A Year of Blind Spots: Hybrid Theory

Linkin Park's 2000 moneymaker Hybrid Theory went through a bit of a critical reevaluation late last year, when it turned 20 years old. There were enough kind words written in ink about it that it ended up on a list of album I'd like to finally check out. Then, because it was 20 years old, it was deemed old enough to make it onto the "Blind Spots" list (when I'm listening to these albums with Pam, I call them my "classic album of the week," and, true to form, Pam cocked an eyebrow this week and said "this is classic?!"). So here we are, and it stands that the question we're answering this week is obviously: Did Hybrid Theory deserve a critical resurgence, or was that all just a bunch of baloney?

Well, gather your rotten vegetables and get ready to throw, because here's a classic PoYB equivocation for ya: It's a little of both?

Yes, of course Linkin Park sounds better now than I imagined they did 20 years ago, because I was twelve years old, and everything that I didn't know or already love was automatically trash to me. I heard the hits on the radio—"Crawling," "One Step Closer," and especially "In the End"—and I didn't hate it, per se. I just kinda knew that it wasn't my thing at the time, and didn't bother diving in when, say, Mike or Ed were listening to it at Boy Scout camp. 

 

(Pam also described Hybrid Theory this week like: "If you listened to this music, you probably needed a hug." I either didn't need a hug as a twelve-year-old, or didn't want to admit that I did.)

But now I'm old enough to know that anything could potential be "my thing." In other words, I'm soft now, and I'm way more accepting of the fact that everything is at least kind of good if you approach it from the right angle and with the right mindset. So when I hear that triplicate of alt-rock hits, I like them a lot (whether nostalgically or because they are actually good, I don't know), and when I hear the filler songs in between, I start to approach liking them, while still acknowledging that they are very much filler.

I can also say that, while this is a good album, it's definitely not as good as all those 20th Anniversary pieces made it out to be. Like I said, the songs in between the hits are fine? Maybe Linkin Park lives and dies on whether I heard the song as a preteen. Maybe that's necessary. If so, then throw Hybrid Theory in the pile with all the other Year of Blind Spots albums this year that had a great single that I was familiar with and a bunch of other songs that I liked a lot less because I wasn't.

I'll probably also say that I think it's natural to want to overrate a band like Linkin Park, and this has to do with Chester Bennington, who committed suicide in 2017. It's a tragic story no matter how you feel about the music, so I don't mean to sound flippant about this. But I think maybe there's a tendency to hold up Bennington's art a little higher in response to his taking his own life? As if it is our responsibility as critics to say, "See? This art is worthy of attention, which makes the absence of the artist all the more tragic."

 

If that makes sense? I'm just trying to say that maybe we can separate the art from the artist in cases like this at least. I personally can appreciate the fact that Chester Bennington was part of a band who brought a lot of comfort and joy to a lot of dudes back in the early '00s, but can also separate myself from that and not pretend that I am particularly fond of his art personally, in an unnecessary act of respecting the day. One side doesn't have to diminish the other.

Still, Linkin Park intrigued the shit out of me this week, and even though I'm not over the moon about Hybrid Theory, and even though I didn't like it enough to continue through any other parts of their discography, I'm definitely into it just enough that I could see myself returning to this album again.

 

 

 

 

I will also definitely state that Hybrid Theory, as middling-to-pretty-good as it was, was definitely one of the better, or at least more interesting, albums that I've worked through in this column. In fact, we are halfway done (Week 25 of 50), so we should probably get a ranking going. Here ya go. (Use the search function if you want to read about them, I'm too lazy to hyperlink these albums to their blog post today.)

25. Rid of Me

24. The Raincoats

23. Paul Simon

22. Brothers in Arms

21. Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake

20. The Stooges

19. Things Fall Apart

18. Fresh Cream

17. Madvillainy
16. Their Satanic Majesties Request

15. Radio City

14. Abraxas

13. Hybrid Theory

12. Reveal

11. 3 Feet High and Rising

10. Dude Ranch 

9. Willy and the Poor Boys

8. Bleach

7. Ace of Spades

6. Speaking in Tongues

5. Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack

4. Aladdin Sane

3. Songs in the Key of Life

2. Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

1. Total Destruction to Your Mind