Minutes To Midnight
by Linkin Park
Metascore
56

Mixed or average reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 15
  3. Negative: 3 out of 15
  1. The Guardian
    60
    The California rap-rockers are stymied by their decision to stay roughly within the shrieky boundaries of their genre (albeit with less emphasis on the rap).
  2. Entertainment Weekly
    50
    Amid the stabs at growth, every new effect sounds borrowed.
  3. The New York Times
    50
    As you might imagine, the band’s emo makeover doesn’t always go smoothly.
  5. Los Angeles Times
    63
    This is the kind of music artists make to find out who they'll become next: It reaches toward many influences — notably U2 (some songs invoke the Irish rock group almost note-for-note), but also Tool, Evanescence, Nirvana and Coldplay — without committing to anything.
  6. Blender
    70
    There's no great leap into maturity... They've kept their salient feature--scorching, adolescent tantrums--unchanged. [Jun 2007, p.109]
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  7. NOW Magazine
    20
    Try as they might to sound different, or even to touch on issues bigger than their own narcissistic garbage, LP still sound like they're stuck back in 00, which is where they should have stayed.
  8. Hartford Courant
    70
    Whatever else it is, Linkin Park's third studio record is a nu-metal record at heart.
  9. Dot Music
    50
    These half-arsed stabs at nu-AOR end up pleasing no one, least of all the band itself.
  10. New Musical Express (NME)
    20
    What follows is the sound of a band trying and failing to forge a new identity - boy-band balladry, U2-style stadium rock and Metallica-esque melodic crunch are all attempted with predictably patchy results.
  11. Billboard
    50
    Linkin Park's ambitions are nearly palpable, but songs likely conceived as homages end up sounding too close to their sources. [26 May 2007]
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  12. Rolling Stone
    80
    Most of Minutes is honed, metallic pop with a hip-hop stride and a wake-up kick.
  13. PopMatters
    50
    While more than half the album flounders and meanders uselessly to arrive at roughly four truly worthwhile numbers, parts of Minutes to Midnight set the foundations for a whole new array of sounds that the band can and hopefully will pursue in the future.
  14. Boston Globe
    60
    We've heard a lot of this despair before.
  15. Spin
    70
    The music privileges texture over catchiness. [Jun 2007, p.97]
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  16. Hot Press
    30
    The shift in subject matter cannot disguise Linkin Park’s acute lack of creativity.

Awards & Rankings

3
#3 Most Discussed Album of 2007
16
#16 Most Shared Album of 2007

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 733 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 494 out of 733
  2. Mixed: 107 out of 733
  3. Negative: 132 out of 733
  1. jos95
    Jan 10, 2012
    3
    This album is such a dive. It's the most depressing album I have ever listened to, not only because of its subject matter but also becauseThis album is such a dive. It's the most depressing album I have ever listened to, not only because of its subject matter but also because it's dull and boring, and dull is the last thing Linkin Park is! The first two albums were about feelings, but this one is all about suicide. I get that this album tried to conclude a trilogy and it raises the question - what happens when the feelings get too much? It should have been about solving the problems, not killing yourself for them! The sound of this album is too much like Coldplay or U2. Don't get me wrong I love them both, but this is not the Linkin Park I know. The only highlight of this album is What I've Done, the rest are awful. Unless you are an emo with no life, you have no reason to poison yourself with tripe like this.… Full Review »
  2. Jay_Pickens
    Jul 25, 2018
    4
    This is such a weak album. It's beginning of the fall for Linkin Park. I remember when this album came out, it made me depressed at howThis is such a weak album. It's beginning of the fall for Linkin Park. I remember when this album came out, it made me depressed at how mediocre it was. Then in 2010 A Thousand Suns came out and it made me appreciate this album, because here we have at least a couple of "good" songs. Also I blame Rick Rubin for the sound of the album... he's the one that told LP to go softer. When they played "Qwerty" back in 2006 everyone lost their s*** because of how amazing that track was and this? This is awful. Given Up, No More Sorrow, Bleed It Out and What I've Done are the only songs worth a listen. Don't buy this. Pickens condemns!… Full Review »
  3. RedAFX
    Apr 11, 2012
    8
    Linkin Park go for a classic rock edge with this great album, after 4 years out they return with the same energy as they had before, containedLinkin Park go for a classic rock edge with this great album, after 4 years out they return with the same energy as they had before, contained and unleashed through instruments instead of production, Rubin's stripped down production really fleshes out the band and peels back the icing which previous producer Don Gilmore urged the band to utilise, the band challenge themselves and push away from that, becoming the best live act of 2007.… Full Review »
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