Bizkit-turned-filmmaker Fred Durst and thought: There but for the grace of God go we.