Album Review: Linkin Park – Recharged
3 min read
Remix albums are not for everyone and it’s no surprise for some people that this can lead them into thinking that all the band or artist wants is just money. It’s safe to say that Recharged by Linkin Park is a very mediocre release by the band. Fans of Linkin Park may appreciate the nice gesture, others maybe not so much. The problem with remix albums is that sometimes they ruin the original songs and tracks start sounding the same, eventually making them uninteresting and boring. It’s clear that not much effort has been put into Linkin Park’s Recharged and having a strong attachment to their old releases of Meteora and Hybrid Theory, it makes me miss their hard rock sound and how they didn’t use electronic music into their songs. There’s nothing wrong with trying something different and to be fair, Linkin Park did have a successful run when they released Living Things so if you’re pretty much open to anything exclusive and electronic, Recharged is something you might appreciate from the band.
A Light That Never Comes is the only new track from this release. The rest of the tracks are basically remixes of songs from Living Things and it’s pretty obvious that Recharged heavily focuses on elements of dubstep music. Although the remixes have been made by different people, it’s quite a lazy effort of a release because there are so many elements in the tracks that lack the thrill and excitement of dubstep music. Dubstep music can be done well if you use a variety of drops that not only keep listeners hooked but they get that ‘wow’ factor. The dubstep used in Recharged is quite mellow and chilled-out that listeners are prone to getting bored of the music and it makes it so much harder to listen to the album in full. It’s difficult because you forget what track you’re up to as each track just sounds exactly the same and there’s really no stand out remixes that are from this album unfortunately.
It’s disappointing to see Linkin Park release this because the album is nothing more than a filler. There’s no originality or anything interesting about the remix album. It’s full of dubstep music that doesn’t make sense and the arrangement of the tracks do not complement well with one another. To hardcore Linkin Park fans, a minority will think that Recharged is the greatest thing ever but at the end of the day, it’s nothing more than nonsensical dubstep music produced by people you’ve never even heard of. To be clear, Living Things, was a very good album release but it’s sad to see that Linkin Park decided that it would be a good idea to slap on some tracks on a CD, do a few remixes and title it as Recharged for the sake of it. They seriously would have been better off releasing a quality EP instead of a remix album and maybe then that could’ve taken them somewhere.
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::: Renowned For Sound Music Reviews ::: Jana is a 21-year old student currently based in Sydney, Australia. Writing for Renowned For Sound has given her the opportunity to take a break from her university degree and job by being able to write what she is most passionate about – music.
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Linkin Park have always used electronic music in their songs, go back to Hybrid Theory, you have With You, older than that on their EP you have High Voltage. how can you even talk about this remix album and not mention Reanimation, which was a remix album of Hybrid Theory.
Hi Caleb. Thanks for your comment.
Yes, I can follow up that they have always used electronic elements in their songs but the thing is, they still used their instruments so you could hardly tell from the heavy hard rock sound in both Hybrid Theory and Meteora. Now their albums consistently use electronic music that overpower the instruments so I no longer think they are a nu-metal band anymore, unfortunately.
I’m generally not a big fan of remix albums and to be honest, I haven’t tried listening to Reanimation. It might have been a better remix album than Recharged but to me, they all sound the same.
Does anyone else find it just as laughable that someone who has never listened to Reanimation is doing a review of a Linkin Park remix album. You have no context. Reanimation is my favorite album by them, Frgt/10 has some of the most insightful lyrics I’ve ever heard. “This societies deprivation depends not on our differences but the separation within”
If you’ve never listened to Collision Course then you probably shouldn’t be writing reviews about Linkin Park…. Just sayin
Hi Daniel
Thanks for your comments.
While it may seem useful for the reviewers on Renowned For Sound to listen to each and every album and artist has released prior to reviewing a new record, this is simply not practical. Reviewers approach releases as unbiased writers. Reanimation may very well be your favorite Link Park album and perhaps this is the reason why this review has struck this chord with you however Jana’s review is from a completely unbiased standpoint which has allowed our review of the record to perhaps be an insightful article for the wider audience rather than simply an indulgent piece to cater to fans of an act or fans of this particular record.