Linkin Park "Living Things" album review

            Linkin Park is an American Rock band formed in California in 1996. They gained a lot of their fame with their first album titled, "Hybrid Theory". The groups distinct style of mixing rock with rap lyrics gave them a very unique sound that truly set them apart from other bands. Their fifth studio album, “Living Things”, takes a dip back into their roots as they created a musically diverse album.

            The album starts very strong with “Lost In The Echo”, an electronic/rock song with a moderately fast pace that makes it a high point of the album right from the beginning. Later on, “Burn It Down”, also uses the electronic sound in a way that is catchy, and almost pop like. The lyrics are mostly about deceit, and anger, “You told me yes, you held me high, and I believed when you told that lie.”, also, “We can't wait to burn it to the ground”, bring the mood of the song to a revengeful state of mind. “Lies Greed Misery” is another example of a lyrically angry song, but this time backed with an angrier sound to go with it.

            The song “Victimized”, however, uses very aggressive beats, accompanied by screamed lyrics at the hands of the bands singer Chester Bennington. This however leaves a lot to be desired, almost feeling like an unfinished demo. One of the best things about this album is the flow of the songs. They almost seem to glide into each other making the album more of an experience than just listening to a bunch of songs that were carelessly placed. It is easy to tell that the band put a solid amount of time into this, and it truly does make a difference. A good example of this is the daring transition of “Victimized”, the albums most aggressive song to, “Roads Untraveled”, the albums lightest song. It is done in a way that is very aesthetically pleasing.

            “Castle Of Glass”, presents a curious, yet quite enjoyable folk song vibe with catchy, slow lyrics, and a fast paced beat. This helps showcase the different influences the band to help create a diverse collection of songs that somehow come together in a pleasant way. This is a solid album for the band, maybe one of their best so far because of its collection of a variety of their work from their humble beginnings, to some of their more recent releases.

            “Living Things”, however is by no means perfect. The songs on the album seem over-produced, as well as too clean, while it lacks in guitar, and bass. Perhaps the albums biggest let down was its length. The 12 song album comes up with only 36:59 of music. The longest song is 3:50, while many are under 3, and even 2 minutes. Despite of this, the album is quite memorable, and enjoyable, continuing the bands 13 years of success. “Living Things” gets 4 out of 5 stars.

Summer Vacations                                                                                                           Matt Whittington

I believe it would be best if April, and February vacations were sacrificed to preserve summer vacation, but everyone would get Wednesdays off every week to enhance student's learning ability. In the reading, it says that most children in the Chicago area have learning camps over the course of the summer to increase learning. However, it also say's that fewer than half of their students actually graduate, "the all-day program at the East roth United Methodist Church is built this year around a World Cup theme." Indianapolis is doing better than most cities when it comes to summer learning because the Lilly Endowment wanted safe places for children when they are not in school, "Indianapolis is ahead of most cities in making better use of summer."