Minutes to Midnight (Linkin Park album)

Untitled

Linkin Park's third studio album is slated for a March 2007 release according to Blender magazine [1]. Its title has yet to be announced.

Background information and recent events

This album was produced by both Rick Rubin and Mike Shinoda.

The first public glimpse of the third album was when Linkin Park performed the song "Qwerty" live at Summer Sonic 2006, which the band wrote on the way there. There are rumours in "KERRANG" Magazine that the new album will be called "Trials and Tribulations". But we can't bet on it due to the fact that each member has their own individual name for the album.

To the dismay of many fans, the album has been delayed many times (first scheduled for Summer 2006, then Fall 2006, and now the beginning of 2007). "When songs are pouring out you don't ever want to stop that. We already have over 100 roughs for songs," said Mike Shinoda, "We've narrowed it down since but we're not ready to commit to those yet."

The most recent edition of Rolling Stone magazine has stated that over 100 songs have been cut from the new album. Bennington has stated that they have at least sixteen tracks for the album. Chester also confirmed this on the Loveline radio show on October 8 2006.

On October 17 2006, Dave Farrell a.k.a 'Phoenix' stated that the band narrowed 30 possible new songs down to 18 to make the final cut for the upcoming album.

The song "Qwerty" has appeared on the new Linkin Park Underground v6.0 CD (as of Dec. 5th 2006), in both live and studio demo versions. It has been confirmed that no songs on the LPU CD will appear on the new album. This means that Qwerty and Announcement Service Public will not appear on the new album.

On December 12th, Phoenix was interviewed by the Linkin Park Association where he cleared up some things about the new album.[2]

According to the LPA (Linkin Park Association), the new edition of Blender Magazine states that Linkin Park's new album will be out in March 2007.

Although an official release date for the album has not been confirmed. According to Play.com, it will be released on May 7, 2007 in the UK. [3]

Music style

Mike Shinoda recently said this in a Linkin Park Underground Chat, when asked about the genre of the new album, "I just think the styles we're mixing right now are all over the place. We have really been pushing things outside the box. But even like my Fort Minor album--it's a hip hop album, but a lot of the stuff isn't conventional. The LP album won't sound like FM, but it has its own unique sound that still sounds like LP--just different." [4]

In a recent interview with MTV.com, Chester explained that the nü metal sound from their previous albums is completely gone. He also explained that the new album is a mix of punk, classic rock, and vintage hip-hop beats. Chester also said that it will not be a double album, but wouldn't say how many songs they would record. [5]

Speaking with Rolling Stone while recording their anticipated third release, Linkin Park divulged a few new details concerning the album. It's been noted in the interview that they would add more songs in their album than in the past. On another interesting note, the guys spoke about a new track called 'Accident', a working title given on account of Brad Delson's accidental riff. "The guitar sounds like AC/DC, the beat sounds like Motown, and there's a Stones-like groove to it. But it's got rapping and Clash-style vocals" remarks co-producer Mike Shinoda, who only hopes their latest will keep people from categorizing the group as rap-rock. "It's so different it may take people a beat to go 'I can't believe it's the same band. But hopefully their next thought will be 'Fuckin' cool'." Recently it has been learned, through his website, that Dave Campbell (strings in Breaking the Habit) will help with the new album. [6]

In the December issue of Blender magazine, Chester talked a little bit about the sound of the upcoming album, "Rick has brought more of a stripped down, classic-rock and hip-hop kind of feel. We're using vintage guitars and drums carved out of wood and skin for a more tribal sound. It's definitely not nu-metal." He also gave a clue toward the album name, saying that it would be called "T_____ and T_____". Given this clue, a popular guess amongst fans (and the interviewer) is the title "Trials and Tribulations". However, in a recent interview Phoenix stated that the album title hasn't been chosen yet.

Working titles

• "Accident" (Confirmed by Mike in a Rolling Stones interview)
• "Grecian" (Confirmed in new LPU newsletter)
• "QWERTY" (Released on LPU 6.0. Won't be on the new album.)