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Meteora (album)

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Untitled

Meteora is the second studio album by American rock band Linkin Park. It was released on March 25, 2003 through Warner Bros. Records, following Reanimation, a collaboration album which featured remixes of songs included on debut studio album Hybrid Theory. The album produced by the band itself with Don Gilmore, was released by Warner Bros. Records. The title Meteora is taken from Greek Orthodox monasteries.

The album has a similar sound to its predecessor, as described by critics. Featuring lots of spray-painted artworks, the album took a year to be recorded. The main artwork was assembled by the band with help of "The Flem" and "Delta". The album was recorded during touring to support their debut effort and later recorded at NRG studios.

Linkin Park released singles from Meteora for over a year, including "Somewhere I Belong", "Faint", "Numb", "From the Inside" and "Breaking the Habit". The song "Lying from You" was released as a promotional single.

Meteora is the most successful album in the history of the Alternative Songs chart, a chart that specializes in radio play of alternative songs. As of 2013, the album has sold over 20 million copies worldwide, and is certified six times platinum by the RIAA. Meteora was also ranked number 36 on Billboards Top 200 Albums of the Decade.[1] The song "Session" was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, losing to Jeff Beck's "Plan B". Some songs from the album were remixed with some of Jay-Z's songs for the EP Collision Course. It is the first Linkin Park studio album to feature Dave Farrell after he rejoined the band in 2000.

Background

In 2000 and 2002, Linkin Park released their debut and its remix albums, Hybrid Theory and Reanimation, respectively. The first majorly produced by Don Gilmore and latter one by Shinoda, made a shift in the production style for the record, making it majorly produced by Gilmore with the band itself.[2] The album still having the "cutting-edge" sound like its predecessor,[3] included a bit of more artistic music as compared to their previous effort.

Production of the band's second studio album began in early 2001, during their touring schedule. Farrell had rejoined the band for the recording of the album. The band had written around eighty different demos during their Hybrid Theory World Tour and LP Underground Tour, within the span of just eighteen months. But later most of that was scraped.[4]

Writing and recording

We really learned the meaning of pressure. But it wasn't pressure from outside people. It was artistic pressure from ourselves. You can't control the commercial success of a record, so there's no point in investing energy in that. But the quality of your record is entirely up to you, and you can't blame anyone else if you write crappy songs. Before we did Meteora, I listened to "Hybrid Theory" and "Reanimation", and I was like, "Dude, I'm really proud of these records. I don't remember how we did it, and I don't know how we're gonna do it again. We're kind of screwed. Then, fortunately, we were able to invest ourselves fully in the process for 18 months, and that helped us make a really great record."[2]

Brad Delson, speaking about the album's writing background with MTV

The writing of the album began in summer 2001, during touring for Ozzfest. Shinoda and Hahn, later joined by Farrell, worked on songs within the touring bus. The intro for "Somewhere I Belong" marks it's recording during this time. The intro marks as the first example in the creativity of the recording process. Chester recorded tunes on his guitar, finding it too folky, Shinoda and Hahn added effects to it, and then played it backwards. As explained by Shinoda: "Since I reversed it, it was playing 4-3-2-1. The core-projection was reversed. Then I cut it into four pieces, and I played it 1-2-3-4. And that's why it has that sweeping sound."[5][6]

In Early 2002, after the tour, the writing continued in Mike's home studio, the venue encountered the pre-production of the album. The band worked in pairs during the writing process, whereas Shinoda was always involved in all the songs. The recording of the songs mainly used "pro tools", whereas used the traditional method in main studio. As it was June, the pre-production terminated and the band headed for the main production. The band finalised Don Gilmore as their producer. As Reanimation was released, the band had started to write the main stuff. Rob Bourdon spent, eight hours a day, in the studio for the recording of the album. By August, the band entered, NRG Studios, as Chester also began writing songs with the band.

We knew what we wanted, and we knew how to execute to a certain degree. However, we were also just going for it. We didn’t really care about what anybody else was doing. We also didn’t care whether or not the songs fit together stylistically as a whole or a collection of songs. It was more like, “This riff is sick!” Then, we’d just scream over it, and the next song would be a mid-tempo ballad and you’d sing the way that song needed to be sang. We were testing. We were students in college. We were in the lab, and we happened to stumble across something everybody liked and it worked. I think Meteora was an extension of that.

Linkin Park had basically finished versions of many songs before actually recording process had begun, but they majorly wrote the finalised songs included in the tracklist in the studio. By October the drums were finalised and guitar parts were introduced by Brad, in the control room of the studio. By October-end, bass was introduced. Don Gilmore himself being a bass player helped Farrell in his recording. The sampling part by Hahn was introduced just a month before the deadline, thereby Mike finished the recording of "Breaking the Habit" with strings arrangement by "David Campbell", the song was worked on by Shinoda since five or six years.[8] The vocal production started by November. As the deadline approached, the mixing process, as well as, the album was finished in New York City.

Composition

Meteora, which was co-produced by Don Gilmore,[9] features a mixture of the band's previous nu metal and rap metal styles with newer innovative effects. "Nobody's Listening" features a sample from the band's track "High Voltage", which appears on the B-side for the single "One Step Closer" and the bonus disc of Hybrid Theory. The sample is a distorted version of Mike Shinoda's rapping line that is in the chorus of "High Voltage" where he states "Coming at you from every side". The track also includes the induction of a shakuhachi, a Japanese flute made of bamboo. "Breaking the Habit" features an electronica-influenced sound, live strings and guitar. This is an exception from their previous nu metal/rap rock performances, as no distorted guitar riffs, nor any rapping vocals from Mike Shinoda are included – a style they would further explore on the albums A Thousand Suns and Living Things. Linkin Park comprehensively rehearsed the album, recording more than forty choruses for the first single "Somewhere I Belong". Samples of Viola and sound effects of a car burning out was used on the promotional single "Lying From You".

Lyrically the album contains elements including depressing emotions, anger and recovery. Explaining to MTV, Bennington said, "We don't talk about situations, we talk about the emotions behind the situations," Bennington explained. "Mike and I are two different people, so we can't sing about the same things, but we both know about frustration and anger and loneliness and love and happiness, and we can relate on that level." In the same Interview Shinoda explained it as, "What we really wanted to do was just push ourselves and push each other to really find new ways to be creative," Shinoda said. "We wanted each sample that was in each song to be something that might perk your ear — something that you might not have ever heard before."[10]

In a promotional interview, Rob Bourdon stated "We wanted a group of songs that would sit well together because we wanted to make a record that you could pop into your CD player and, from beginning to end, there would never be a spot where you start daydreaming."[10]

Promotion

The promotion for the album began well ahead before the album release, as there were pictures of band recording distributed to media. For providing support to the album, on October 29, there were many photo shoots of the band, at Ambassador Hotel, where the band took a break from recording the album for two days. As well as, for the cover art of the album, there was a "Art Day" when, "The Flem" and "Delta" helped the band for their art work, for the album as well as for the singles spawned by it. A commercial for the album was also published on television, on January 1, 2003.

"Somewhere I Belong" was released as the first single as, it was officially released to U.S. radio on March 18, 2003. Being released only nine days before the album release, influenced on the album performance worldwide. The second single off the album released was "Faint" before the band started it's world tour. The third single "Numb" was released when Linkin Park performed it live in Madrid. "From the Inside" was released as the fourth single off the album before the North American leg of the world tour. "Breaking the Habit" was released while the band was in Indonesia. The album was released with various limited edition content, so as, promoting it.

There is a special edition of Meteora, which includes the "Making of Meteora" DVD documentary. They are packaged together in a blue tinted case with the blue Meteora cover that can be found in some parts of Asia, United States, and more commonly in India. The Indian version contains an alternate DVD and alternative cover that is packaged in a slimline case with the disc in original packaging. The "Tour Edition" of Meteora is packaged in a two disc set. The second disc, which is a Video CD, has the music videos for "Somewhere I Belong", "Faint", "Numb", and "Breaking the Habit". The tour edition is packaged in a standard Compact Disc case, rather than their trademark digipak case. The album was also released on a very limited quantity of vinyl records (spread across two LPs) under Warner Brothers. These are coveted by collectors and fetch high prices at auction. In 2014, Linkin Park released a demo version of Shinoda singing the song, on their 14th annual fan club CD, LPU XIV.

The band promoted the album, by their Meteora World Tour and various other supporting tours. The world tour was supported by Hoobastank, P.O.D. and Story of the Year. The band played shows at, Pellissier Building and Wiltern Theatre on the day before the album release and on the release date. The shows were titled as "'Meteora' Release Show". The European leg was cancelled because Chester was having severe back and abdominal pains. As a result, half of the music video of "Numb" was shot in Los Angeles and Czech Republic. The album was also promoted by the Projekt Revolution festival. A live album was released in support of the album titled as Live in Texas. Linkin Park played various special shows worldwide like, "Reading Ireland", they performed during the Kerrang! Awards, "Livid", "X-103's Not So Silent Night", "The End's Deck The Hall Ball" and "KROQ Almost Acoustic X-Mas", in promotion of the album.

Reception

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic62/100[11]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[12]
The A.V. Clubmixed[13]
Blender[14]
E! OnlineA[15]
Entertainment WeeklyB+[16]
Melodic[17]
NME7/10[18]
Q[19]
Rolling Stone[3]
Sputnikmusic[20]

Meteora received generally positive reviews, although critics noted that the album's musical style was similar to its predecessor, Hybrid Theory (2000). The overall Metacritic score is 62.[11] E! Online rated it an A, and expected it to "shoot straight for the stars". Entertainment Weekly described it as "radio-friendly perfection". Dot Music described it as a "guaranteed source of ubiquitous radio hits".[21] Rolling Stone said the band "squeezed the last remaining life out of this nearly extinct formula".[3] Billboard Magazine described Meteora as "a ready-made crowdpleaser".[22] The New Musical Express said it had "massive commercial appeal" but left the reviewer "underwhelmed".[18]

AllMusic described it as "nothing more and nothing less than Hybrid Theory Part 2.", adding "More importantly, the group has discipline and editing skills, keeping this record at a tight 36 minutes and 41 seconds, a move that makes it considerably more listenable than its peers and, by extension, more powerful, since they know where to focus their energy, something that many nu-metal bands simply do not."[12] Sputnikmusic writer Damrod criticized the album as being too similar to Hybrid Theory, but praised the album's production quality and catchiness, stating "the songs just invade your brain".[20]

Blender described it as "harder, denser, uglier",[23] while Q described it as "less an artistic endeavor than an exercise in target marketing."[24] Entertainment Weekly gave the album a B+, calling it a "thunderously hooky album that seamlessly blends the group's disparate sonic elements into radio-friendly perfection"[16]

Commercial performance

In its first week, Meteora debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200. The album sold at least 810,000 copies its first week of release.[25] As of June 2014, the album has sold 6.1 million copies in the US,[26] and over 20 million copies worldwide. The album was ranked number 36 on Billboard's Hot 200 Albums of the Decade.[1]

Accolades

The song "Session" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 2004.

Whereas, the song "Numb/Encore", a mash-up of "Numb" by Linkin Park and "Encore" by "Jay-Z" won Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the Grammy Awards of 2006. The show featured a performance of the song, during which Paul McCartney made a surprise appearance and came onto the stage to perform a duet with Chester Bennington of The Beatles' song "Yesterday". "Yesterday" replaced "Numb" after the first rap verse of the mash-up.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Linkin Park

No.TitleLength
1."Foreword"0:13
2."Don't Stay"3:07
3."Somewhere I Belong"3:33
4."Lying from You"2:55
5."Hit the Floor"2:44
6."Easier to Run"3:24
7."Faint"2:42
8."Figure.09"3:17
9."Breaking the Habit"3:16
10."From the Inside"2:55
11."Nobody's Listening"2:58
12."Session"2:24
13."Numb"3:07
Total length:36:35
Digital deluxe, South Korean and Indonesian/Thai cassette tour edition bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
14."Lying from You" (Live LP Underground Tour 2003)3:04
15."From the Inside" (Live LP Underground Tour 2003)2:55
16."Easier to Run" (Live LP Underground Tour 2003)3:22
Total length:45:53
2013 iTunes deluxe edition bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
14."Step Up" (Live)4:14
15."Somewhere I Belong" (Live at Milton Keynes)3:41
Limited edition bonus DVD
No.TitleLength
1."The Making of Meteora"34:19
Asian tour edition bonus VCD
No.TitleLength
1."Somewhere I Belong"3:44
2."Faint"2:56
3."Numb"3:06
4."Breaking the Habit"3:18

Multimedia Part

  • The Art of Meteora – 17:04
  • "Somewhere I Belong" Video
  • LPTV
  • Website tool-kit
  • Extra
  • Merch
  • LP Underground

Meteora – Live Around the World

Untitled

Meteora – Live Around the World is a live album which features live versions of seven songs from the second studio album, Meteora. They were recorded in various cities around the world from 2007 to 2011. The album was released exclusively on iTunes, and it served as a sequel to "Hybrid Theory – Live Around the World".

Track listing

All tracks are written by Linkin Park

Meteora – Live Around the World
No.TitleLength
1."Don't Stay" (Live in Shanghai, 2007)3:16
2."Somewhere I Belong" (Live in Koln, 2008)4:09
3."Lying from You" (Live in New York, 2008)2:57
4."Faint" (Live in Hamburg, 2011)3:41
5."Breaking the Habit" (Live in Hamburg)4:15
6."From the Inside" (Live in Sydney)3:28
7."Numb" (Live in New York, 2008)3:41

Personnel

Linkin Park
Additional musicians
  • David Campbell – Strings arrangement on "Faint" and "Breaking the Habit"
  • Joel Derouin, Charlie Bisharat, Alyssa Park, Sara Parkins, Michelle Richards, Mark Robertson – Violins
  • Evan Wilson, Bob Becker – Violas
  • Larry Corbett, Dan Smith – Celli
  • David Zasloff – shakuhachi flute on "Nobody's Listening"
Production

Charts and Certifications

Singles

Year Song Peak chart positions
U.S.

[75]

U.S.
Alt.

[75]
U.S.
Main

[75]
AUS
[76]
NZ
[77]
UK
[78]
BEL
[79]
FRA
[80]
FRA
[80]
GER
[81]
ITA
[82]
IRE
[83]
NLD
[84]
NOR
[85]
SWE
[86]
SWI
[87]
2003 "Somewhere I Belong" 32 1 1 13 1 10 33 14 32 12 13 4 14 12 19 15
"Faint" 48 1 2 25 15 44 40 29 26 20 49 32
"Numb" (Platinum) 11 1 1 11 13 14 48 19 19 47 16 2 23 15
2004 "From the Inside" 37 50 35 35 54 38
"Breaking the Habit" 20 1 1 23 27 39 27 25 46 41 56

Promotional singles

Year Song Peak chart positions
U.S.

[75]

U.S.
Alt.

[75]
U.S.
Main

[75]
2004 "Lying from You" 58 1 2

Album number-one chart successions

Order of precedence
Preceded by Billboard 200 number-one album
April 6, 2003 – April 19, 2003
Succeeded by
Preceded by UK number one album
April 5, 2003 – April 11, 2003
Succeeded by

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