Linkin Park — Reanimation

The album art of Linkin Park's Reanimation features various Manga-styled images of Transformers. They serve as apt visual representations of the music enclosed within the package.

The disc, comprised primarily of reworked songs from the band's best-selling Hybrid Theory album, features a wide array of collaborators from both the hip-hop and rock worlds. At its best, it dramatically alters some of Hybrid's better tunes, unearthing the melodic or rhythmic structures that so subtly discern Linkin Park from many of their alt.metal brethren.

"Krwlng," an updated version of "Crawling," is augmented with Aaron Lewis' vocal accompaniment and a lush layer of violins and cellos to flesh out its lonely synth melody. Even with the original song's cathartic chorus, it has more in common with the electronic new romantic movement of the early '80s than it does with rap-metal. On the other hand, "H! Vltg3," a remake of the B-side "High Voltage," is given the full hip-hop treatment by producer Evidence, DJ Babu and MC Pharoahe Monch. With its beefed-up beat and Monch's vocal skills, the song is now a bonafide A-side track.

Not all remakes work as well. Tracks like "Plc.4 Mie Hæd" ("Place For My Head") and "Wth>You" add little improvement to their originals, which admittedly weren't the strongest tracks to begin with. Nonetheless, there are far more bright reinterpretations here than duds. More importantly, owners of Hybrid Theory will find a wide array of new sounds on this disc, even though the source material is the same.

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