17. Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBcOoW9QgH4 In something that resembles pulling out a dusty old book in the year 3044 and telling the half-human half-iPod hybrids that "There once was a time...when Linkin Park were good", it feels like that mentality is pretty prevalent these days already when you see how far they've fallen. Occupying some of the same space as Green Day in that your average listener would like to think they've 'moved on' from liking the likes of this faux teenage-rebellion-baiting marketed goop, should the likes of 'Papercut', 'In The End' or 'Place for my Head' come through a set of speakers in their nearest vicinity they'll bust out every single word perfectly in time. Even the Mike Shinoda rap bits (they were always the best anyway) get the singalong treatment, despite all of us knowing all-too-well that what we're actually singing/screaming along to was only slightly better than a certain red-cap n' board shorts wearing frontman's efforts anyway. Hybrid Theory is so insanely solid all the way through though, it's a perfect mix of mildly-injected electronic elements alongside some crunchy distorted one-finger chords and the dual-vocalist attack of Chester Bennington's clean-growl duality alongside Shinoda flinging some infinitely quotable lines in between Chester's more instantly-catchy parts. It all made for an album chock-full of those kinds of songs you wish you knew the words to the first time through, but by the third chorus you'd already be joining in and scrabbling to find lyric sheets so you were ready next time. It's impossible to get sick of: One Step Closer. Despite what former Metal Hammer-podcast legend Stephen Hill would have you believe, One Step Closer is a mammoth-footed tune that should you go anywhere near it's infectiously bouncy riff it will leave great big nostalgic footprints all over your cerebellum. As childlike-tantrum-connoting as the "Shut up when I'm talkin' to you!" section is, with a few thousand likeminded yellers it becomes one of the most enjoyable music experiences you'll ever have.