If you weren’t aware, Linkin Park has a fan club called the LP Underground. This release is, as far as I’m aware, for club members only and features various unreleased tracks. "Songs From The Underground" starts off with a nice intro track that builds and leaves you wanting more, ending with Chester screaming in the background, sounding more like a Swedish hardcore singer than a new metal warbler. Sadly, the next track doesn’t really compare, blaring out in true mediocre fashion, with a garishly horrible new metal riff and a chorus that wants to be something it will never be, like Jodie Marsh thinking that she could ever be attractive.
This sets the tone for the rest of the tracks, varying between average new metal toss and moments of brilliance. I can see why this is a gift to club members as I can’t see many people shelling out for this. The third track is the same as the second while the fourth, "Sold My Soul To Yo Mama", takes a different approach with a groovy riff and a drawn out sound, in a kind of trip hop style. This sort of creativity is brilliant and needs to be used more in their releases. The next track is sung solely by Mike and is reminiscent of his Fort Minor project, with a strong beat, piano and scratching, occasionally garnished with some guitar.
The sixth track on the disk is easily the best track on the album and worth hunting out for a listen. Sadly it’s not really a Linkin Park track; it’s a Temple of The Dog track called "Hunger Strike", sung by Chris Cornell and featuring Chester, taken from the Projekt Revolution tour. What a cracking song. I’m not really sure why it’s featured on this disk, as it purely showcases Cornell's superiority and makes me want to go and listen to some Sound Garden. Track seven is a little ballad entitled "My December", which is again taken from their live shows in 2008. The track features only vocals and piano. Having seen Linkin Park live a few times I feel that a lot of their tracks sound better when performed in this format, as Chester and Mike manage to create a great amount of power between them.
The concluding track of "Songs from the Underground" is a heavier number; "Part of Me" starts with a verse reminiscent of "Bleed It Out" but then drops in to yet another average new metal chorus. This is weak stuff from the new metal heavy weights. "Songs From The Underground" racks up 36 minutes of music if you include the 6 minutes of Morse code-esq nonsense, which follows the last track before it drops in to a more favourable, break beat, trip hop style outro.
This release is weak and although there are a few hidden gems, which are worth hunting out, sadly the best track isn’t even a Linkin Park song. It seems that the ballads and slower songs have become far more timeless than the tired new metal tracks that really let "Songs From The Underground" down.
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Linkin Park - Given Up
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Linkin Park - Songs From The Underground
