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Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
Seanchan (14)
ZeroSignal620 (16)
firefdr (20)
Raetsel_Lapin (22)
Janus5k (22)
HBJDubs (24)
CasanovaZelos (26)
VeryInsane (26)
azuarc (26)
Steiner (30)
illuminatusbubu (30)
Lopen (32)
Johnbobb (34)
neonreaper (36)
Snake5555555555 (54)

General Album Comments

CasanovaZelos: Linkin Park is a band I have always struggled to take seriously. Their music feels like someone trying way too hard to be cool, and the rapping sections really do not help. I feel like this might upset some, but they exist in the same mental sphere as Spice Girls for me, very much a product of their time.

Yet, there's something that occasionally brings me back to their sound, and I think it is for the same reason Spice occasionally draws me back - there are few albums that capture their own time like this one, an unintended relic that paints a vibrant picture of a certain era. For better or worse, Hybrid Theory is compellingly itself. My point of comparison is usually Donnie Darko - drowning in young angst, but if you can only remember what it was like to be an angsty teenager, you can feel how effortlessly this works as a reflection.

Snake5555555555: This album nearly brings me to tears man - so goddamn nostalgic. I would play this album on a loop while playing Runescape, and I still know every word and every beat from the top to the bottom. Sure, Meteora's better, but there's just something so raw and emotional about this one too - they really did the whole rap metal better than anyone, and that's because they infused it with accessible pop sensibilities that gave it such a broad reaching appeal.

azuarc: Oh hey, it's an album I can rank more or less off my head AND that I actually saw the topic for in time.

Hybrid Theory is a special album to me for a few reasons. The first is that it was the introduction to one of my favorite bands, obviously. The second is that it was one of the first albums that came out and that I latched onto after leaving home for college, meaning I didn't make the decision to buy it with any approbation or influence from friends. And the third is that college was the time when I genuinely felt the effects of depression, and one of the few things that helped with that, even if it sometimes felt more like an echo chamber, was music. The teenage-y angst and rage of Hybrid Theory suited me perfectly back then. A few of the tracks don't resonate the way they used to, and I always focused more on the sound than on the lyrics anyhow, but for all that I basically never listen to "real" music in lieu of VGM these days, this was a great excuse to revisit those feelings 20 years later.

I almost didn't buy the album. After One Step Closer debuted, I looked at the album cover in the store and passed because, I thought, "They look like a rock version of a boy band." To be fair, if you look at the picture, you might see where I'm coming from, but when Crawling came out a month later, I said fuck it and went in. The whole album was amazing, but the first track I took note of was In the End, which of course, ended up being the third major single. (And at some point Papercut was released, too? I never heard that one on the radio, though.)

In ranking these, Crawling was always going to be the wild card. A tremendously popular song when it came out, and then massively hated on for years after as emblematic of the band and youthful rage of the early 00's, I've always had a fond place for it, but I wasn't sure where it would land. I knew the other singles -- including Papercut, which has always been a pet favorite -- would land high, but would I put Crawling above, below, or distanced by B-sides? I absolutely adore the Reanimation version of the track, but I ultimate landed on third behind In the End.

However, first place was never in question. Pushing Me Away has always been my favorite. A very unheralded track, and I'm curious to see where it finishes in the overall rankings. Everything in the second half of the list could be reshuffled (except Cure for the Itch,) so I apologize to the With You and By Myself fans. I went with a very quick reaction because I've listened to these songs probably hundreds of times...just not in the last decade.

Seanchan: My feelings on this one are complicated.

I haven't listened to Hybrid Theory in probably 15 years. I was a big fan at the time. I remember listening to this as I was touring colleges with my parents. It was a pretty big deal of an album. Also loved (at the time) the remix album and the follow up (Meteora). Other than some of the singles after that I fell away from the band.

This is very much a product of its time. The band may have evolved (not for me to say) but this album is so early 2000s Nu Metal it's crazy.

I don't know what someone who has no familiarity with this album would think. Or if this would still resonate with a modern teenager. Listening to this as a grown ass man though, it's kind of cringe-y bad? All that teenage angst, the screamy vocals, the "cool" rapping...

I've said this before with Toxicity, but Nu Metal is nothing I want to go back to. Korn, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, etc. all shit I'm embarrassed that I used to enjoy. There's a small amount of nostalgic love but it aint much.

neonreaper: Great album. Having a hard time really posting my thoughts, but the rankings are easy enough

firefdr: I used to adore Linkin Park during my teenage years. This was the very first album I purchased for myself and one I would listen to over and over again.
Linkin Park was also the first band I've ever seen live, funnily enough.
It still remains to this day one of my favorite bands and frequently appears in my Spotify wrapped.
While this is not my favourite album from them, it still holds a very special place.

Seanchan: As usual, my final listen tends to moderate my opinions somewhat. There's stuff here that I still do like, especially some of the beats/instrumentation, but a lot of Chester's screamy vocals are offputting (to me, in the year 2022).

As an album, I think this is likely objectively better/more interesting than my subjective opinions that are colored by my history. ...If that makes any sense? I struggled trying to figure out where to rank the album, with the conflicting thoughts of "I wouldn't really want to listen to this again" versus "but this is kind of better than Other Album".

Lopen: I've always liked Linkin Park, even well after it stopped becoming cool to do so. Everything on this Album I've listened to many many times. Cure for the Itch was the only one I'd ever skip. I don't really dwell on the lyrics too much. Like I get it, and I've been on the border of depression a few times in my life so I can say they relate enough to things I've felt that I do feel authentic, not pandering to make moneys. But yeah I'm not gonna say that's why I'm into it at all, it's not like my identity or anything.

I just like the unique sound. Chester's vocal sound is very distinctive and enjoyable as long as he's not getting too screamy (which is usually not the case in their songs-- screaming in moderation is fine) and I love how Shinoda's rapping complements it. I'm a sucker for the use of the synthy keyboard stuff-- big part of the reason Crawling is one of my more liked songs and why I'm one of the few to rank runaway highly in here. The weaker songs for me tend to lean into the rap element harder and marginalize the keyboard, generally. Meteora is a bit better overall probably. I really need to listen to their last three albums at some point as the last album I listened to was A Thousand Suns.