Zack: Along with Sum 41’s seminal All Killer, No
Filler, Hybrid Theory was one of the first albums I ever got. I forget if they
were birthday or Christmas gifts, but that is where my musical voyage began.
So, yeah, there’s a bit of sentimental value here. Realistically, I may have
listened to this album more than any other….ever. I was that big of an
11-year-old Linkin Park fan. I don’t think I’d listened to it in like 5 years
before today, but you best believe I knew every word. And I think it’s
important to know that I first gravitated to them when I heard Crawling (the
second single), not In the End (the fourth) like all the other 11-year-old
posers. It’s also probably important to mention that I continued listening to
Linkin Park up until like my junior year of high school, when I would listen to
Minutes to Midnight and play Final Fantasy X, which I’m telling you solely
because writing about how dated things are is fun. For fuck’s sake, I had Reanimation,
the album where they just remixed all the songs on Hybrid Theory and drifted a
bit more towards the rap portion of the rap-rock chimera they professed to be.
Ultimately, my point here is to make it clear that I can’t possibly critique
it. There’s just too strong a bond. It was hard not to just give every song 5
stars out of sheer echoes of childhood wonder at what I was hearing. Honestly,
this is not a great album. It might not even be a good album, and I assume it’s
only on this list because…okay I’m not even sure why. Because they sold a lot
of copies? Because it’s like a super mainstream form of Rage Against the
Machine? I really don’t know. But this is my childhood right here. If you want
to listen to something tangentially related to Linkin Park that is actually
worth checking out, get The Rising Tied by Fort Minor (Mike Shinoda’s side
project). It’s got some crazy Machine Shop beats and a lot of really great
guest spots, including Common, Lupe Fiasco, John Legend and Black Thought.
Seriosuly. But Hybrid Theory is best left as a memento of a bygone era where
people thought that Linkin Park were legitimately cool to listen to.
Favorite Tracks: Crawling; A Place for My Head; In the End
Emily: Linkin Park fans tend to be adolescent or teenage boys full of angst and/or anger. The person I most associate with the band is a kid who was on my bus in middle school and high school who fucking loved them. He went to multiple concerts and tried to get his other friends on the bus to go with him (seemingly to no avail). This kid wasn't particularly angsty or angry, but perhaps he was just suffering from the general state of teendom. Female preteens and teenagers going through the same thing had different musical heroes in the early '00s (hello, Avril Lavigne), so I personally never really got in to Linkin Park beyond their singles (though I do really enjoy Numb and its subsequent mashup with Jay-Z's Encore). Hybrid Theory makes clear why Linkin Park was so successful and revered by music-buying teen boys. It's one of the most accessible albums of the early rap-rock era with its arena guitars, scream-sung lyrics filled with anger and emotion, and interwoven rap verses. While I found it inconsistent, the singles are strong examples of alternative metal and signal Linkin Park's potential - a potential fulfilled through millions of albums sold.
Favorite Tracks: In the End; Crawling; One Step Closer
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