Minutes to Midnight (Linkin Park album)

Untitled

Minutes to Midnight is the third studio album by American rock band Linkin Park. Released on May 14, 2007, through Warner Bros. Records, the album debuted at number one in the United States and in 15 other countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada. The album was produced by Mike Shinoda and Rick Rubin.

Linkin Park started work on their third studio album which begun in 2003. However, while touring to support Meteora in 2004 before the project was resumed later, they postponed work on it. Mike Shinoda formed Fort Minor, while Chester Bennington formed Dead by Sunrise. They returned to working on the record, as they have Rick Rubin produce it with Shinoda. They took on a different musical direction afterward. A few unrevealed-to-the-public mistakes occurred while recording the album, postponing it to several dates. Within mixing the album, some touches were added. After artwork and the rest of it was complete they decided to release "What I've Done" as it's lead single by April 2007. It was finally released in North America on May 15, 2007.

In the United States, the album had the biggest first week sales of 2007 at the time, with 625,000 albums sold, going on to be certified double platinum in the United States, New Zealand, Italy, Ireland, and Australia and certified platinum in Canada, France, Switzerland and in the UK. Despite its commercial success, Minutes to Midnight received mixed reviews from critics. Rolling Stone magazine named it the twenty-fifth best album of 2007. It was ranked #154 on Billboard's Hot 200 Albums of the Decade.

Release history

Minutes to Midnight was delayed several times before its release. First scheduled to be released in the summer of 2006, it was later postponed to the fall of 2006, then again to early 2007. The album's release date was finally set for May 14, 2007. In Canada, the album was released on May 15, 2007.

In the United States, the album had the biggest first week sales of 2007 at the time, with 625,000 albums sold. Worldwide, the album shipped over 3.3 million copies in its first four weeks of release.

Edited version

There are non-Parental Advisory releases of both the regular album and the special edition album. The songs "Given Up", "Bleed It Out", and "Hands Held High" are slightly edited, by the removal of most profanities but not all. In Malaysia, the edited version for the album is available in digipak cover while the explicit edition available for the Tour Edition which features white slipcase cardboard cover and a standard jewel case.

Anniversary covers

A year after the release of Minutes to Midnight, the band released ten different covers that were originally used as consideration for the final cover for the album prior to its release. The band made all ten of these covers available for fans to use as the album art on iTunes.

Leak

The album was leaked onto the Internet just under two weeks before the actual album release.

It couldn't be more exciting to give you all new music, especially after all the hard work we put into it. This album was almost a year and a half of experiments, mistakes, inspiration, and careful craftsmanship. We put everything we had into these songs, and want you to hear every second of it. I can't wait for you to absorb all the levels of meaning in the songs, and the layers of music, eventually forming your own ideas about what the songs mean to you.

At the same time, a leak leaves out some very important parts of this piece of work. We put months of creative energy into the ART of the record, in the booklet, special edition, and big book... Almost as long as it took to record Hybrid Theory. The album has amazing photos, lyrics, and notes about how the songs came together — it's the visual half of the record. On the other hand, the super-special-edition book is packed with exclusive images, stories of the making of the songs, gorgeous art, the CD and a DVD that tells the story, showing the actual moments of inspiration caught on camera. For me, it's almost hard to imagine anyone really experiencing this album without that part of it.

Even the song sequence alone is very important. It's WAY different to hear the songs in a random order than to listen to this record from beginning to end. At the very least, if you've already downloaded the songs, do us a huge favor and listen to them in the right order... It'll be way more rewarding.

— Mike Shinoda

Sound

In an interview, lead singer Chester Bennington explained that the album is "a mix of punk, classic rock, and hip-hop standards" and that "Rick has brought more of a stripped down, classic-rock and hip-hop kind of feel."

In another interview, Bennington stated: "This time around, Mike Shinoda is singing a lot more. It may seem like he's not on the record, but he's doing a lot of the harmonies. He also sings a couple of songs alone. We're presenting ourselves in a different way." Shinoda performs his rapping vocals on only two tracks, "Bleed It Out" and "Hands Held High". This is a significant decrease compared to the amount of rapping on previous albums. The rap vocals on "Hands Held High" are much closer styled to Mike Shinoda's side project Fort Minor than his traditional Linkin Park verses. All the songs that contain rap vocals also contain profanity, unlike their other records. Despite a decrease of Mike Shinoda as rapper, he has three solo lead songs on the record: "Hands Held High", "In Between" and the bonus track "No Roads Left". He also sings lead in "Bleed It Out". "What I've Done" and "The Little Things Give You Away" features backing vocals from Shinoda at the end.

Minutes to Midnight is also Linkin Park's first album to feature guitar solos, particularly in the tracks "In Pieces" and "The Little Things Give You Away". Also, unlike the previous two studio albums, Minutes to Midnight contains profanity and politically-charged lyrics.

Shinoda, in an interview, stated: "We were looking back at the things that we had done in the past... and I think we just figured that we had exhausted that sound. It was easy for us to replicate, it was easy for other bands to replicate, and we just needed to move on,"

Shinoda and Delson teamed up with David Campbell to add string elements to six songs; "Leave Out All the Rest", "Shadow of the Day", "Hands Held High", "The Little Things Give You Away", as well as the two b-sides "No Roads Left" and "Blackbirds" (which was instead later used in the iPhone game 8-Bit Rebellion!), respectively.

All scratching elements by Joe Hahn that existed in the previous two studio albums are largely absent, except on the songs "What I've Done", "Wake", "The Little Things Give You Away", ""Valentine's Day" and "In Pieces". Hahn contributes more with programming, electronica, and other elements to many of the songs.

Guitarist Brad Delson experimented with an EBow when the band was piecing together "The Little Things Give You Away". The band decided not to use the effect for the solo in that song and instead ended up creating "No More Sorrow" out of the effect. In "Given Up", he jingles the keys that are heard while several clap sounds are overlayed in the intro of the song (as mentioned in the lyric book).

The church organ and military drumbeat on "Hands Held High" were originally to be used as the backdrop to melodic vocals, but Rubin recommended that the band try the opposite approach according to the album booklet. In live performances, Brad Delson plays keyboard on this song (the only song on which he does not play guitar.)

"Shadow of the Day" is one of two songs (the other being "No Roads Left") to have Bennington playing the guitar. During live performances, Shinoda is generally playing the keyboard for "Shadow of the Day", while Bennington plays rhythm guitar.

Critical reception

Minutes to Midnight received generally mixed reviews, based on an aggregate score of 56/100 from Metacritic, with critics showing approval, disapproval and indifference in almost equal measure.

Rolling Stone gave Minutes to Midnight 4 out of 5 stars, stating that "most of Minutes is honed, metallic pop with a hip-hop stride and a wake-up kick", and it was placed at #25 in their list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007. IGN referred to it as "definitely a step in the right direction and a stepping stone for things to come". In his review, About.com's Bill Lamb considered the album "an impressive achievement", and went on to write that "Linkin Park handles their explorations of a direction forward with impressive grace here". Herald Sun writer Karen Tye gave it 3½ out of 4 stars and praised the band's new sound, "Who knew being a plain old rock band could suit Linkin Park so well?". Despite commending the band for their ambition, The Guardian's Caroline Sullivan gave the album 3 out of 5 stars and perceived "their decision to stay roughly within the shrieky boundaries of their genre" as a weakness, while writing that "the sound still pivots on the interplay of walloping guitar chords and self-flagellating lyrics".

Among those with a more negative view of the album was Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic, who described the album's sound as "passé" and summed the band's effort up as "opting to create a muddled, colorless murk", giving it 2 out of 5 stars. NME magazine's Dan Silver gave it a rating of 2/10, calling it the "sound of a band trying and failing to forge a new identity", and referring to the song "Hands Held High", a song about terrorist attacks and war, as "far and away the funniest thing you will hear all year".

Track listing

All tracks are written by Linkin Park

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Wake"	1:40
2.	"Given Up"	3:09
3.	"Leave Out All the Rest"	3:31
4.	"Bleed It Out"	2:44
5.	"Shadow of the Day"	4:52
6.	"What I've Done"	3:25
7.	"Hands Held High"	3:53
8.	"No More Sorrow"	3:41
9.	"Valentine's Day"	3:16
10.	"In Between"	3:16
11.	"In Pieces"	3:38
12.	"The Little Things Give You Away"	6:23

Tour Edition bonus tracks

No.	Title	Length
13.	"No Roads Left"	3:52
14.	"What I've Done" (distorted remix)	3:50
15.	"Given Up" (third encore session)	3:09

iTunes edition bonus tracks

No.	Title	Length
13.	"What I've Done" (live at AOL Sessions)	3:29
14.	"No Roads Left" (pre-order only)	3:52

Wal-Mart edition bonus tracks

No.	Title	Length
13.	"Breaking the Habit" (live at soundcheck)	4:25
14.	"What I've Done" (live at soundcheck)	3:24

Best Buy edition bonus tracks

No.	Title	Length
13.	"What I've Done" (live at AOL Sessions)	3:29
14.	"No More Sorrow" (live at AOL Sessions)	3:45

Japanese edition bonus tracks

No.	Title	Length
13.	"Faint" (live in Japan)	2:46

Japanese tour edition bonus tracks

No.	Title	Length
13.	"Faint" (live in Japan)	2:46
14.	"No Roads Left"	3:52
15.	"What I've Done" (distorted remix)	3:50
16.	"Given Up" (third encore session)	3:09

Asian digital download tour edition track listing (live from Seoul, South Korea, November 30, 2007)

No.	Title	Length
1.	"One Step Closer"
2.	"Lying from You"
3.	"Somewhere I Belong"
4.	"No More Sorrow"
5.	"Papercut"

European digital download tour edition track listing (live from O2 Arena, London, January 29, 2008)

No.	Title	Length
1.	"What I've Done"	7:27
2.	"One Step Closer"	4:10
3.	"Faint"	4:07

Charts and sales

See also: Linkin Park discography

Chart	Provider(s)	Peak position	Certification	Sales/ shipments
Argentinian Albums Chart	CAPIF	1
Australian Albums Chart	ARIA	1	2× Platinum	140,000
Austrian Album Chart	Media Control Europe	1	2× Platinum	40,000
Belgium Flanders Album Chart	Ultratop	2	Gold	15,000
Belgium Wallonian Album Chart	Ultratop	2	Gold	15,000
Canadian Album Chart	Nielsen SoundScan	1		195,000+
Czech Album Chart	IFPI	1	Gold	5,000
Danish Album Chart	IFPI/Nielsen Music Control	2
Estonian Album Chart	Pedrobeat	1
European Top 100 Albums Chart	IFPI	1
Finnish Albums Chart	GLF	1	Gold	15,000
French Album Chart	SNEP/IFOP	1	Platinum	226,340
German Album Chart	IFPI	1	5× Gold	500,000+
Greek Album Chart	IFPI	1	Gold	16,000+
Hungarian Top 40 Album Chart	Mahasz	1	Gold
Irish Album Chart	IRMA	1	2× Platinum	30,000+
Israeli Album Chart	MusicaNeto	5
Italian Album Chart	FIMI	1	2× Platinum	180,000
Japan Album Chart	Oricon	1	Platinum	377,620
Korean International Album Chart	Hanteo	1	Gold	21,000
Mexico Top 100 Albums Chart	AMPROFON	2	Gold	50,000
Netherlands Albums Chart	NVPI/Mega Charts	2
New Zealand Album Charts	RIANZ	1	2× Platinum	30,000
Norwegian Albums Chart	VG Nett	1
Polish Album Chart	ZPAV	2	Gold	35,000
Portuguese Album Chart	AFP	3	Platinum	20,000
Spain Album Chart	Promusicae/Media Control	2
Swedish Album Chart	Sverigetopplistan	1	Gold	20,000
Swiss Album Chart	Media Control Europe	1	Platinum	30,000
Taiwan 5-Music Western Chart	Five Music	1	Gold	35,000
Taiwan G-Music Western Chart	G-Music	1
Taiwanese Album Chart	G-Music/Five Music	2
UK Album Chart	OCC	1	1x Platinum	300,000+
U.S. Billboard 200	Billboard	1	2x Platinum	2,800,000+
U.S. Comprehensive Albums		1
U.S. Top Digital Albums		1
U.S. Top Internet Albums		1
U.S. Top Rock Albums		1

Year-end charts

Country	Position (2008)
Germany	28

Singles

Five singles were released from the album: "What I've Done", "Bleed It Out", "Shadow of the Day", "Given Up", and "Leave Out All the Rest.

Although "Given Up" and "Leave Out All the Rest" had not been released as singles until early March 2008, "Given Up" had already charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard Pop 100 charts at numbers 99 and 78 respectively in 2007, and "Leave Out All the Rest" had already charted on Billboard's Pop 100 chart at number 98 and Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart at number 17 in 2007.

The songs "Hands Held High" and "No More Sorrow" also charted on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart at numbers 23 and 24, respectively, in 2007.

Year	Song	Peak chart positions
		U.S.	U.S. Alt.	U.S. Main	AUS	NZ	UK	BEL	FIN	FRA	GER	ITA	IRE	NLD	NOR	SWE	SWI
2007	"What I've Done" (2x Platinum)	7	1	1	13	9	6	26	—	—	4	3	15	28	12	6	6
	"Bleed It Out" (Platinum)	52	2	3	24	7	29	—	—	—	40	—	—	—	—	14	42
	"Shadow of the Day" (Platinum)	15	2	6	15	13	46	—	—	20	12	—	—	—	—	20	11
2008	"Given Up"	99	4	5	—	—	—	47	—	—	53	—	—	—	—	—	—
	"Leave Out All the Rest" (Gold)	94	11	33	24	38	90	—	19	—	15	—	—	—	—	42	36

Appearances in popular media

• On December 20, 2007, "No More Sorrow" was released as downloadable content for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.
• "What I've Done" is a playable song on the game Guitar Hero World Tour and is featured in the film Transformers.
• "Leave Out All the Rest" is featured in the 2008 film Twilight and on the soundtrack album.
• "Given Up" was featured in the trailer for Crank: High Voltage, a film in which Bennington also makes a cameo appearance and is included as a master track in the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii versions of the music video game Rock Revolution.
• A CSI episode is titled "Leave Out All the Rest", and the song is used in the beginning and the ending of that episode.
• "Bleed It Out" is set to be featured in the video game, Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock.

Personnel

Linkin Park

• Chester Bennington – lead vocals
• Rob Bourdon – drums, percussion, backing vocals
• Brad Delson – lead guitar, keyboards on track 7, string arrangements on tracks 3, 5, 7 and 12, backing vocals
• Dave "Phoenix" Farrell – bass, backing vocals
• Joseph Hahn – turntables, programming, samples, synthesizer, backing vocals
• Mike Shinoda – vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, string arrangements on tracks 3, 5, 7 and 12

Production

• Produced by Rick Rubin and Mike Shinoda
• Engineered by Dana Nielsen, Andrew Scheps and Ethan Mates
• Engineering assisted by Phillip Broussard, Jr.
• Mixed by Neil Avron
• Mixing assisted by Nicolas Fournier and George Gumbs
• Mastered by Dave Collins

Guest musicians

• David Campbell – string arrangements and conduction on tracks 3, 5, 7 and 12
• Armen Garabedian – violin on tracks 3, 5, 7 and 12
• Charlie Bisharat – violin on tracks 3, 5, 7 and 12
• Gerry Hilera – violin on tracks 3, 5, 7 and 12
• Josefina Vergara – violin on tracks 3, 5, 7 and 12
• Julian Hallmark – violin on tracks 3, 5, 7 and 12
• Mario DeLeon – violin on tracks 3, 5, 7 and 12
• Natalie Leggett – violin on tracks 3, 5, 7 and 12
• Sara Parkins – violin on tracks 3, 5, 7 and 12
• Songa Lee-Kitto – violin on tracks 3, 5, 7 and 12
• Andrew Picken – viola on tracks 3, 5, 7 and 12
• Matt Funes – viola on tracks 3, 5, 7 and 12
• Larry Corbett – cello on tracks 3, 5, 7 and 12
• Suzie Katayama – cello on tracks 3, 5, 7 and 12