Fort Minor - The Rising Tied (Machine Shop/Warner Bros.)

I’m not really sure how to review this one. As one half of Linkin Park’s vocal element, you might think that Mike Shinoda’s ‘solo’ album would hold some interest for his existing fan-base. As a big fan of Linkin Park’s albums (actual albums, rather than their ‘mash-up’ with Jay-Z, which had a limited shelf life), I was rather surprised by this completely hip-hop (apparently totally underground, no less!) album.

I gave it to a fan of hip-hop to listen to, and they said it was actually pretty good. True, the tunes are all very nice, but that’s all that really drew my attention – very much in the vein of b-side “Step Up”, which is kind of what I imagined this album would end up sounding like. I’ve never been able to sit through more than one rap/hip-hop song at a time, before I start wondering how on earth do people manage to sit through an entire ‘gig’ of this?

Some of the guest vocals are very nice – Holly Brook is very talented, but the rest all sounds the same. I couldn’t tell you which verses were done by Mike (except on “Petrified” which has the refrain “Hi, my name is Mike…” – awesome…) or one of the many guest stars.
So, if you really, truly can’t live without anything done by any of the members of Linkin Park, then get this – you’ll be so confused! If you were a fan of last year’s Collision Course, but wanted less melody in the vocals, then get this. If you like underground hip-hop, then also give this a go, especially if it’s all you listen to (though, quite why you’d be reading this magazine is beyond me, if this was the case).