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Minutes to Midnight is Linkin Park's third studio album that was released, depending on location, between May 9, 2007 and May 18, 2007. It has been certified 2x Platinum worldwide for sales of over 4.7 million copies.

The album debuted at #1 in the United States and in 15 other countries around the world. In the U.S. the album had the biggest first week sales of 2007 with 625,000 albums sold, but it was later surpassed by Kanye West's album Graduation. The album was certified Platinum (One million albums sold) in the U.S. and shipped over 3.3 million albums worldwide in its first four weeks of release.

There are two versions of the album cover. Both feature all six members of the band in black clothing. On the slipcase, the band members are looking away from the camera and on some of the standard jewel case covers, most of the band members are looking at the camera. The order of the band (from left to right) is as follows: Chester Bennington, Phoenix, Joe Hahn, Brad Delson, Rob Bourdon, and Mike Shinoda.

The lead single from the album, "What I've Done", was digitally released on April 3 in the UK and April 2 in the U.S. The CD single was released on April 30.

Track listing

All songs written by Linkin Park From Minutes To Midnight.

1. "Wake" – 1:41
2. "Given Up" – 3:09
3. "Leave Out All the Rest" – 3:29
4. "Bleed It Out" – 2:44
5. "Shadow of the Day" – 4:49
6. "What I've Done" – 3:25
7. "Hands Held High" – 3:53
8. "No More Sorrow" – 3:42
9. "Valentine's Day" – 3:17
10. "In Between" – 3:17
11. "In Pieces" – 3:38
12. "The Little Things Give You Away" – 6:24

B-Sides

• "No Roads Left" – 3:48 (Only available from iTunes as an album only song)
  

Release

The album was delayed multiple times, first scheduled for summer 2006, then fall 2006, then early 2007, until finally, the release date was set for May 15, 2007. In an interview in September 2006, Shinoda explained, "When songs are pouring out you don't ever want to stop that. We already have over 100 roughs for songs. We've narrowed it down since but we're not ready to commit to those yet.

From the late stages of the demo sessions, "QWERTY", which was rumored to be on Minutes to Midnight, has appeared on the Linkin Park Underground v6.0 CD on December 5, 2006 in both live and studio demo versions.

"This was a year-and-a-half long process of really hard work and experimentation in the studio that yielded about 150 rough songs," guitarist Brad Delson told Billboard.com. "Not only is this album incredibly diverse, but the depth of the material is really strong."

The first single, "What I've Done", was released April 2, 2007, and debuted at number one on the U.S. Modern Rock chart.

"Given Up", "What I've Done" and "No More Sorrow" made their live debut on April 28, 2007 in Berlin. Live performances of these three songs at the Sessions@AOL were released on AOL on May 5, 2007.

On May 12, 2007, Linkin Park played "Bleed It Out" on Saturday Night Live, along with "What I've Done". Also, on May 18, 2007, Linkin Park appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and again performed "What I've Done" and "Bleed It Out".

CD/DVD Special Editions

A CD/DVD Special Edition of Minutes to Midnight is available. It is designed to look like a book and contains a 32-page art book featuring the lyrics and conceptual art by artists who are friends with the band, along with pictures of the recording process. The cover of the North American version is grey, but in all other areas is black.

The bonus DVD contains the following:

• Advanced Resolution PCM Stereo (48 kHz/24-bit) versions of all 12 tracks
• The Making of Minutes to Midnight Documentary
• The Making of "What I've Done"
• The "What I've Done" music video

The DVD-ROM features are:

• A PDF booklet with lyrics
• A flash widget and a fansite toolkit.
• One Instant Messenger Buddy icon
• Exclusive DVD links to the official Linkin Park website, only accessible through the DVD
• Screensavers
• Wallpapers

The band also released a Super Fan Edition of the album. The only difference to the Special Edition was the book (being of 64 pages rather than 32). The DVD contains the same content.

There have been a number of problems with the DVD. Users have experienced problems accessing the DVD-ROM features, as certain computers may not be able to access the enhanced portion of this disc. In Canada, Warner Records recalled the CD/DVD Edition due to the faulty DVD. The final release date for the repaired discs is yet to be known. As such orders are no longer available from the website BandMerch.com, nor is it available in stores. It is still available at some local Wal-Marts, yet the DVD is still faulty.

Clean Editions

There were non-PA releases of both the regular CD and the special edition CD. The songs "Given Up", "Bleed It Out", and "Hands Held High" were slightly edited, by the removal of profanities all together.

Sound

Overall Minutes to Midnight is Linkin Park's softest studio album, focusing more in layers and textures of the music, thus creating a more melodic approachable sound. In an interview with Chester Bennington it is explained that the new album is a mix of punk, classic rock, and hip-hop beats. "Rick has brought more of a stripped down, classic-rock and hip-hop kind of feel."

In another interview with Chester, he 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."

"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," said Mike Shinoda.

This is their first album where Mike Shinoda sings lead vocals for a full length track ("In Between"), rather than rapping. It is also the first to contain guitar solos (particularly on "In Pieces" and "The Little Things Give You Away"). Unlike the two previous studio albums, Minutes to Midnight contains profanity and politically-charged lyrics.

Mike Shinoda performs his rapping vocals on only two tracks, "Bleed It Out" and "Hands Held High". This is a significant decrease compared to previous albums. The rap vocals on the album are much closer styled to Mike Shinoda's side project Fort Minor than his traditional Linkin Park verses. Despite a decrease of Mike Shinoda as rapper, he has two solo lead songs on the record. In addition to his rapping on "Hands Held High", which features background vocals from the entire band (the "men's choir" singing "Amen" is actually each member of the band), he also sings the lead vocals for "In Between". He also sings solo on the bonus track "No Roads Left" in a much more aggressive rock style than on "In Between" with no backing vocals from Bennington. Bennington & Shinoda play guitar on "No Roads Left", the iTunes exclusive bonus track.

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", "Valentine's Day", "In Pieces", "In Between" and "The Little Things Give You Away". Hahn contributes more with programming, electronica, and other elements to many of the songs.

Guitarist Brad Delson experimented with an E-Bow 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 (Brad shakes his finger on the strings of his guitar creating the long reverb effect similar to the sound of an E-Bow). In "Given Up" you can hear him jingling his keys while Mike Shinoda claps.

Reception

The album has polarized critics and was coldly received by fans. Many critics have compared the album to U2's style of music. In a two out of five stars review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of All Music Guide described the album's sound as "passé" and summed the band's effort up as "opting to create a muddled, colorless murk." In the UK, NME magazine's Dan Silver awarded it 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" as "far and away the funniest thing you will hear all year."

However Rolling Stone magazine gave the album 4/5, as well IGN said "This is definitely a step in the right direction and a stepping stone for things to come". Bill Lamb of About.com considered Minutes to Midnight "an impressive achievement" and went on to say "Linkin Park handles their explorations of a direction forward with impressive grace here". The album received mixed reviews overall on Metacritic, with an average vote of 56/100, below the 62/100 score of their previous album, Meteora.

Demo and working titles

• "Given Up" - 21 Stitches
• "Leave Out All The Rest" - Fear & When My Time Comes
• "Bleed It Out" - Accident
• "Hands Held High" - Song Q
• "No More Sorrow" - EBow Idea
• "In Pieces" - Pictures
• "The Little Things Give You Away" - The Drum Song
• "No Roads Left" - Patients & No Roads But One

Leak

On May 4, 2007, 10 days before its official world release, the real Minutes to Midnight was leaked. The following day, Mike Shinoda posted his response to the leak:

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

Personnel

• Chester Bennington — lead vocals, guitar on "No Roads Left" And "Shadow of the Day".
• Rob Bourdon — drums
• Brad Delson — lead guitar
• Dave "Phoenix" Farrell — bass guitar, backing vocals
• Joseph Hahn — turntables, sampling, programming,
• Mike Shinoda — vocals, MC, keyboard, rhythm guitar, producer (co-producer)

Other contributors

• Rick Rubin - producer

Charts and sales

Singles

Other charting songs

References

1. "Billbord.com-discography-Linkin Park-Bleed it out". Retrieved 2007-06-29.
2. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/retrieve_chart_history.do
3. . /news/minutes-to-midnight-a-worldwide-success/ "Minutes To Midnight A Worldwide Success". {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
4. http://www.minutes2 . /
5. UK Music
6. http://minutes-to-midnight.blogspot.com/
7. "Timbaland Soars to No. 1 After Sales Explosion". Billboard. April 12 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
8. http://music.aol.com/video/what-ive-done-aol-sessions/linkin-park/1887990
9. "Minutes to Midnight" Special Edition CD/DVD
11. Folhateen Article. April 3, 2007.
12. "Linkin Park Say Nu-Metal Sound Is 'Completely Gone' On Next LP". Retrieved 2007-06-01.
13. Mike Shinoda (May 15 2007). Minutes to Midnight (Special Edition) (Music Documentary). {{cite AV media}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
14. http://www.gamespot.com/users/-MlKE-/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=m-100-25014768&print=1
15. http://www.coffee-bytes.com/node/554 Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight
16. http://linkinpark.com/biography
17. http://sambinismail.blogspot.com/2007/07/linkin-park-minutes-to-midnight-2007.html
18. "Linkin Park: Minutes to Midnight". Retrieved 2007-06-01.
19. "Linkin Park: Minutes to Midnight". Retrieved 2007-06-01.
20. "Minutes to Midnight Leaked". Retrieved 2007-06-01.
21. Argentinian Album Chart
22. Australian Top 50 ARIA Album Chart
23. Austrian Album Chart
24. Belgium Flanders Album Chart
25. Belgium Wallonian Album Chart
26. Brazilian Album Chart
27. Canadian Album Chart
28. Chile Top 10
29. Croatian International Album Chart
30. Cyprus International Album Chart
31. Czech Album Chart
32. Danish Album Chart
33. Estonian Album Chart
34. European Top 100 Albums Chart
35. Finnish Albums Chart
36. French Album Chart
37. German Album Chart
38. Greek Album Chart
39. Hungarian Album Chart
40. Irish Album Chart
41. Israeli Album Chart
42. Italian Album Chart
43. Japan Album Chart
44. Korean Album Chart
45. Mexico Top 100l Album Chart
46. Mexican Gold Certification
47. Netherlands Albums Chart
48. New Zealand Album Charts
49. Norwegian Albums Chart
50. Polish Album Chart
51. Portugal Album Chart
52. Spain Album Chart
53. Swedish Album Chart
54. Swiss Album Chart
55. "5-Music Top 20".Taiwan 5-Music Chart..
56. Taiwan G-Music Western Chart
57. Taiwanese Album Chart
58. UK Album Chart
59. Albums Chart
60. Venezuelan Album Char
61. ^ Billboard Albums Retrieved May 24 2007
62. Billboard.com - Linkin Park artist chart history

External links

• Linkin Park's official website
• Minutes to Midnight at MetaCritic
• Minutes to Midnight official lyrics page

• Pages with empty short description
• Linkin Park albums
• Enhanced CDs
• Warner Bros. Records albums
• Albums produced by Rick Rubin
• 2007 albums