Linking Park - What I've Done

Ever since 'In the End' added more gravitas than Linkin Park’s polished debut deserved, the band has straddled a line neatly divided between angst ridden teens on one side and fans of mainstream arena rock on the other.
So it should come as no surprise that 'What I’ve Done', their first single from third album 'Minutes to Midnight' (a reference to the impending hour of reckoning) positions them as a U2 styled “voice of a generation.” Heck, the video even finds lead singer Chester Bennington dressing like Bono.

Upon the first shot of grass being sucked back into a parched earth it becomes apparent the band is clearly going for a world weary grace befitting a piano melody that would be just as at home on a Coldplay record. Then the tink-tink-tink of drumsticks and the guitars kick in with a slow, chiming riff. Visually, the video plays out with all the cinematic sweep of a cross between a Hollywoodised version of the news and a nature documentary. There’s images of the brutality of war, mobs rioting, brave rescue attempts recalling Hurricane Katrina and a priceless juxtaposition of a famine stricken African – all sallow cheeks and sunken stomach – with a model-thin woman wrapping a measuring tape around her waist.
Add to this Koyaanisqatsi-esque cuts between the beauty of nature and the unnatural world that humans have built around themselves (cars whizzing by like ants, etc) and it becomes very obvious that this video is a statement, even if lyrically and musically the song itself doesn’t seem to be aware of it.

While the video is extremely pretty to look at (dramatic slow-motion, swirling camera movements, amazing lighting), a sour taste is left behind by the product on the whole. For instance, more cynical viewers will notice that it takes a full 17 seconds before the new Linkin Park logo is displayed on the drum kit.
Perhaps what grates the most however, is that the video comes off as all high and mighty, decrying the war on terror and pointing out how bad a mob mentality can be when the mob is lead by someone as bad as Hitler, Stalin or Saddam Hussein, yet when the director tries to marry the music with the visual he uses nuclear bombs and devastation to show the power of the music.

Musically, 'What I’ve Done' finds the band a bit stagnant, employing the typical Pixie dynamics and Chester’s fantastic vocal range to create some momentum. It’s good to see the band exploring different musical instruments to create a lush backdrop and it’s nice to hear a cleaner timbre to Chester’s voice. However, whatever goodwill is created by the new musical direction is lost in the bland, contrived lyrics and Mike Shinoda’s prissy background vocals.

After several interviews highlighted that Linkin Park were trying to do something different, it is perhaps a little disappointing to find that all they meant by this was they were trying to do something different for them in being the next U2.
Still, 'Hybrid Theory' saw the release of 'One Step Closer' before the release of the brilliant 'In the End' drew in the mainstream and 'Meteora' saw the release of MOR single 'Somewhere I Belong' before the fantastic 'Numb' again wowed ‘haters’. 'What I’ve Done' will sate fans eagerly anticipating 'Minutes to Midnight', but I’ll be watching this space and waiting for the next instant classic from Linkin Park to drop.


Review by Glen Parks


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