CD: "Minutes to Midnight" by Linkin Park; Atlantic Records

Released: May 15

Style: Rock

My take: In the seven years since its debut CD, Linkin Park has made a lot of three things: fans, detractors and money.

Even before the band from Agoura Hills, Calif., reached MTV superstardom, it was finding ways to innovate existing ideas into something fresh. To promote "Hybrid Theory," the album that eventually made them famous, members posted songs to file-sharing servers (think Limewire or Napster before Metallica started whining) and advertised their music on message boards of bands in their genre, such as Korn.

The innovation didn't stop there. Between "Hybrid" and its sophomore effort, 2003's "Meteora," Linkin Park released "Reanimation," a collection of their songs remixed and reworked by DJs and hip-hop producers. Call it a marketing ploy or an easy way out of a contract obligation, but the music world hadn't seen anything like it. The same goes for the 2004 collaboration with Jay-Z, "Collision Course." It was, at its base, six of Jay's songs and six of LP's songs put together. While detractors consider it Linkin Park's worst album and, again, a cheap way to churn out a quick album, there's no denying its impact on modern music. Ask yourself how many mash-ups you've heard on the radio since then.

Linkin Park hasn't been reinventing the wheel so much as redecorating and repacking it for a more mainstream audience. And that's what makes "Minutes to Midnight" so disappointing. The first couple of songs set the pace and the standard for what is a decent album that falls far below expectations.

Longtime fans know LP always composed good song introductions that are attention-grabbing and distinctive from one to the next. You could listen to a dozen rock song openings in a row but could tell songs apart. That doesn't happen as often here.

Even after the opening measures, songs tend to be more homogenous than in previous albums and start to sound much like tracks produced by other artists. Just listen to "No More Sorrow." Vocals border on screamo territory and the driving but hooky guitar riffs definitely venture into hardcore/pop-punk territory. What happened to the computerized samples being the main component with the guitars just complementing them? I'm not sure, but the once-prominent Linkin Park sound has been drowned out in favor of more mainstream music options.

Even the cover is more conformist. Every LP release to date has had its mascot — a winged humanlike creature holding a flag — prominently placed on the cover. Now it's a silhouetted picture of the bandmates standing by a body of water and looking away from the camera. Apparently pretentious album covers aren't just for emo bands anymore. Joy!

To be fair, there are some good moments on "Midnight." The lead single, "What I've Done," isn't terrible and there are other gems to be found elsewhere. But overall, this album is one huge disappointment and not worth the time.

Jeremy Castillo, who received an associate of arts degree from Windward Community College, is attending the University of Idaho.