This week, rock band Linkin Park released their fourth studio album, A Thousand Suns. The results are, sad to say, not pretty; since 2007's Minutes to Midnight, the California rap-metal band has become more of an angsty Depeche Mode-lite with U2 aspirations and a guaranteed spot on every soundtrack to a Transformers film.

Maybe it's the middle school nostalgia talking, but they were something else when they first burst onto the scene a decade ago. Chester Bennington, the throaty lead singer, was more of a secret weapon, balancing his angry choruses with spitfire rapped from Mike Shinoda. Bolstered by unique turntable scratches from Joseph "Mr." Hahn and the solid guitar work of Brad Delson, they were one of the best acts to come from the burgeoning early-'00s nu-metal scene. They were also one of the most successful; their debut LP, Hybrid Theory, sold more than 10 million copies in the U.S. and spun off three Top 5 Modern Rock tracks ("One Step Closer," "Crawling" and "In the End").

Though their latter material is something of a snooze to this writer, Hybrid Theory still sounds fresh a decade later. It's a dark, jittery record with some surprising pop choral sensibilities, as key album tracks "Papercut," "With You" and "Points of Authority" prove. It couldn't really be improved on, either, as the band themselves learned when, in the interim between their first and second albums, they released the ridiculous remix record Reanimation (2002). (An EP which paired some tracks from this record and 2003 follow-up Meteora with tracks from rapper Jay-Z, 2004's Collision Course, was a much better experiment.)

Perhaps ten years is too soon for Warner to seriously consider a reissue of one of their most recently successful albums, but if they ever get around to it, it might look something like this. Have a go after the jump.

Linkin Park, Hybrid Theory (Warner Bros., 2000)

Disc 1: Original LP (Warner Bros. 9 47755-2, 2000) and B-sides

1. Papercut
2. One Step Closer
3. With You
4. Points of Authority
5. Crawling
6. Runaway
7. By Myself
8. In the End
9. A Place for My Head
10. Forgotten
11. Cure for the Itch
12. Pushing Me Away
13. My December (B-side to "One Step Closer" (Warner Bros. W550CD (U.K.), 2000)
14. High Voltage (Remix) (B-side to "One Step Closer" (Warner Bros. W550CD (U.K.), 2000)

Disc 2: Demos and Outtakes

1. Rhinestone - Xero
2. Reading My Eyes - Xero
3. Fuse - Xero
4. Stick N' Move - Xero
5. Carousel - Hybrid Theory
6. Technique (Short) - Hybrid Theory
7. Step Up - Hybrid Theory
8. And One - Hybrid Theory
9. High Voltage - Hybrid Theory
10. Part of Me - Hybrid Theory
11. Ambient - Hybrid Theory
12. Now I See - Hybrid Theory
13. Points & Authority (Demo) - Linkin Park
14. Super Xero (Demo) - Linkin Park
15. Esaùl (Demo) - Linkin Park
16. Plaster (Demo) - Linkin Park
17. Crawling (Demo) - Linkin Park

Disc 2, Tracks 1-4 released as Xero demo tape, 1997
Disc 2, Tracks 5-11 from Hybrid Theory (EP) (Mix Media, 1999)
Disc 2, Track 12 is an early version of "With You" released on an Ozzfest promo sampler (Warner Bros./Reprise PRO-CD-100184, 2000)
Disc 2, Tracks 13-17 are previously unreleased demos ("Plaster" is an early version of "One Step Closer")