Minutes to midnight, it won't be soon before long

On high rotation in my mp3 player is this 2 albums that I recently downloaded; Linkin Park's "Minutes To Midnight" (MTM) and Maroon5's "It Won't Be Soon Before Long".

I have been a huge fan of Linkin Park ever since their inception into the music scene. "Hybrid Theory" and "Meteora" are a work of art. Even though I do not consider MTM to be LP's best effort so far, it has reinforced LP as my favourite band. Among the changes that I noticed was the use of profanity that was absent in their previous efforts; a few F-bombs dropped here and there. Also, they were experimenting on ballads and the politically motivated song "Hands Held High" stands out prominently as my favourite. My favourite tracks are "Given Up", "Bleed It Out", "What I've Done", "Hands Held High" and "No More Sorrows". Contrary to my usual practice of downloading, I am determined to get my hands on a piece of the original MTM CD... in fact, I'll be purchasing the CD/DVD Super Fan Edition available on the internet. No use buying Malaysian Edition which is usually watered down, censored and of low quality.

Here's a quote made by Mike Shinoda which I obtained from Wikipedia. This is the type of attitude I like:

On May 4, 2007, 11 days before its official world release, the real Minutes to Midnight was leaked. The following day, Mike Shinoda posted his response to the leak:

“ It couldn't be more exciting to give you all new music, especially after all the hard work we put into it. This album was almost a year and a half of experiments, mistakes, inspiration, and careful craftsmanship. We put everything we had into these songs, and want you to hear every second of it. I can't wait for you to absorb all the levels of meaning in the songs, and the layers of music, eventually forming your own ideas about what the songs mean to you. At the same time, a leak leaves out some very important parts of this piece of work. We put months of creative energy into the ART of the record, in the booklet, special edition, and big book … almost as long as it took to record hybrid theory [sic]. The album has amazing photos, lyrics, and notes about how the songs came together — it's the visual half of the record. On the other hand, the super-special-edition book is packed with exclusive images, stories of the making of the songs, gorgeous art, the CD and a DVD that tells the story, showing the actual moments of inspiration caught on camera. For me, it's almost hard to imagine anyone really experiencing this album without that part of it. Even the song sequence alone is very important. It's WAY different to hear the songs in a random order than to listen to this record from beginning to end. At the very least, if you've already downloaded the songs, do us a huge favor and listen to them in the right order … it'll be way more rewarding.„

—Mike Shinoda

I love the fact that LP are now addressing current issues in their songs. The people of the World have been crying out loud; but these cries have fallen on deaf ears. It is refreshing to note that the players in the music industry are becoming more vocal about this issue; people like Bob Geldof, Bono of U2 and now LP joins the fray. The reality of it is that these messages will likely also fall on deaf ears as well. But what it does is increase awareness as music has a far more reaching effect than just one voice alone. So kudos to my favourite band LP!

On the other hand, Maroon5 deserves a mention for coming up with a catchy retro-influenced track like "Makes Me Wonder". Listening to that song every time makes me picture Blake Lewis singing the song instead of Adam Levine.

All hail to Linkin Park... P2P sharing rulez!