What a cruel world we live in where Linkin Park's pop-crossover attempt 'What I've Done' as remained at the top of the Billboard Modern Rock chart for 14 straight weeks, unseating Nine Inch Nails' 'Survivalism' after just one week.
Cruel indeed.
Linkin Park has always had a slick, manufactured feel, but this album feels closer to pop than metal (since screaming has become mainstream, that is). The next single 'Bleed it Out' looks poised for a similar run, with its radio-ready guitar hooks and hand claps. I really thought American pop was supposed to be done with payola? Almost makes me yearn for Meteora. Almost... almost.
I'd give the album a proper review, except I don't really care to listen to it, and Dan Silver at NME pretty much summed it up.
However, the medal for Worst Thing I've Heard in 2007 so far is Marilyn Manson's brutal, fucking brutal cover of Timb/a/erlake/land's What Goes Around... I've considered this career choice (and at this point everything for him is a career choice, when you're crawling up from rock bottom) and the only explanation I can come up with is the following thought must have run through his head: "hey, the hipsters like it, and maybe if I cover it I can be hip, too." Unfortunately, the touches of irony that graced his pre-Tainted Love covers are now totally absent and the track comes of as little more than embarrassing. No one would have blamed him for calling it quits after 1999, but it sure seems like that would have been the right career move.
Mechanical Animals is still in my top 250ish favourite albums... a bit bloated, but that was sorta the point.
Links:
Linkin Park - What I've Done
Nine Inch Nails - Survivalism
Marilyn Manson - What Goes Around... [on BBC Radio 1]
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