Linkin Park United States

"The follow up to the debut is a bit disappointing. Rather than progress, they release a very similar album. The music doesn't sound as fresh anymore and the ideas are not as great as before. There are a few tracks that sound different from Hybrid Theory material but overall, this is not the definition of creativity."

"Not your typical remix album.

An ambitious album for sure, but with mixed results. Most of the songs are vastly edited. When it works, the songs make the original versions sound pedestrian and inferior (e.g. crawling). The main problem with this album is too much fooling around in the DJ department at times and some unnecessary hip-hop."

"A massive commercial success and a decent debut for a band that appeared to have potential, but it really didn't show much of it yet (despite the excellent closer of "Two Minutes to Midnight"). The music is structurally predictable with verse/choruses. Verses usually have melodic singing or catchy rapping while the chorus is more like sing-along hard rock. Both singers are very competent at what they do, the electronics are usually spot-on, but the rest of the band do not go beyond basic performances nor steal the show (where are the solos?). The lyrics are simple, but they work and sometimes contain good messages.

Bonus tracks include the electronic-pop ballad "My December" (6.5 average), and the rap-oriented "High Voltage" (8.0, good) that is better than most songs here and has the strings sound of "Cure for the Itch""

"A disappointment. Even if it was stated that the nu-metal would be mostly gone and that they were going to be influenced by prog rock and classic rock bands, Most of the stuff here is emo pop, boring ballads with no musical depth, and rap/alt. rock.

Two songs stand out though and save this album from mediocrity."