Four years after Linkin Park’s last album, the band released Minutes to Midnight, which shows a marked departure from their previous formula. Some people call it growth. I say tomato, you say tomatoe.
Gone is the rap-rock sound that made Linkin Park famous with the albums Hybrid Theory and Meteora. Now rapper Mike Shinoda’s rhymes are few and far between. The songs are a hybrid no more. How fans will react remains to be seen. The reception to the first single, “What I’ve Done,” is a positive sign: The song landed at No. 1 on two of the Billboard modern rock charts.
Fans can judge for themselves by checking out Linkin Park’s summer tour, a rebirth of the Projekt Revolution. My Chemical Romance and Taking Back Sunday will appear September 1 in Chicago, along with various supporting acts on a second stage.
– Shari Weiss
Australia is home to many marvels: the kangaroo, Heath Ledger and indie pop band Architecture in Helsinki. The now six-member band will release Places Like This, their fourth album, in August. This follow-up to In Case We Die, which was met with acclaim, is expected to follow the same lines of the micro-editing and style-hopping sound that earned the band comparisons to The Fiery Furnaces. The band described Places as Australian House and current Wu-Tang Clan.
The first single off the album, “Heart It Races” was released this month. It’s catchy; just try and get “Boom dah dah dah dah dah dah” out of your head. And it’s already been remixed by the likes of Trizzy, a.k.a A-Trak.
Their tour, which started this month, will make a stop at Logan Square Auditorium on June 11.
-CAROLINE SMITH