One More Light
Linkin Park
(Warner Bros)
One-and-a-half stars
With Linkin Park’s new album, the vitality that’s core to the group’s sound is gone. At the same time, there is an overall timidness to the affair that points to the sextet not really being convinced with their new pop direction.
The ambling Nobody Can Save Me has frontman Chester Bennington's vocals smoothed out over a warm bath of synths and jutting guitars – you had to check the cover to ensure you weren't listening to a Savage Garden CD.
In Talking to Myself, you can tell the desire was to create a club hit. But they bottle it. Instead of going all out and delivering the EDM beat the track sonically alludes to, their demur becomes a frustrating experience.
Sorry for Now provides a hint of what the album could have been. The song rides on a stuttering drum and bass rhythm to be met with a heroic chorus by the band's resident rapper Mike Shinoda.
If only such conviction was displayed throughout One More Night, the album would have been a brave leap forward. Instead, what we have is a monumental misfire.
sasaeed@thenational.ae
