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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 was produced by Mike Shinoda and Rick Rubin. Minutes to Midnight features a shift in the group's musical direction. For the band, the album marks a beginning of deviation from their signature nu metal sound. Minutes to Midnight takes it title from the Doomsday Clock.

Linkin Park started work on their third studio album in 2003, taking a break to tour in support of Meteora in 2004. In this time period, the band formed numerous side projects; Mike Shinoda formed his hip hop side project Fort Minor, while Chester Bennington formed Dead by Sunrise, causing the album to be shelved temporarily. The band returned to work on the record afterward, taking on a different musical direction than the 2003 sessions while working with producer Rick Rubin. The album's completion was delayed several times for unknown reasons. Eventually, "What I've Done" was chosen as the album's lead single in April 2007, with the album seeing release in North America on May 15, 2007.

The album debuted at number one in the United States and in 15 other countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada.[1][2][3] 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.[4] Despite its commercial success, Minutes to Midnight received mixed reviews from critics.[5] Rolling Stone magazine named it the twenty-fifth best album of 2007.[6] It was ranked number 154 on Billboard's Hot 200 Albums of the Decade.[7]

Background

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."[8]

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."[9][10]

Recording and composition

"Bleed It Out"
16-second sample of "Bleed It Out", the second single from Minutes to Midnight.
"Shadow of the Day"
30-second sample of "Shadow of the Day", the third single from Minutes to Midnight.
Problems playing these files? See media help.

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). 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 because of the low mixing, 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, electronics, and other elements to many of the songs. 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. Shinoda stated in an interview: "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."[11]

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, particularly "fuck". 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" while "What I've Done", "Shadow of the Day", "No More Sorrow" 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 thus the first Linkin Park studio album to contain a Parental Advisory (the first overall being their collaborative EP with Jay-Z, Collision Course) and politically charged lyrics.[12] The only songs that use profanity are "Given Up", "Bleed It Out" and "Hands Held High", which use the word "fuck".

Release, promotion and reception

iTunes

In a bonus video edition of the album (exclusively on iTunes), a Behind the Scenes featurette as well as the music video for "What I've Done" are included. The music video can be purchased separately while the Behind the Scenes video can only be obtained when purchasing the album.

Commercial

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. 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 edited. 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. In the United States, the album had the biggest first week sales of 2007 at the time, with 625,000 albums sold.[13] In Canada, the album sold over 50,000 copies in its first week and debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart.[2] Worldwide, the album shipped over 3.3 million copies in its first four weeks of release.[14]

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. 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. The album worldwide has sold over 8 million copies.

Critical

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic56/100[15]
Review scores
SourceRating
About.com[16]
Allmusic[17]
Entertainment WeeklyC[18]
Los Angeles Times[19]
New York Timesmixed[20]
NME2/10[21]
PopMatters6/10[22]
Rolling Stone[23]
Spin7/10[24]
USA Today[25]
Village Voicefavorable[26]

Minutes to Midnight received generally mixed reviews, based on an aggregate score of 56/100 from Metacritic,[5] 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",[23] and it was placed at number 25 in their list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007.[6] IGN referred to it as "definitely a step in the right direction and a stepping stone for things to come".[27] 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".[16] 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?".[28] 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".[29]

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 and a half out of 5 stars.[17] 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".[21]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Linkin Park

No.TitleLength
1."Wake"1:41
2."Given Up"3:08
3."Leave Out All the Rest"3:28
4."Bleed It Out"2:47
5."Shadow of the Day"4:50
6."What I've Done"3:27
7."Hands Held High"3:58
8."No More Sorrow"3:49
9."Valentine's Day"3:16
10."In Between"3:16
11."In Pieces"3:38
12."The Little Things Give You Away"6:22
Total length:43:31
Special Edition bonus DVD
No.TitleLength
1."The Making of Minutes to Midnight"39:42
2.""What I've Done" Video"3:28
3."Making Of "What I've Done" Video"20:49
4."Advanced Resolution PCM Stereo Of All 12 Tracks" 
Tour edition bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
13."No Roads Left"3:55
14."What I've Done" (Distorted Remix)3:46
15."Given Up" (Third Encore Session)3:09
iTunes edition bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
13."What I've Done" (Live at Sessions@AOL)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 Sessions@AOL)3:29
14."No More Sorrow" (Live at Sessions@AOL)3:45
15."Given Up" (Live at Sessions@AOL)3:12
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)[30]
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
iTunes bonus video edition
No.TitleLength
13."Behind the Scenes featurette"3:47
14."What I've Done (music video)"3:27

Personnel

Charts and certifications

Singles

Year Song Peak chart positions
U.S.

[63]

U.S.
Alt.
[63] 		U.S.
Main
[63] 		AUS
[64] 		NZ
[65] 		UK
[66] 		BEL
[67] 		FIN
[68] 		FRA
[68] 		GER
[69] 		ITA
[70] 		IRE
[71] 		NLD
[72] 		NOR
[73] 		SWE
[74] 		SWI
[75]
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

References

  1. ^ "Linkin Park Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved 10 August 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  2. ^ a b Williams, John (May 23, 2007). "Linkin Park screams up charts". Jam!. Retrieved April 7, 2011.
  3. ^ "Rihanna, Linkin Park Take Control Of U.K. Charts". Billboard. Retrieved 10 August 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  4. ^ RIAA Certification – RIAA Awards – RIAA News
  5. ^ a b Minutes to Midnight (2007): Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ Music Albums, Top 200 Albums & Music Album Charts | Billboard.com
  8. ^ cna.co.za: Browser Not Valid
  9. ^ Folhateen Article. April 3, 2007.
  10. ^ "Linkin Park Say Nu-Metal Sound Is 'Completely Gone' On Next LP". Retrieved 2007-06-01.
  11. ^ Mike Shinoda (May 15, 2007). Minutes to Midnight (Special Edition) (Music Documentary).
  12. ^ Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight
  13. ^ "Linkin Park Scores Year's Best Debut With 'Midnight'". Billboard. Retrieved 14 August 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  14. ^ IGN Music (20 June 2007). "Linkin Park Goes Platinum". IGN.com. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
  15. ^ "Minutes To Midnight Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic.com. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
  16. ^ a b Lamb, Bill. Review: Minutes to Midnight. About.com. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  17. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Review: Minutes to Midnight. Allmusic. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  18. ^ Willman, Chris. Review: Minutes to Midnight. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  19. ^ Powers, Ann. Review: Minutes to Midnight. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  20. ^ Sanneh, Kelefa. Review: Minutes to Midnight. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  21. ^ a b Silver, Dan. Review: Minutes to Midnight. NME. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  22. ^ Blackie, Andrew. Review: Minutes to Midnight. PopMatters. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  23. ^ a b Fricke, David (2007-05-30). "Minutes To Midnight". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2012-03-15. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  24. ^ Wood, Mikael (2007-06-27). "Linkin Park, 'Minutes to Midnight'". Spin. Retrieved 2012-04-16.
  25. ^ Gundersen, Edna. Review: Minutes to Midnight. USA Today. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  26. ^ Kamps, Garrett. Review: Minutes to Midnight. The Village Voice. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  27. ^ Spence D. Review: Minutes to Midnight. IGN. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  28. ^ Tye, Karen. "Review: Minutes to Midnight". Herald Sun: 2007.
  29. ^ Sullivan, Caroline. Review: Minutes to Midnight. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2009-11-08.
  30. ^ HMV
  31. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "Australian Charts – Linkin Park – Minutes to Midnight". Hung Medien. Retrieved 2010-08-15.
  32. ^ "Linkin Park: Canadian albums". Billboard Magazine. Retrieved 2011-01-27.
  33. ^ "IFPI: Top 50 Prodejni (2007 week 21) albums". ifpicr.cz. Retrieved 2011-01-27.
  34. ^ "European Albums: Week of June 02, 2007". Billboard Magazine. Retrieved 2011-01-27.
  35. ^ "Chartverfolgung / Linkin Park / Longplay". Musicline.de. Retrieved 2011-01-27.
  36. ^ "Ελληνικό Chart". Ifpi.gr. Retrieved 2012-04-11.
  37. ^ "Archivum: Top 40 album (2007 (Week 20)". Mahasz. Retrieved 2012-06-16.
  38. ^ "Week 1 rankings album Hogaku June 2007". Oricon. Retrieved 2011-01-27.
  39. ^ "28 May 2007". Olis. Retrieved 2011-01-27.
  40. ^ "Chart Sats: Linkin Park". Chart Stats. Retrieved 2011-01-27.
  41. ^ "Linkin Park: Bllboard 200". Billboard Magazine. Retrieved 2011-01-27.
  42. ^ :: MTV | Album Jahrescharts 2007|charts
  43. ^ :: MTV | Album Jahrescharts 2008|charts
  44. ^ Capif
  45. ^ ARIA Charts - Accreditations - 2007 Albums | Aria.com.au
  46. ^ IFPI Austria – Verband der Österreichischen Musikwirtschaft
  47. ^ ultratop.be – ULTRATOP BELGIAN CHARTS
  48. ^ IFPI Danmark – 2007
  49. ^ IFPI Platinum Europe Awards – 2010
  50. ^ Kulta- ja platinalevyt
  51. ^ "Certifications Albums Or – année 2007". Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique. Retrieved 2010-11-24.
  52. ^ "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank ('Minutes to Midnight')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie.
  53. ^ "Ελληνικό Chart". Ifpi.gr. Retrieved 2012-04-11.
  54. ^ Hungarian Album Chart
  55. ^ "Kereso". Mahasz. Retrieved 2010-11-24.
  56. ^ "At work certified in May 2007". RIAJ. Retrieved 2010-10-04.
  57. ^ "New Zealand Albums Top 40: Chart No:1588". Recording Industry Association of New Zealand. 2007-10-29. Retrieved 2010-11-24.
  58. ^ "Złote CD: 2007". ZPAV. Retrieved 2010-11-24.
  59. ^ Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa – List of Platinum and Gold albums in 2008
  60. ^ The Official Swiss Charts and Music Community
  61. ^ "BPI – Certified Awards". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 2009-10-06.
  62. ^ RIAA – Gold & Platinum – October 10, 2010
  63. ^ a b c "Linkin Park > Chart History".
  64. ^ "Australian Singles Chart". Australian-charts.com. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  65. ^ "New Zealand Singles Chart". charts.org.nz. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  66. ^ "British Album Chart". Chart Stats. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  67. ^ "Belgian Singles Chart". ultratop.be. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  68. ^ a b "French Singles Chart". lescharts.com. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  69. ^ "German Album Chart". Charts-Surfer. Archived from the original on October 29, 2007. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  70. ^ "Italian Singles Chart". italiancharts.com. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  71. ^ "Irish Singles Chart". The Irish Charts. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  72. ^ "Dutch Top 40". Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 2010-01-14.
  73. ^ "Norwegian Singles Chart". norwegiancharts.com. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  74. ^ "Swedish Singles Chart". swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  75. ^ "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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