Recenzja Reanimation z CDNow // www.cdnow.com

The Linkin Park juggernaut rolls on with its next new album -- on the heels of a concert DVD -- that ain't quite new and ain't quite the next Linkin Park album. But they are raising the game on the remix project -- which is all the rage among rappers and hard rockers alike these days -- while furthering the notion that they're not one-album wonders.

Listening to Reanimation, it's nice to see that the band, whose Hybrid Theory was the biggest selling record of 2001, isn't resting on its laurels; DJ/keyboardist Joseph Hahn and MC Mike Shinoda instead focus on giving Theory's songs a new identity, which lends the album a personal touch that, say, Limp Bizkit's New Old Songs lacked. Interesting guest list, too: Everyone from fellow arena metal acts (Korn's Jonathan Davis, Staind's Aaron Lewis) to underground hip-hop notables (Jurassic Five, Acelayone) gets in on the fun.

As on Hybrid Theory, there's a definite formula at work in all 19 songs, but it's flawless and effective: Abrasive guitars get a mix-down from turntable tactics, and are then scratched into techno-ish and hip-hop backbeats (see "Points of Authority," "By Myself"). At its best, the propulsive crunch of the band's regular material meets the bedroom electronica dreams of Hahn and Shinoda head-on, with some fascinating bastardizations resulting -- how else to explain the glitchy, Motorhead wails of "Place for My Head" or the Humble Brothers' big beat collision of Korn and Tricky on "One Step Closer"?

This should satisfy the herd until a proper follow-up is released, but it's worth checking out on its own merits, too.

Autor : Brad Cawn