! TH0T @BOWT RI+ING MIE 3NTIR3 REVYEW LIK THI$, but realized that’d get on my readers’ nerves real fast. Still, even if I had written my entire review in the garbled, fake computer code that disguises the titles of each track on Linkin Park’s brand spankin’ new collection of remixes, it’d probably be a more exciting read than a few hundred of the Linkin Park reviews currently in the Epinions database.

Alright, I suppose I should lighten up. To the chagrin of many critics, Linkin Park’s popularity has spread like wildfire since their 2000 debut Hybrid Theory, and at this point it’d be hard to say anything about that album - positive or negative - that hasn’t already been said. I was surprised at myself and felt slightly guilty for enjoying that album as much as I did. They’ve got to be the poppiest rap/rock act out there, but a tasty blend of crunchy rock and electronic wizardry will seduce me every time, as long as the lyrics aren’t either vulgar or just plain bad. I didn’t just buy it because it didn’t offend me, though - despite its “awkward teenager” moments here and there, I truly loved that album because I related to it. As did a million other teenagers and young adults across the globe, I’m sure.

But I’m not here to review Hybrid Theory - or at least, not in its original state. Love or hate ’em, I think a lot of critics were wondering what they’d concoct next and if it’d be any good. Would the songs flow as well on their second album? Would the subject matter vary at all? Would they swear this time around? Well... we’re gonna have to wait to answer those questions. Because we don’t have any new songs on Reanimation - instead, we’ve got a set of remixes that pack almost as much of a sonic wallop as the originals from which they mutated.

I’m normally not a big fan of remix albums. Generally speaking, I find remixes to be disappointing. I remember a few alternate versions of Jars of Clay’s “Flood” that I liked a few years back, but for the most part, I find that remixes take more out of a song that I liked than they add to it. Releasing a whole album of them seems like a quick and dirty way to grab some extra cash from unsuspecting consumers, as evidenced by recent efforts by performers ranging from Jennifer Lopez to Limp Bizkit. So I wasn’t too excited when my brother first told me that Linkin Park would be putting off their sophomore record in order to put out an album of remixes of every song from Hybrid Theory, plus a few extra tracks they knew fans liked, adding in a host of guest DJ’s MC’s, and even a few popular rock vocalists. But then I got lucky enough to stumble across a download of the video for “PTS.OF.ATHRTY”, and I was mesmerized by the futuristic imagery and the electronic reconstruction of an already great song. So I ran out and picked up Reanimation the day after it’s release. (It was actually sold out at Best Buy and I had to pay a few extra bucks to get it at Wherehouse - I hadn’t expected it to be that popular!)

Ever since then, I haven’t been able to stop spinning this disc (except when I had my girlfriend in the car - it’s totally not her style). Reanimation breaks the original material into fragments and scatters it across a nightmarish, electronic landscape that is equal parts electronica, hip-hop, and modern rock. Overall, it’s not as harsh as Hybrid Theory (which isn’t all that harsh to begin with when compared to other bands in their genre), but in a sense, it’s creepier hearing warped, introverted versions of some of these songs. You can tell that this project was mostly the brainchild of rapper Mike Shinoda and DJ Joseph Hahn, and I really think they put a lot of work into it, going much farther than just simply calling up a bunch of underground MC’s and DJ’s and leaving them to their own devices. In addition to the guest vocals and samples and all that, Mike has recorded new rap verses in several songs, and bipolar lead singer Chester Bennington (who is slightly scaled back on this record) gets to rework a few of his lyrics as well. This approach may throw off fans like me who had every word from Hybrid Theory memorized, and occasionally it seems unnecessary, but it keeps the material sounding fresh for the most part.

I wouldn’t say that any of the remixes outdo the originals - rather, they compliment them, sometimes adding a new perspective to the song. The overall lyrical outlook is still fairly bleak, which can be a bit of a paradox at times because the music is so much fun to listen to. The fact that a few guest rappers miss the mark and waste their verses on typical hip-hop posturing doesn’t really help matters, which is what keeps this record from getting a full five stars. But overall, Reanimation is a winner - a disturbingly lovely alternate universe, complete with Aphex Twin-inspired track titles, to slip into from time to time when you’ve worn your Hybrid Theory CD out.

OPENING
You’ll probably think you’ve got the wrong CD when you start this one up - it’s a sad instrumental piece with what sounds like a violin leading into a vaguely familiar series of chords played by an orchestra, and then a brief piano melody, cut off abruptly by electronic noise which leads us into the first remix.

PTS.OF.ATHRTY
(remixed by Jay Gordon)
Out of nowhere, Mike Shinoda’s voice breaks in with a favorite rap verse from Hybrid Theory - “Yo, yo, forfeit the game before somebody else takes you out of the frame...” At first, the remix doesn’t kick in with as much power as the original, since the guitars are largely replaced feisty electronic sounds, and most everything but the beat drops out during the verses. Still, it’s immediately recognizable as “Points of Authority”, and the tune and structure doesn’t stray too far from the original. This is probably my favorite of the remixes, especially since the video leaves me with a mental picture of Mike and Chester dressed as creepy futuristic warlords indicting their judgmental enemies as they watch robots battling each other in a video-game like landscape. My favorite part of the song is the bridge, where everything drops out, and Chester’s voice, twisted and warped as if he was recorded on a cassette tape that was left sitting in the sun, slowly creeps back in - “You want someone to hurt like you... You want to share what you’ve been through...” - and then the drums kick in like machine guns, leading into the final chorus. The song fades out on a tense, unresolved note, before a piano bleeds in to introduce...

ENTH E ND
(remixed by Kutmasta Kurt - featuring Motion Man)
Now what the heck happened here??? “In the End” was my favorite song off of Hybrid Theory, and due to its recent overplay, I guess they had to do something to make the remix significantly different, but I don’t think making it a straight-up hip-hop tune was the answer. Granted, I don’t tend to like straight-up hip-hop as much as some of LP’s fans, so it might just be my bias, but the chopped-up piano intro and bumping urban beat kind of ruin the fragility of the original song. Mike’s rap verse is different from the original, keeping recognizable fragments and seeming to describe the same hopeless relationship, which is acceptable, but the chorus is just laughable. Chester doesn’t sound as gruff or anguished as the original, and with no guitars or anything backing him (and to make matters worse, they left out his bridge vocal entirely), plus the sped-up beat, the song comes off sounding that wasn’t even sanctioned by the band. Then Motion Man comes in and wrecks everything. He’s not a bad rapper - I like his flow, but after his verse breaks away from Mike’s original lyrics, it seems like he has no comprehension of the original song’s meaning. It sounds like typical hop-hop party language to me. I don’t know what’s more embarrassing - that or the way he reminds us repeatedly that this a “Linkin Park remix with Motion Man”. (Rappers are always so helpful about telling you who they are in the middle of a song!) I almost expect some fly girl to take over the chorus in Chester’s place - which leads me to the interesting observation that only one of the guest vocalists on this album is female.

[CHALI]
One of the band members is checking his voice mail here, and plays back a message from rapper Chali 2na about when they’re going to get his track taken care of. Typical hip-hop style interlude.

FRGT/10
(remixed by Alchemist - featuring Chali 2na)
“Forgotten”, one of Hybrid Theory's harshest-sounding tracks, gets a surprising makeover here. Alchemist slows the song down a tad and gives it a half hip-hop, half electronica spin, which gives it a very lonely attitude. Surprisingly, this attitude works, with the creepy synthesized notes underpinning the rap verses, which Mike Shinoda has once again rewritten. Chester is largely muted in this song, since the opening exchange between him and Mike (“From the top to the bottom - bottom to top, I stop“) is a faint echo in the distance, and the chorus (“In the memory you’ll find me...”) is tweaked to make Chester a deep-voiced specter of his original self. Chali 2na takes over Chester’s half of the vocal exchange, which actually phases him into the song quite well - he really hits a home run with his rap verse by adding to the song’s depiction of a poor and desolate Los Angeles neighborhood (likely the neighborhood for which the band was named).

P5HNG ME A*WY
(remixed by Mike Shinoda - featuring Stephen Richards)
The final track (and one of the poppiest) from the debut, “Pushing Me Away”, has also undergone some fairly drastic changes, one of which is a long intro sequence that makes the song difficult to recognize because the chords have been changed up a bit. Chester’s chorus is also different - not as punchy as the original (but you could sing the original along with it if you wanted). The song starts to sound more like itself in the second verse, and the verses are pretty much the same as the original. No guest rap this time - the extra vocals are handled by Stephen Richards of Taproot. His vocal passages add to the original lyrical content of the song, reminding me a little of Jonathan Davis's appearance later in the album. Overall, this reworking isn’t bad, as it still does a good job of portraying an abusive relationship that the guy didn’t have the guts to leave, but it’s not a standout.

PLC.4 MIE HAED
(remixed by Amp Live - featuring Zion)
“A Place for My Head” was kind of an awkwardly composed track on Hybrid Theory - Mike Shinoda’s raps were as smooth and tasty as ever, but the other pieces of the song just didn’t seem to fit. With this electronic reworking, it becomes more of a schizophrenic blend between ambience and danceability. Mike’s first verse is exactly the same as it was in the original, which means I can follow it word for word (yay!), but then Zion breaks in and takes the second verse somewhere completely different. His rap is good for the most part, though he tells us a little more than we’d like to know about the manipulative ex-girlfriend the song was written for (“I don’t really give a dang, you p!ssed on my lawn” was a particularly unnecessary line). I do like how he replaces Shinoda’s line “I’m sick of the tension, sick of the hunger, sick of you acting like I owe you this” with “I’m sick of you stressing, sick of you fessing, sick of you acting like I owe you some”). He’s got a good ear for the structure of the song and how to keep it recognizable while adding his own words. I just wish he hadn’t broken the no-foul-language rule that made LP’s debut stand out from the crowd. The song’s climax, where Mike whispers “You tried to take the best of me, go away” and then Chester begins to scream that same line, is backed by an eerie, ambient piano (which kinda reminds me of Nine Inch Nails), and the piano is all that’s left after the screaming fades off into the distance. The overall result flows a little better than the original. (Listen carefully and you’ll catch some studio chatter behind the static at the end of the song where the guys are trying to figure out whether to work on “Pushing Me Away” or “With You”.)

X-ECUTIONER STYLE
(X-Ecutioners featuring Black Thought)
I’m sorry, but this little interlude is completely unnecessary. The X-Ecutioners basically took a few samples from “Forgotten” and “One Step Closer” and sprinkled them over a hip-hop beat, and the result is a grating repetition of “From the top... from the top... SHUT UP!!!” Black Thought throws in a rather pointless rap verse, and the track thankfully ends after a minute and a half or so. The only thing that amuses me about this track is the sample taken from “Cure for the Itch” - “Wasn’t that fun? Let’s try something else.” Well, it wasn’t really that much fun, but yeah, I’m down with trying something else.

H! VLTG3
(remixed by Evidence - featuring DJ Babu and Pharoahe Monch)
Here’s one for the old-school fans from back in the day when Hybrid Theory was still the group’s name. The original “High Voltage” was a decently-flowing hip-hop track, and it remains such here, given a stronger beat and a slicker ambience, as well as a new chorus. Mike Shinoda pretty much owns this song, and to be honest it’s a bit strange to hear Linkin Park in “bling-bling” mode, bragging about their “unforgettable sound”. Still, the verses are clever - I especially like the line “Let icons be bygones”. What I really don’t like, however, is that there are a few s-words in this song - but at least the band had the decency to bleep them, likely because they knew they had a younger audience than what they originally anticipated. The guest rappers take their turns as well, and they have more of that purposefully goofy sort of flow, but they get in some winning lines as well. The line about “fattening your lip like collagen” always gets a smirk out of me. I kind of wish this track and the last track weren’t together, as I kind of want to hear something more “rock” at this point, but I have to admit, the segues between the tracks are so smooth that I didn’t even notice the first few times when “X-Ecutioner Style” became “High Voltage”.

[RIFF RAFF]
“Next message”... some guy named Riff-Raff leaving another message about when he can meet up with the guys in the studio for the next track.

WTH> YOU
(remixed by Chairman Hahn - featuring Aceyalone)
Woohoo!!! An electronic squeal and a formidable scream from Chester lead into this stellar reworking of “With You”, one of my personal favorites from Hybrid Theory. It keeps the heavy guitars of the original and lays on a thicker beat, keeping the original lyrics and only playing with Chester’s creepy vocal line (“It’s true, the way I feel was promised by your face...”) a little bit. Actually, more casual fans might have a hard time distinguishing this one from the original until Aceyalone enters the fray. His placement is perfect here, backing up Chester’s threats of how he will haunt the abusive ex-girlfriend forever, somewhat like a guard dog warning the girl to leave its owner alone. His lyrics really capture the pathetic nature of the relationship, assuring her he won’t be “on my knees, begging please, baby, please”. Right when he finishes off with a punchy promise that “No, no, no, I won’t let you go!”, Chester returns with the original bridge of the song, “No, no matter how far we’ve come, I can’t wait to see tomorrow...” It’s just got all the right energy in all the right places... even if it is largely negative energy.

NTR/MISSION
A brief piano interlude is squeezed in here, building from the piano theme in the opening track.

PPR.KUT
(remixed by Cheapshot and Jubacca - featuring Rasco and Planet Asia)
This is definitely one of the weirder remixes on the CD. Its jazz/funk inspired bass intro doesn’t give away which song you’re listening to until Mike breaks in with his rapid-fire verse - “Why does it feel like night today, something in the air’s not right today...” Something doesn’t feel quite right about this remix of “Papercut” - maybe the chords have been changed up a little or something, but it doesn’t quite pack the same punch as the original. Rasco and Planet Asia take their turns at the mike in the second verse, speaking to the tortured, paranoid character in the song, and not really offering him any comfort, basically warning him to watch his back and justifying his paranoia. Chester’s spoken chorus get chopped up and played back to the point where it sounds like there’s three or four off him echoing off of each other. Kind of freaky. At least they kept the melodic bridge - “The sun goes down...” I always loved that part.

RNW@Y
(remixed by Backyard Bangers - featuring Phoenix Orion)
Flowing in as effortlessly as it did on the debut album, “Runaway” is immediately recognizable due to the echoing sample of Chester singing “Graffiti sky...” What’s surprising is that Chester’s verses have been slightly revamped - the same tune and a similar beat, but the lyrics almost sound like a continuation of the original story - it’s like he ran away but doesn’t like what he found. The somewhat juvenile chorus remains intact, except that every second line is omitted up until the last few lines - “I wanna shut the door and open up my mind“, so it really doesn’t make sense if you’re not familiar with the original. Phoenix Orion manages to make another embarrassing contribution to an already struggling song - he sounds promising when he starts off saying “Y’all not ready for what I’m about to do”, but just like Motion Man, he proves to us that he hasn’t got a clue what the song’s about, and wastes his breath on braggadocio.

MY DSMBR
(remixed by Mikey P. - featuring Kelli Ali)
Whoever realized that “My December” ran at roughly half the tempo of “Runaway” and decided to fuse the two together was a genius. Once again, I couldn’t tell the track had changed the first time I listened to the album until a vaguely familiar electronic piano line broke in. The original mix of “My December” was little other than a lonely piano, a soft beat, and hushed vocals from Mike and Chester. Here, the atmosphere is a little busier, starting off with a clinking, tinny sounding intro. It’s actually pretty catchy. It’s still a bit of a mood swing compared to the rest of the album, but I had always wished that “My December” had been included on Hybrid Theory and so it’s a treat to see it here. Fans who aren’t familiar with the song might be surprised that this one’s a lot more sensitive and less angry, as Chester longs to be reunited with an ex-lover, saying “I would give it all away to have someone to come home to”. Kelli Ali backs Chester up on the chorus, and whoever she is, she sounds pretty darn young, but her presence is welcome. Interestingly, if you were to remove the vocals from this track and remove any sense of tonality from the piano line, you’d have something resembling an Aphex Twin composition.

[STEF]
Yet another answering machine message from a collaborator. These interludes are starting to get old, but at least they’re short.

BY_MYSLF
(remixed by Josh Abraham and Mike Shinoda)
Another one of the most aggressive tracks from the debut is remixed here, and it keeps its energy level high. Josh Abraham takes the “wall of sound” approach with this one, and the menacing electronic tones he adds to it actually give the song a little more color than it originally had. The part where most of the noise falls away before the first verse and we here a garbled scream from Chester - “MYSEEEEEEEEEEELF!!!” is pretty spooky. Once again, Chester’s vocals have been messed around with, which makes the chorus a little weaker than the original, but I like how Mike and Chester’s vocal trade-off during the bridge (you know, the part that goes, “Don’t you KNOW! I can’t tell you how to make it GO!“ is offset a little bit - in the original, the first beat of the measure was on “Don’t”, but now it’s on “Go” (sorry, that was a bit technical, but it shows that the remixer had a keen ear for subtle differences).

KYUR4 TH ICH
(remixed by Chairman Hahn)
I don’t know why he’s going by “Chairman Hahn” instead of “Joseph Hahn” these days (wasn’t there a Chairman Hahn running for mayor of L.A. a few years ago?), but in any case, he gets a chance to rework his solo track, “Cure for the Itch” into something more formidable and danceable, complete with new samples. “Cure for the Itch” was never a track I took seriously, since it kind of interrupted the flow of Hybrid Theory, and it seems like overkill to remix it, but hey, everything else was being remixed, so why not? I kind of miss the echoing piano from the original, but I love how he worked in the original intro from “Points of Authority”, as well as the new vocal sample at the end about how the DJ paralyzes his opponent with sound, “leaving the enemy vulnerable to attack” or something like that.

1STP KLOSR
(remixed by The Humble Brothers - featuring Jonathan Davis)
Now here’s one of the remixes I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for. “One Step Closer”, the breakout single from the debut album, is drawn out to over five minutes here, taking its time to truly become recognizable, but stirring up quite a whirlwind of sound in the meantime. I’ve heard a lot of fans say that this was one of the most disappointing remixes, but it’s actually one of my favorites, because it adds a lot to the rather minimal content of the original. It builds in classic electronica fashion - swirling chords, followed by a looped rhythm, and then finally adding a stronger beat and some deliciously heavy guitar chords that actually don’t sound quite like the band’s usual style. Perhaps it’s the influence of guest vocalist Jonathan Davis, lead singer of Korn. Now I’ll be honest, I don’t like Korn. I think they’re way too disturbing. But I’ll give credit where credit is due - they were making music while the members of Linkin Park were still in junior high. And they manage to keep the freak on a leash - he doesn’t swear or anything, as far as I can tell. His contribution to the song isn’t apparent until the bridge, where he adds in some creepy vocals of his own, allowing tension to build until Chester breaks in with his classic “Shut up when I’m talking to you!” bridge, with Jonathan’s tortured singing in between the screams. It’s pretty darn powerful - I don’t care if it sounded stupid in the original version. The song just hits you like a speeding train and drags you down the tracks until the final “BREAK!” when everything shatters.

KRWLING
(remixed by Mike Shinoda - featuring Aaron Lewis)
The last track ends the album on a strong, but slightly gentler note. The instrumental intro from the first track is reprised in this remix of "Crawling", stirring the emotions like a recurring bad dream, and suddenly you realize why that chord sequence is so familiar, as echoing snippets from the song whiz past you - “Crawling in my skin... Not a sense of confidence... consuming, confusing...” Then another rock vocalist chimes in - Aaron Lewis of Staind. I really like his voice - it’s deep like Scott Stapp from Creed, but not as gruff. He signs the song’s chorus - and his voice also has an echoing effect, as if he recorded two or more vocal parts and they were played back over one another. Then the familiar, chiming electronic notes from the original are thrown into the mix, and finally everything comes together and the song’s verse begins. It’s not as harsh as the remix of “One Step Closer” - the effect here is more emotional than brutal, but it still builds to a nice climax, with Aaron backing up Chester during the chorus, until everything falls away and that familiar orchestral line fades out, ending the CD.

I’m really amazed at how well this CD flows, and at how they managed to tie a lot of it together with a few recurring musical themes. Without some of the hip-hop posturing, this might have even made for a good post-modern rock opera (though the fadeout at the end kind of leaves me wanting more resolution). Heck, Linkin Park might have found a completely different audience if this had been their debut, even though the overall sound of their actual debut is a little tighter. I think Reanimation proves that they have skill and vision beyond the tired genre in which they started out, and I look forward to seeing how their “hybrid” develops on future albums. Heck, if their proper studio albums remain as consistent as Hybrid Theory, and they continue to scout out good DJ’s, they might be able to cash in on a remix collection for every album they record! (Now wouldn’t that scare the critics?)

In the end, I’d have to say that this CD isn’t gonna change the world any more than Hybrid Theory. It’s tasty ear candy and from a lyrical perspective, it’s quite cathartic, but I wouldn’t call it “high art”. If you’re not already a fan of the band, I wouldn’t expect Reanimation to change your mind - especially if you didn’t like the lyrics to begin with. But the album is a darn sight better than I expected it to be, and probably one of the best remix collections ever made. It might be one of those “try before you buy” if you like what you’ve heard on the radio from the band and are thinking of checking them out, but I think you’d appreciate this more if you had a chance to digest the original versions first, so start with Hybrid Theory. Having said that, if you want to pick this one up, I recommend doing it soon while it’s still cheap as a result of the price wars that have been going on lately.

TRACK REVIEW SUMMARY
Excellent: Points of Authority, One Step Closer, With You, Forgotten, Crawling
Good: Opening, My December
Decent: Pushing Me Away, A Place for My Head, High Voltage, Papercut, By Myself, Cure for the Itch
Weak: Runaway
Skippable: X-Ecutioner Style, In the End, Phone Call Interludes

Band Members:
Chester Bennington: Vocals
Mike Shinoda: Emcee, vocals, sampling
Joseph Hahn: Records, sampling, backing vocals
Rob Bourdon: Drums, backing vocals
Brad Delson: Guitar, bass, backing vocals
Phoenix: Bass, backing vocals

Website: http://www.linkinpark.com



Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Driving