The 818 is much more than “Boogie Nights,” and much less than Canoga Park’s former venue to end all venues known as The Cobalt Cafe. Agoura Hills’ Linkin Park formed as the impossible to enjoy/pronounce Xero in 1996, changed their name to Minutes to Midnight in 1999, and became Linkin Park shortly after Y2K unsuccessfully infiltrated the world, and Chris “Fozzy” Jericho successfully conquered the IWC. The band’s late vocalist Chester Bennington, formerly of Grey Daze, joined LP in Prince’s favorite year, and deserves all of the world’s flowers. Sadly, the love for this band gets overshadowed by individual members Bennington, with a generous sprinkle of Mike “Minor Threat” Shinoda, but guitarist/headphone man Brad Delson, drummer Rob “Bob” Bourdon, turntablist “Mr.” Joe Hahn, and bassist Dave Farrell, who left the band in 1999 and rejoined just one year later, should get some soil as well.
7. One More Light (2017)
Here’s a good yet way too soon heartbreaking ten-song goodbye statement with edges that are too sharp for their own good: Linkin Park’s unlucky seventh LP “One More Light” opens with a weird falsetto vocal and/or synthetic synth sound reminiscent of Friday the 13th’s dreamcatcher Chucky that somehow permeated the scene/beyond for a reason that we struggle to understand why. Still, even with such, said first track “Nobody Can Save Me” is the band’s best song post-2014, and sadly was quite prophetic just like its album title. Heavy (with or without Kiara). Overall, much like “Minutes to Midnight” was to its subsequent follow-up “A Thousand Suns,” this record is a total rebrand from its rocking predecessor “The Hunting Party.” Fun opinion: Linkin Park has no bad albums. Not so fun fact: One had to be listed in the last position, and this one inarguably takes the non-Sprinkles cake.
Play it again: “Nobody Can Save Me”
Skip it: “Halfway Right”
6. The Hunting Party (2014)
With an wordless/artsy album cover that echoes both “Game of Thrones” and “Little Nicky,” Linkin Park’s sixth LP “The Hunting Party” is loud, so very loud, and has diverse features from such notable musicians as Page Hamilton of Helmet, revered rapper Rakim sans Eric B. and Sandra Dee, Daron Malakian of Scars on Broadway and no other band, and Tom Morello of Boston. “The Hunting Party” is LP’s first album since “Meteora” not to be produced by Svengali/beard master man man Rick Rubin, but unfortunately it shows in some songs, as Mr. R is a champion of removing any mess from a composition unless it’s a RHCP song that didn’t make the cut. Happily, the next five below are not disjointed listens, and we will happily grant LP the keys to the kingdom for the rest of earth’s existence until it’s gone after an eventual Trump tweet to North Korea.
Play it again: “Guilty All the Same” (featuring Rakim)
Skip it: “Mark the Graves”
5. Minutes to Midnight (2007)
This album is their first without producer Don Gilmore, who also handled production for Good Charlotte’s debut and The Beatles’ “Help!,” and is Rick Rubin’s first LP behind the boards for, uh, LP. Basically, it’s overrated/underrated. However, regarding underration, “Minutes to Midnight” came out in 2007, which is a year for rock that was over-saturated with huge releases such as Foo Fighters’ “Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace,” Paramore’s “Riot!,” The Used’s “Lies for the Liars,” and T-Pain’s “Epiphany” leading the charge. Perhaps said year semi-handicapped this album’s legacy, as it swam in a sea of rock/roll cruise ships with a staff like “Triangle of Sadness,” but Linkin Park’s fans certainly didn’t notice, and FIVE, yes five, singles from “Minutes to Midnight” did VERY well, and “What I’ve Done” is still the band’s most commercially successful song. Hands held high!
Play it again: “Given Up”
Skip it: “In Between”
4. LIVING THINGS (2012)
THIS ALBUM IS THE ONLY LINKIN PARK RELEASE WHEREIN ITS LITERAL TITLE AND ALL SONGS ARE IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS AND THEIR FIRST WHEREIN THE BAND SAVED A BUNDLE ON INSURANCE BY SWITCHING TO GEICO. Speaking of things changing, we will now attack each sentence with normal lettering without yelling at you, our dear reader, and legally need to reference that this album, which is the band’s fifth LP, sounded modern in 2012 whilst hearkening to the band’s glory days on their first two records. One of the cooler stats about “LIVING THINGS” that you 100% know about unless you don’t is that it is Linkin Park’s first record wherein the release was re-imagined in instrumental and a capella format, proving that the LP boyz will keep you guessing whilst putting out unique art. Also, this album debuted at #1 on Billboard, with just 1000 more sales than Kara’s Flowers.
Play it again: “CASTLE OF GLASS”
Skip it: “UNTIL IT BREAKS”
3. A Thousand Suns (2010)
We know what it takes to move on, we know how it feels to lie, and all we want to do is trade this life for something new, holding onto what we haven’t got: Linkin Park’s fourth and extremely polarizing studio album “A Thousand Suns” is by far their most underrated effort. Wisdom, justice and love: Honestly, and you’re going to scold us like you did with that small innocent child who put orange ravenous little Cheeto fingers on a white couch for saying such, is one of the more unappreciated albums from ANY aughts band; don’t @ us, but please do, but be kind, and vicious. Also, “Waiting for the End,” the album’s second single, is a top ten LP song, and we’ll die on that hill whilst burning in the skies with robot boys, wretches, kings, and Trapt; headstrong we’ll take you on. Lastly, hug the messenger.
Play it again: “Waiting For The End”
Skip it: “Wretches and Kings”
2. Hybrid Theory (2000)
For this Linkin Park LP and the number one stunna, there is zero filler, so both studio albums have no “skip it” tracks, and we’re not taking any further questions. Honestly, the top spot depends on the day, but today is more of a solar system day than a scientific posit, so “Hybrid Theory,” the band’s debut, is in the silver medal slot. Rumor has it that various studio technicians, engineers, and the like that were in or around North Hollywood’s NRG Recording Studios in 2000, which is where “Hybrid Theory” and the sonically similar/slightly or not so slightly different 311 recorded “Transistor,” Limp Bizkit cut “Significant Other,” Papa Roach laid tracks down for “Infest,” and Little Richard created his debut “Here’s Little Richard,” thought that this album would flop, as rap-rock’s impact was dying in a sea of formerly red baseball hats. In the end, they were stupid.
Play it again: If you do, we agree with you
Skip it: If you don’t skip a track, we agree with you
1. Meteora (2003)
Let’s close this piece with what we started it with, “The Valley”: The early-aughts were ruled by the 818 with local acts like Incubus, Hoobastank, Strife, and Herman’s Hermits killing it at this time, blowing the eff up, and then Linkin Park came in, took the ball, and knocked it loose/out of the (linkin) park. One thing of note: “Hybrid Theory” went extremely platinum, making the record the best-selling debut album since Guns N’ Roses’ “Dr. Feelgood,” but “Meteora” was not that far behind sales wise, and said stat is even more notable in that it came out in the age of Napster, Kazaa, Limewire, and Naughty America; we’re not lying from/with you. As per usual with “suits,” who essentially hate music, love money, but are too stupid to be investment bankers, nearly every label imitated Decca Records in the 1960s and rejected LP; schmucks.
Play it again: This then “Hybrid Theory”
Skip it: G.W. Bush