Metascore
56

Mixed or average reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 15
  2. Negative: 3 out of 15
  1. The California rap-rockers are stymied by their decision to stay roughly within the shrieky boundaries of their genre (albeit with less emphasis on the rap).
  2. Amid the stabs at growth, every new effect sounds borrowed.
  3. As you might imagine, the band’s emo makeover doesn’t always go smoothly.
  4. These half-arsed stabs at nu-AOR end up pleasing no one, least of all the band itself.
  5. Billboard
    50
    Linkin Park's ambitions are nearly palpable, but songs likely conceived as homages end up sounding too close to their sources. [26 May 2007]
  6. While more than half the album flounders and meanders uselessly to arrive at roughly four truly worthwhile numbers, parts of Minutes to Midnight set the foundations for a whole new array of sounds that the band can and hopefully will pursue in the future.
  7. We've heard a lot of this despair before.
User Score
6.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 733 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Jan 10, 2012
    3
    This album is such a dive. It's the most depressing album I have ever listened to, not only because of its subject matter but also becauseThis album is such a dive. It's the most depressing album I have ever listened to, not only because of its subject matter but also because it's dull and boring, and dull is the last thing Linkin Park is! The first two albums were about feelings, but this one is all about suicide. I get that this album tried to conclude a trilogy and it raises the question - what happens when the feelings get too much? It should have been about solving the problems, not killing yourself for them! The sound of this album is too much like Coldplay or U2. Don't get me wrong I love them both, but this is not the Linkin Park I know. The only highlight of this album is What I've Done, the rest are awful. Unless you are an emo with no life, you have no reason to poison yourself with tripe like this. Full Review »
  2. Jul 25, 2018
    4
    This is such a weak album. It's beginning of the fall for Linkin Park. I remember when this album came out, it made me depressed at howThis is such a weak album. It's beginning of the fall for Linkin Park. I remember when this album came out, it made me depressed at how mediocre it was. Then in 2010 A Thousand Suns came out and it made me appreciate this album, because here we have at least a couple of "good" songs. Also I blame Rick Rubin for the sound of the album... he's the one that told LP to go softer. When they played "Qwerty" back in 2006 everyone lost their s*** because of how amazing that track was and this? This is awful. Given Up, No More Sorrow, Bleed It Out and What I've Done are the only songs worth a listen. Don't buy this. Pickens condemns! Full Review »
  3. Apr 11, 2012
    8
    Linkin Park go for a classic rock edge with this great album, after 4 years out they return with the same energy as they had before, containedLinkin Park go for a classic rock edge with this great album, after 4 years out they return with the same energy as they had before, contained and unleashed through instruments instead of production, Rubin's stripped down production really fleshes out the band and peels back the icing which previous producer Don Gilmore urged the band to utilise, the band challenge themselves and push away from that, becoming the best live act of 2007. Full Review »