I'll admit it.

Clint Hale

I was wrong.

When the record label powers-that-be forwarded 210SA a copy of Linkin Park's latest release, Minutes to Midnight, I found it a trying task even making it through the album.

This was not so much out of distaste for the band, but for this particular effort.
After all, unlike those who bash any and all rap-rock as sophomoric and irrelevant, I have a soft spot in my heart for bands like Linkin Park, those that not only accept, but also embrace their sound, no matter how polarizing it may be.

The sextet, which headlines the Projekt Revolution Tour on Friday, Aug. 3, at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, didn't change course for its second album, 2003's Meteora. Like its debut, 2000's Hybrid Theory, Linkin Park's sophomore effort featured plenty of guitars and scratching turntables, as well as plenty of screaming and rapping.

But on Minutes to Midnight, the band strayed from what made it famous in the first place.

In a day and age where unchanging, radio-friendly mediocrity is not only encouraged but rewarded (you listening, Pete Wentz?), Linkin Park all but ditched the rapping on Minutes to Midnight and evolved into an almost (gulp) emo band.
And I, like many music listeners, did what is custom when presented with something new and different.

I cringed.

Minutes to Midnight, unlike its predecessors, featured none of the rousing rap-rock sure-to-be-radio-hits, such as “In the End,” “Crawling” and “Numb.” Instead, we got “What I've Done,” which, while catchy, featured none of the rap that made Linkin Park a multiplatinum, musical tour de force. Tracks such as “Bleed It Out” sounded too clichéd, while “Shadow of the Day” sounded too much like U2.

Even the few tracks that were dedicated to rap — namely “Hands Held High” — sounded soft, as if Linkin Park had evolved from party rockers to political punditry.

Turns out, it had.

Co-frontman Mike Shinoda joins the long line of Bush slammers on “Hands Held High,” while the group's video for “What I've Done” depicts real-life issues such as global warming, pollution and terrorism.

Which is why Minutes to Midnight will more than likely go down as one of 2007's best, albeit underrated, releases.

We often expect more of the same with today's mainstream music, and Linkin Park gave us something different.

I, at first, was reluctant to embrace this change.

Of course, in a musical climate where formulaic bands rule, it's doubtful I was the only one.