Linkin Park's 'Living Things' a bit confused

Linkin Park gets lost on "Living Things" (Machine Shop/Warner Bros.), trying to navigate a sound that's heavier than their previous album but not nearly as raucous as their blockbusters. It's a confusing road, especially when they sound so good raging on the thrashing "Victimized" and so deep on the contemplative "Roads Untraveled." The welcome return to the "Hybrid Theory" era on the hard-hitting "Lost in the Echo" makes the problems all the more obvious when Linkin Park tries to combine the two, dropping them in a seemingly halfhearted no man's land of formulaic rock on "I'll Be Gone" and "Powerless."

LINKIN PARK "Living Things"

GRADE B-

BOTTOM LINE Still searching for a rap-metal middle ground