I hated it at first, and I gave it a middling rating by the time I had adjusted to it enough to write a review. It was not a perfect album by any stretch of the imagination. But it was 2010вЂ™s A Thousand Suns that showed me the band might have some serious hope of making respectable and intriguing music that didnвЂ™t conform to the preconceived notions of what a band that came from such a reviled genre could do when they really put their heads together. I joined the chorus of dissenting voices when Minutes to Midnight was released in 2007, the culmination of nearly half a decade of the band seemingly not knowing what to do with itself.

I was a fan in the early days, but somewhere around the middle of the decade, I came to realize that their music was more of a guilty pleasure вЂ“ catchy as hell and good for venting frustration, but ultimately not all that deep or versatile. Despite their best attempts to prove they could think outside of their own narrow box (collaborations with various rappers, Mike ShinodaвЂs own side project Fort Minor, and two later studio albums seemingly designed to throw their fans for a loop), it seemed that they only managed to add more fuel to the fire. Their early nu-metal-meets-electronica sound, heard on the massively popular albums Hybrid Theory and Meteora, spawned a host of unwanted imitators, and could be traced back to the bands whose sounds Linkin Park itself was pretty clearly imitating (or at least fusing together). LetвЂ™s all give them a round of applause, shall we?ДЄlright, alright, I know what youвЂ™re thinking вЂ“ вЂњNot so fast, Bucko!вЂќ These guys have been critical whipping boys ever since they landed their first mega-hit at the turn of the century. Linkin Park has finally managed to put out an album that I donвЂ™t feel like I have to apologize for liking.

Ladies and gentlemen, I think theyвЂ™ve finally done it. It should notВ be written off a return to their old sound. In Brief: Living ThingsВ is Linkin ParkвЂ™s best album, even if it isnвЂ™t their most daring and creative one.

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