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Linkin Park: Minutes to Midnight

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Warner Bros. Records
Released: 2007.05.14
Time:
 43:23
Category: Industrial Rock
Producer(s): Rick Rubin, Mike Shinoda
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.linkinpark.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2012
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Wake (Linkin Park) - 1:40
[2] Given Up (Linkin Park) - 3:09
[3] Leave Out All the Rest (Linkin Park) - 3:29
[4] Bleed It Out (Linkin Park) - 2:44
[5] Shadow of the Day (Linkin Park) - 4:49
[6] What I've Done (Linkin Park) - 3:25
[7] Hands Held High (Linkin Park) - 3:53
[8] No More Sorrow (Linkin Park) - 3:41
[9] Valentine's Day (Linkin Park) - 3:16
[10] In Between (Linkin Park) - 3:16
[11] In Pieces (Linkin Park) - 3:38
[12] The Little Things Give You Away (Linkin Park) - 6:23

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Chester Bennington - Vocals, Rhythm Guitar on [5]
Mike Shinoda - Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Piano, Producer, String Arrangements on [3,5,7,12]
Brad Delson - Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals, String Arrangements on [3,5,7,12]
Dave "Phoenix" Farrell - Bass, Backing Vocals
Joseph Hahn - Turntables, Sampling, Programming, Backing Vocals
Rob Bourdon - Drums, Backing Vocals

David Campbell - String Arrangements & Conducting on [3,5,7,12]
Charlie Bisharat - Violin on [3,5,7,12]
Mario Deleon - Violin on [3,5,7,12]
Armen Garabedian - Violin on [3,5,7,12]
Julian Hallmark - Violin on [3,5,7,12]
Gerry Hilera - Violin on [3,5,7,12]
Songa Lee-Kitto - Violin on [3,5,7,12]
Natalie Leggett - Violin on [3,5,7,12]
Josefina Vergara - Violin on [3,5,7,12]
Sara Parkins - Violin on [3,5,7,12]
Matt Funes - Viola on [3,5,7,12]
Andrew Picken - Viola on [3,5,7,12]
Larry Corbett - Cello on [3,5,7,12]
Suzie Katayama - Cello on [3,5,7,12]
Oscar Hidalgo - Bass on [3,5,7,12]

Rick Rubin - Producer
Dana Nielsen - Engineer
Andrew Scheps - Engineer
Ethan Mates - Engineer
Phillip Broussard, Jr. - Engineer Assisting
Neal Avron - Mixing
Nicolas Fournier - Mixing Assisting
George Gumbs - Mixing Assisting
Dave Collins - Mastering

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded between February 2006 - January 2007 at The Mansion and NRG Recording Studios.



Rap metal is dead. Linkin Park are not, because they were always more than the meager sum of that combination — more pop and classic rock in their riffs, hooks and drive, even on Collision Course, their 2004 mash-up with Jay-Z. On Minutes to Midnight, co-produced by Rick Rubin, Linkin Park are more of something else — topical — and furiously good at it. In the last song, "The Little Things Give You Away," the band coolly torpedoes George W. Bush's petty, disastrous arrogance on Iraq and New Orleans (for starters), building from acoustic strum and soft-shoe electronics to magisterial Seventies-arena guitar and lacerating disgust. "All you've ever wanted was someone to truly look up to you," Chester Bennington sings. "And six feet underwater/I do."

That's not all. Bennington is not going over old-girlfriend ground when he promises, "Your time is borrowed," in the hammering thrash of "No More Sorrow." And Mike Shinoda's state-of-disbelief rap "Hands Held High" comes with military-funeral drums and an "amen" chorus. This would be as much fun as a filibuster if Linkin Park did not pay equal attention to the punch and detail in the gritty stomp "Bleed It Out" and the balled-fist guilt of "What I've Done." "Shadow of the Day" is a too-literal echo of Joshua Tree-era U2, but most of Minutes is honed, metallic pop with a hip-hop stride and a wake-up kick. "What the fuck is wrong with me?" Bennington barks over the jingle bells and distortion in "Given Up." The answer all over this record: nothing that getting off your ass can't fix.

David Fricke - May 30, 2007
RollingStone.com



Linkin Park’s recent revelation that they were never really nu-metal couldn’t have been more disingenuous had they claimed to have been just following orders. They won’t let it lie, though; their fourth album opens with an instrumental called ‘Wake’ which could have been titled ‘Look Ma, No Ham-Fisted Raps!’ What follows is the sound of a band trying and failing to forge a new identity – boy-band balladry, U2-style stadium rock and Metallica-esque melodic crunch are all attempted with predictably patchy results. Album centrepiece ‘Hands Held High’, however, is far, far worse: an asinine anti-Bush diatribe on which multi-millionaire Mike Shinoda seethes that folk can’t afford gas no more, it climaxes with Chester Bennington chanting “Amen” over gospel keys and a marching band beat and is far and away the funniest thing you’ll hear all year.

Dan Silver - NME



With over 20 million sold album Linkin Park is one of the biggest rock phenomena in modern history. Their debut “Hybrid Theory” produced by Don Gilmore was when it came in 2000 a real bomb with a bombastic numetal sound that we hadn’t heard before. Tunes like “Crawling” and “In The End” made the band spinning on MTV for years and gave a bunch of award worldwide. The follow up “Meteora”, released three years later wasn’t as successful, of course! But it has sold the respectable numbers of 6 millions records and is a nice piece of modern rap metal. Those two albums have made the band one of the biggest acts today and I can imagine that the pressure for this third album was enormous.

Read that the band wrote like 150 songs for “Minutes To Midnight” and spend 14 months in the studio to create anything they haven’t ever done before. And when have listened to this album now for some days and can without a doubt answer yes on those thoughts from the band. This album contains songs and styles that we haven’t heard before from the band. This is far more progressive and experimental than the two previous efforts and you can clearly hear that the band have tried and tried. But does it work then? I’m sorry to say no here. The album feels way too shattered with like 5 different styles in it and I leaves at least me just confused after the spins. What happened to the energy, the power and the explosive emotions represented on “Hybrid Theory” and “Meteora”? It feels like they have lost everything when the money started to roll in and just had to release an album to make the label and fans happy. If this is the best ones out of the 100 something song ideas they had, I’m not that interested of hearing the rest.

I know that the phrase “A good song is always a good song” is an old worn cliché, but its working really good here. Linking Park sure has some nice ideas and has really tried to develop their “classic” numetal style into something new. But the songs are way too weak and have to say that this is their far weakest album up-to-date.

If it will sell half of the amount of that “Meteora” did (6 million) I would be really surprised. A big failure would be the best thing that could happen to the band so that they would deliver some true and honest emotions on their next effort. A good try, but a big disappointment in the end!

Johan Wippsson - Melodic



In retrospect, it’s clear that the stratospheric success of Linkin Park marked the end of an era. Two eras, actually. With the rise of Linkin Park, the great (or not-so-great) rap-rock boom of the 1990s had one last hurrah. And with the release of group’s 2000 debut album, “Hybrid Theory,” which sold more than nine million copies in the United States, the great CD sales boom of the 1990s had one of its last hurrahs, too.

Seven years later (and four years after the successful sequel, “Meteora”), CD sales are in the toilet and rap-rock has been flushed, so the members of Linkin Park are trying to evolve and survive with “Minutes to Midnight.” In deference to the current climate, they have de-emphasized rap-rock and tentatively embraced emo. “What I’ve Done,” the first single (already a rock-radio staple), begins with Chester Bennington, the lead singer, delivering the kind of vague but overwritten lyrics that emo bands are known for: “In this farewell, there’s no blood, there’s no alibi/’Cause I’ve drawn regret from the truth of a thousand lies.” If you’re waiting for the rapping to start, you’ll wait in vain.

Maybe Rick Rubin, who helped produce, got the musicians to loosen up, but loose is relative with a band this fastidious. Instead of writing songs during jam sessions, the members typically share ideas by swapping hard drives. Even on this album, just about everything is tweaked to perfection, and there’s always an infectious refrain around the corner (provided you can survive the often banal verses).

As you might imagine, the band’s emo makeover doesn’t always go smoothly. “Valentine’s Day,” in particular, is alarmingly silly even before you get to the hilarious chorus: “I never knew what it was like to be alone/On a Valentine’s Day.” And in “Hands Held High,” Mike Shinoda delivers anti-Bush rhymes in a style that could be described as Eminem Lite; “Lightweights step to the side,” he raps, conspicuously declining to follow his own command.

By contrast, “In Between” is a pleasant surprise: Mr. Shinoda does a more-than-passable impression of a lovelorn emo singer. And “Shadow of the Day” is a handsome, radio-friendly ballad that keeps threatening to morph into U2’s “With or Without You.” Two eras may be over, but this band seems nostalgic for only one of them.

Kelefa Sanneh - The New York Times



To the list of America’s most endangered professions — lighthouse keepers, Detroit autoworkers, record-store clerks — add rappers in rock bands. Linkin Park certainly haven’t failed to notice the nü-metal market withering since their last multiplatinum album in ‘03. They probably read the self-pitying blog ramblings of Bizkit-turned-filmmaker Fred Durst and thought: There but for the grace of God go we. A response to this crisis is apparent on Minutes to Midnight, their third studio disc. Before, Mike Shinoda rapped on nearly everything the band cut, sharing the limelight with singer Chester Bennington; here he throws down his mad rhyming skillz on a mere two numbers. (As consolation, Shinoda sings lead on a third track and earns a co-producer credit…but it’s still marginalizing for a guy who rapped his way almost to the top of the Hot 100 last year with ”Where’d You Go,” from side project Fort Minor.)

So who’s the pied piper leading Linkin away from rap-rock? Ironically, it’s co-producer Rick Rubin, the man who presided over the hybrid’s invention. Whether he offered any game plan for replacing the missing elements, though, isn’t clear. Amid the stabs at growth, every new effect sounds borrowed. The electronic pulse that opens ”Shadow of the Day” sounds like an ancient NIN loop; then the song turns into their ”With or Without You,” gradually adding elements — a snare, strings — in a wan attempt at anthemic momentum. The piano intro to ”What I’ve Done”…where have we heard that before? Oh, yeah: It sounds like the theme from Halloween. (Maybe they’ll get a hit ringtone out of it — John Carpenter did.)

Bennington still has a rare gift for screaming and hitting recognizable notes at the same time. He manages some impressive bellowing on the handful of Metallica-flavored barn burners, especially on ”Given Up,” where he yowls ”Put me out of my f—ing misery!” — holding that last ”eeeeeee!” for 17 seconds. (Yes, we timed it.) More often, though, he uses what a parent would call his ”inside voice,” softly crooning about how a ”shadow of the day will embrace the world in gray” or how his ”insides all turn to ash, so slow.” Without Shinoda to interrupt , Bennington is forced all the more to be his own egocentric, emo-centric foil.

Now, guess what the best cuts are. Yep: the two where Shinoda gets his spoken word on — namely ”Bleed It Out,” the most viscerally exciting thing the band has ever done; here, his rant provokes them into picking up the pace, not slackening it. We’re no Rick Rubin, but some advice: Next time, guys, embrace your outmoded identity, throw cred or caution to the wind, and let your rap-rock freak flag fly.

Chris Willman, May 11 2007
Entertainment Weekly



Damned if they do, damned if they don't - that was the conundrum facing Linkin Park when it came time to deliver Minutes to Midnight, their third album. It had been four years since their last, 2003's Meteora, which itself was essentially a continuation of the rap-rock of their 2000 debut, Hybrid Theory, the blockbuster that was one of the biggest rock hits of the new millennium. On that album, Linkin Park sounded tense and nervous, they sounded wiry - rap-rock without the maliciousness that pulsed through mock-rockers like Limp Bizkit. Linkin Park seemed to come by their alienation honestly, plus they had hooks and a visceral power that connected with millions of listeners, many of whom who were satisfied by the familiarity of Meteora. They may have been able to give their fans more of the same on their sophomore effort, but Linkin Park couldn't do the same thing on their third record: they would seem like one-trick ponies, so they'd be better off to acknowledge their advancing age and try to mature, or broaden their sonic palette. Yet like many other hard rockers, they were the kind of band whose audience either didn't want change or outgrew the group -- and considering that it had been a full seven years between Hybrid Theory and Minutes to Midnight, many fans who were on the verge of getting their driver's license in 2000 were now leaving college and, along with it, adolescent angst.

So, Linkin Park decided to embrace the inevitable and jumped headfirst into maturity on Minutes to Midnight, which meant that poor Mike Shinoda was effectively benched, rapping on just two songs. In many ways, it seems like even the guitarists were benched this time around, since Minutes to Midnight doesn't really rock, it broods. Apart from a handful of ringers -- "Given Up," the Shinoda-fueled "Bleed It Out," easily the best, most visceral track here -- this is quiet, atmospheric stuff, dabbling with electronic textures that were cutting edge in 1996 but sound passé now. Also sounding passé are the tortured musings of lead singer Chester Bennington, who still is tormented by love, loss, family, any number of items that sound convincing coming from a man in his early twenties, but not so much so when the thirties are approaching rapidly. And yet the way Bennington and his mates, shepherded by producer Rick Rubin, try to sound mature isn't always convincing, either, possibly because it sounds like a skate punk uncomfortably trying on his big brother's suit. They have the chops to rock, and when they deign to do so on Minutes to Midnight they sound comfortable, they sound right, but too often they run away from this core strength.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine - All Music Guide



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 was the band's first album since Meteora (2003) and 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 its 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. In the United States, the album had the biggest first week sales of 2007 at the time, with 623,000 albums sold, going on to be certified triple platinum in the United States. The album worldwide has sold over 15 million copies. It was also certified double platinum in 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 number 154 on Billboard's Hot 200 Albums of the Decade.

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 number 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". Herald Sun writer Karen Tye gave it 3½ out of 4 stars and praised the band's new sound, asking, "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 and a half out of 5 stars. Johan Wippsson from Melodic acknowledged the band's progression but felt that the album is "weak" and "too shattered". 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".

Wikipedia.org
 

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