Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight

Okay, I know what you're all thinking but hear me out.

Linkin Park's latest offering, while nothing particularly new music-wise, is a breath of fresh air from the US-based nu-metal outfit.

Signing up esteemed producer Rick Rubin, the band came to the very sensible realisation that nu-metal, in particular the hip-hop side of it, was outdated and old.

With this in mind, they focused a little more on the music - and came out sounding much better.

Gone are the rap vocals in most songs and the teenage angst that appealed to so many of their young fans.

The opening instrumental piece Wake has two meanings - the wake at a funeral, ie the death of their old sound, and wake as in 'Wake Up - it's time to evolve.'

And Linkin Park have appeared to jump on the political bandwagon - but only a little bit. One song, Hands Held High, talks of the frustration US citizens feel at being represented by our old mate George W: "for a leader so nervous in an obvious way/stuttering and mumbling for nightly news to replay/and the rest of the world watching at the end of the day/in their living room laughing like/'What did he say?'"

The final track, The Little Things Give You Away is a moving account of the travesty that was Hurricane Katrina: "All you've ever wanted/was someone to truly look up to you/and six feet underwater/I do."

Surprisingly, Linkin Park manage to pull the political statements off without sounding trite or cheesy.

The rest of the album, though short, is an interesting medley of different sounds and genres. I like this album. However it took me several listens to get into, several more than it would normally take me to get into an album anyway.

With that in mind, despite the fact that listening to it now I would rate it as four stars, the time it took me to actually enjoy it takes away from that.

Three stars.