Linkin Park - Rolling In The Deep (Adele cover)

Everyone seems to have had a crack at Adele's super-hit Rolling In The Deep at the moment, so it seems only right that Linkin Park should get round to doing a version of their own.

Perhaps not the most obvious choice of group, but they do a fair job of it. A lot of the response I've seen on Twitter has been rather negative, but to be honest, the cover is what it is. It's a simple acoustic take on a popular track - there's always going to be those that disapprove, but then that goes for pretty much all cover versions.

With Chester Bennington doing a fine job as ever on vocal duties and Mike Shinoda playing guitar, the group performed the track at a German fan club event.

Linkin Park's current single Iridescent, taken from the soundtrack of the new Transformers movie, is available to download from iTunes now.

(Video) Linkin Park - Iridescent

When you're making a music video for a movie tie-in song, there's always the inclination to fill it with a whole host of exciting clips from the film in question. Nothing wrong in that, it has, after all, become the norm. You need only look at Take That's new single (which fronts the the new X Men film), to see a rather well done example of it. It's all very tasteful and looks cool, but equally, it's not breaking any boundaries.

And then you look at what Linkin Park have done with their Iridescent video, the companion track to the summer's other big blockbuster - Transformers: Dark Of The Moon. Ever the ambitious and innovative ones, Linkin Park have instead incorporated the movie graphics into the video itself, tweaking them so that the film elements become inseparable from the video itself.

Not only does this make everything all the more exciting, but it places the video itself into the Transformers universe; the band becoming characters playing out their own existences in this new, terrifying world. As the video's director and band member Joe Hahn puts it, 'What would it be like to be citizens in a decaying universe?'

There's some lovely mirrored kaleidoscope effects going on and the entire video is treated with this lovely sort of blurred black & white sheen, colour only ever coming through in slight glimpses. There's a whole host of imagery going on here too, from a snake, creepy whited-out eyes and a last-supper tableau.

For a dark, epic, moody track; but one gifted with the most uplifting of choruses, this video manages to act as the perfect mirror. Linkin Park have always been a band with a vision, and Iridescent is just one small part of that vision, but boy does it look good.

New releases round-up - 30th May 2011

Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus

A veritable treasure trove of remixes of one of the band's best tracks, they come from some unexpected sources including Eric 'Call On Me' Prydz and Stargate (them that did Rihanna's S&M). Quality stuff. Expect more electronic loveliness on the band's remix album out on June 6th.

Linkin Park - Iridescent

The third Linkin Park single to feature on the soundtrack of a Transformers movie, Iridescent appears here in a slightly reworked form from its original album version. Nevertheless, it still represents Linkin Park at their most epic and emotional - a real tear-jerking rock ballad if ever there was one.

The Pierces - You & I

Last week we featured the girls' single Glorious as one of our picks of the week, and now we have the album! They are just *that* good. Blissed-out 70s charm and wonderful vocal harmonies, I expect this will swiftly become the soundtrack to many people's summers.

The Script - Science & Faith

The fourth single from the band's second album, it isn't likely this track will set the charts alight, but I'm taking this opportunity to give it all the attention it deserves as it's by far the best song on the record and I've been waiting literally ages for them to release it as a single.

Linkin Park - Iridescent

Linkin Park have a long history with the Transformers films; contributing What I've Done and New Divide to the soundtracks of the previous two movies. It's a strategy that's worked well for the band with What I've Done becoming the band's highest charting UK hit when it reached Number 6 back in 2007.

Iridescent was one of the standout tracks from their most recent record A Thousand Suns and is now being released as the album's fourth single in a new remixed form in conjunction with the latest Transformers movie; Dark Of The Moon. With its epic chorus and dramatic build-up to an intense crescendo, the track is rounded off with lyrics about letting go of all the pain and hurt in life. A song that talks about the 'cataclysm raining down' is suitably fitting for the scale and action-packed nature of the Transformers movies.

This mix of the track adds a new beat, giving it a slick, glossy feel, following in the vein of Leave Out All The Rest from the band's previous album Minutes To Midnight. Essentially a lush piano ballad, Iridescent shows that Linkin Park really are just as apt at the subtle, slow stuff as the all out 'loud' tracks. The new mix elevates Iridescent out of the far more intense, almost gothic feel the original album version had with its touches of church organ in the verses. In its place is something that has been cleverly trimmed and streamlined.

The big guitar solo is still every bit as epic, as are the chanty shouts of 'LET IT GO!' in the anthemic finale. In the final chorus singer Chester Bennington's vocals reach a real grit and passion; the kind of texture he's always done so well; conveying the lyrics with utter sincerity and emotion. It's all actually rather moving - which is precisely what you want on a Hollywood film-fronting track like this.

Transformers: Dark Of The Moon (nothing to do with that legendary Pink Floyd album...) is out in the cinemas on the 1st July.

Iridescent is released on the 16th May.