Linkin Park

LP. I've grown up with them- quite literally. Accessibility at school meant I was living in the heaven called 'In the end'. The magnetic tape (yes! I'm talking about those ancient times) holding this piece of art was used way beyond it's life prescribed in the instruction manual.

Then I entered this place where I was the village idiot for some time. The place was Manipal Institute of Technology and I was the gullible guy happy listening to Backstreet boys and Aqua- the only English music available in my school circle. Laugh to your heart's content, but I am still grateful to the hep girls at school who lent me some ingleees myujic tapes.

College and the specimens residing here ensured that the time lag between finding what's latest on the charts and hearing it was reduced to a couple of seconds.

This in turn meant that I could worship the creations like Somewhere I belong, My December, Crawling, Numb, Pushing me away. Whatever the playlist, all of them had to be there.

After a dry spell, Linkin Park came out with Minutes to Midnight. Some people; the head bangers in particular stated that Linkin Park had 'lost it'. However in my view, they had evolved to bring us something fresh. Bleed it out, Valentine's day, hands held high remain my favorites to date. 'What I've done' launched with the first Transformers movie is in a different league altogether.

Even as I write this, my speed doubles as the latest LP track creeps up on my playlist. Their effect has always been the same. Pure stimulating music which has adequate elements of techno and rock.

The latest releases have been through the Transformers franchise. (The one where that fellow Michael Bay spent some $200 million on special effects and making Megane Fox look hot; with investment in the story etc was something close to zero). Leave the silly story, the stupid dialogues; the Linkin Park music is truly amazing for the movie and adds a new dimension. First one had 'What I've done' and the latest 'New Divide' has got me hooked onto it fully. I can justify going to the movie just to hear Optimus Prime's sign off speech with the latest Linkin Park track playing in the background.

There is great depth in Peter Cullen's voice for Optimus Prime speaking about the future of the Autobots and the human race. I am thrown to such depths not by the words but the music in the background.