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Minutes to Midnight (Linkin Park album)

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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.[15][16] 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[17]. Despite its commercial success, Minutes to Midnight received mixed reviews from critics.[18] Rolling Stone magazine named it the twenty-fifth best album of 2007.[19] It was ranked #154 on Billboard's Hot 200 Albums of the Decade.[20]

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.[21]

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.[22]

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

"Bleed It Out"
"Shadow of the Day"
Problems playing these files? See media help.

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."[23]

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."[24][25] 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.[26]

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,"[27]

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,[18] 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",[12] and it was placed at #25 in their list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007.[19] IGN referred to it as "definitely a step in the right direction and a stepping stone for things to come".[28] 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".[6] 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?".[4] 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".[3]

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.[7] 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".[10]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Linkin Park

No.TitleLength
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.TitleLength
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.TitleLength
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.TitleLength
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.TitleLength
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.TitleLength
13."Faint" (live in Japan)2:46
Japanese tour edition bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
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)[29]
No.TitleLength
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.TitleLength
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[30] CAPIF 1
Australian Albums Chart[31] ARIA 1 2× Platinum 140,000
Austrian Album Chart[32] Media Control Europe 1 2× Platinum 40,000
Belgium Flanders Album Chart[33] Ultratop 2 Gold 15,000
Belgium Wallonian Album Chart[34] Ultratop 2 Gold 15,000
Canadian Album Chart[35] Nielsen SoundScan 1 195,000+ [36]
Czech Album Chart[37] IFPI 1 Gold 5,000
Danish Album Chart[38] IFPI/Nielsen Music Control 2
Estonian Album Chart[39] Pedrobeat 1
European Top 100 Albums Chart[40] IFPI 1
Finnish Albums Chart[41] GLF 1 Gold 15,000
French Album Chart[42] SNEP/IFOP 1 Platinum 226,340
German Album Chart[43] IFPI 1 5× Gold 500,000+
Greek Album Chart[44] IFPI 1 Gold 16,000+
Hungarian Top 40 Album Chart[45] Mahasz 1 Gold
Irish Album Chart[46] IRMA 1 2× Platinum 30,000+
Israeli Album Chart[47] MusicaNeto 5
Italian Album Chart[48] FIMI 1 2× Platinum 180,000
Japan Album Chart[49] Oricon 1 Platinum 377,620
Korean International Album Chart[50] Hanteo 1 Gold 21,000
Mexico Top 100 Albums Chart[51] AMPROFON 2 Gold[52] 50,000
Netherlands Albums Chart[53] NVPI/Mega Charts 2
New Zealand Album Charts[54] RIANZ 1 2× Platinum 30,000
Norwegian Albums Chart[55] VG Nett 1
Polish Album Chart[56] ZPAV 2 Gold 35,000
Portuguese Album Chart[57] AFP 3 Platinum[58] 20,000
Spain Album Chart[59] Promusicae/Media Control 2
Swedish Album Chart[60] Sverigetopplistan 1 Gold 20,000
Swiss Album Chart[61] Media Control Europe 1 Platinum 30,000
Taiwan 5-Music Western Chart[62] Five Music 1 Gold 35,000
Taiwan G-Music Western Chart[63] G-Music 1
Taiwanese Album Chart[64] G-Music/Five Music 2
UK Album Chart[65] OCC 1 1x Platinum 300,000+
U.S. Billboard 200[66] Billboard 1 2x Platinum[67] 2,800,000+
U.S. Comprehensive Albums[66] 1
U.S. Top Digital Albums[66] 1
U.S. Top Internet Albums[66] 1
U.S. Top Rock Albums[66] 1

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.[68][69]

Year Song Peak chart positions
U.S.

[70]

U.S.
Alt.
[70] 		U.S.
Main
[70] 		AUS
[71] 		NZ
[72] 		UK
[73] 		BEL
[74] 		FIN
[75] 		FRA
[75] 		GER
[76] 		ITA
[77] 		IRE
[78] 		NLD
[79] 		NOR
[80] 		SWE
[81] 		SWI
[82]
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

Personnel

References

  1. ^ a b Sanneh, Kelefa. Review: Minutes to Midnight. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  2. ^ a b Kamps, Garrett. Review: Minutes to Midnight. The Village Voice. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  3. ^ a b Sullivan, Caroline. Review: Minutes to Midnight. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  4. ^ a b Tye, Karen. "Review: Minutes to Midnight". Herald Sun: 2007.
  5. ^ [1]
  6. ^ a b Lamb, Bill. Review: Minutes to Midnight. About.com. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  7. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Review: Minutes to Midnight. Allmusic. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  8. ^ Willman, Chris. Review: Minutes to Midnight. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  9. ^ Powers, Ann. Review: Minutes to Midnight. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  10. ^ a b Silver, Dan. Review: Minutes to Midnight. NME. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  11. ^ Blackie, Andrew. Review: Minutes to Midnight. PopMatters. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  12. ^ a b Fricke, David. Review: Minutes to Midnight. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  13. ^ Gundersen, Edna. Review: Minutes to Midnight. USA Today. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  14. ^ "Billbord.com-discography-Linkin Park-Bleed it out". Retrieved 2007-06-29.
  15. ^ [2][dead link‍]
  16. ^ "Minutes To Midnight A Worldwide Success". {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  17. ^ RIAA Certification – RIAA Awards – RIAA News
  18. ^ a b Minutes to Midnight (2007): Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  19. ^ a b ROBERT CHRISTGAU, DAVID FRICKE, CHRISTIAN HOARD, ROB SHEFFIELD (December 17, 2007). "The Top 50 Albums of 2007" Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
  20. ^ http://www.billboard.com/#/charts-decade-end/billboard-200-albums?year=2009&begin=141&order=position
  21. ^ UK Music
  22. ^ "Minutes to Midnight Leaked". Retrieved 2007-06-01.
  23. ^ cna.co.za: Browser Not Valid
  24. ^ Folhateen Article. April 3, 2007.
  25. ^ "Linkin Park Say Nu-Metal Sound Is 'Completely Gone' On Next LP". Retrieved 2007-06-01.
  26. ^ Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight
  27. ^ Mike Shinoda (May 15, 2007). Minutes to Midnight (Special Edition) (Music Documentary).
  28. ^ Spence D. Review: Minutes to Midnight. IGN. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  29. ^ HMV
  30. ^ Argentinian Album Chart
  31. ^ Australian Top 50 ARIA Album Chart
  32. ^ Austrian Album Chart
  33. ^ Belgium Flanders Album Chart
  34. ^ Belgium Wallonian Album Chart
  35. ^ Canadian Album Chart
  36. ^ "Nielsen Music 2007 Year End Music Industry Report For Canada". Reuters. 2008-01-04.
  37. ^ Czech Album Chart
  38. ^ Danish Album Chart
  39. ^ Estonian Album Chart
  40. ^ European Top 100 Albums Chart
  41. ^ Finnish Albums Chart
  42. ^ French Album Chart
  43. ^ German Album Chart
  44. ^ Greek Album Chart
  45. ^ Hungarian Album Chart
  46. ^ Irish Album Chart
  47. ^ Israeli Album Chart
  48. ^ Italian Album Chart
  49. ^ Japan Album Chart
  50. ^ Korean Album Chart
  51. ^ Mexico Top 100l Album Chart
  52. ^ Mexican Gold Certification
  53. ^ Netherlands Albums Chart
  54. ^ New Zealand Album Charts
  55. ^ Norwegian Albums Chart
  56. ^ Polish Album Chart
  57. ^ Portugal Album Chart
  58. ^ Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa – List of Platinum and Gold albums in 2008
  59. ^ Spain Album Chart
  60. ^ Swedish Album Chart
  61. ^ Swiss Album Chart
  62. ^ "5-Music Top 20".Taiwan 5-Music Chart..
  63. ^ Taiwan G-Music Western Chart
  64. ^ Taiwanese Album Chart
  65. ^ UK Album Chart
  66. ^ a b c d e "Billboard Album Charts". billboard.com. 2008-08-16. Retrieved 2007-05-24.
  67. ^ [3]
  68. ^ Hands Held High: Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles
  69. ^ No More Sorrow: Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles
  70. ^ a b c "Linkin Park > Chart History".
  71. ^ "Australian Singles Chart". Australian-charts.com. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  72. ^ "New Zealand Singles Chart". charts.org.nz. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  73. ^ "British Album Chart". Chart Stats. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  74. ^ "Belgian Singles Chart". ultratop.be. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  75. ^ a b "French Singles Chart". lescharts.com. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  76. ^ "German Album Chart". Charts-Surfer. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  77. ^ "Italian Singles Chart". italiancharts.com. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  78. ^ "Irish Singles Chart". The Irish Charts. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  79. ^ "Dutch Top 40". Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 2010-01-14.
  80. ^ "Norwegian Singles Chart". norwegiancharts.com. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  81. ^ "Swedish Singles Chart". swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  82. ^ "Swiss Singles Chart". Die Offizielle Schweizer Hitparade. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
Preceded by Billboard 200 number-one album
May 27, 2007 – June 2, 2007 		Succeeded by
Preceded by UK number one album
May 20, 2007 – May 27, 2007
Preceded by Japanese Oricon Weekly number-one album
May 28, 2007 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Australian ARIA Albums Chart number-one album
May 28, 2007 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Treasure by Hayley Westenra
 RIANZ number-one album
May 21 – June 4, 2007 		Succeeded by
Long Player by Hollie Smith

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