Minutes To Midnight

Minutes To Midnight
Studio album Album by Linkin Park
Recorded:	2005 - April 2007
Released:	May 14, 2007
Length:	43:26
Producer:	Rick Rubin, Mike Shinoda
Label:	Warner Bros., Machine Shop
Linkin Park studio album chronology Meteora (2003) Minutes To Midnight (2007) A Thousand Suns (2010)

Minutes To Midnight is American rock band Linkin Park's third studio album, released on May 14, 2007, through Warner Bros. Records. It spawned five singles: "What I've Done", "Bleed It Out", "Shadow Of The Day", "Given Up", and "Leave Out All The Rest". The album sees the band's departure from their signature nu-metal sound, and is the first to feature the band's big experimentation with genres. The album debuted at #1 on the charts, making it the band's third consecutive #1 record.

Background

Minutes To Midnight is Linkin Park's first album since 2003's Meteora. Ideas for the band's third album began to sprout on tour for Meteora (2003-2004), while the band took two years to tour in support of the album. Instead of returning to the studio to record their next LP, the band took a lengthy break after Projekt Revolution 2004 as rigorous world touring had exhausted all six members. While they were on the break, the band got involved in a dispute with their label, Warner Brothers. Representativess of Linkin Park inquired about the band receiving a cut of the label's upcoming stock sale. The label refused, stating that none of the artists signed would be getting paid. The band, then, felt the label would not be able to financially market and promote the band's future endeavors. Thus, they halted progress on their next studio album in protest. Linkin Park had demanded a $60 million advance plus a joint venture deal in which the band would split profits, rather than receiving royalties. The sides settled for just a $15 million advance. Linkin Park and Rob McDermott, the band's manager, would leave then The Firm less than a year after they enlisted the talent agency to wage battle with Warner. By September of 2005, Mike Shinoda was already looking at 2006 as the release window for the next Linkin Park album. The issues with the label were resolved in December of 2005, and the band started work on their third album.

In June 2020, Mike elaborated on the record label situation. He said, "You know, we had a fight with the label a long time ago because it was like, they wanted to go public and make all this money and they weren't going to cut the artists in on it. And at the same time, they were spending all of their time and energy doing that and we weren't convinced they were adapting to the changing musical landscape very well. We were already concerned that they weren't prepared to like, keep up with what was going on in technology, like music technology. And then they were doing this IPO. And you notice, we're not complaining about Warner Bros IPO now, because it's an entirely different time and it's an entirely different cast of characters. I'm not super deep in it, I feel like the labels do what they need to do to be good partners and to make money. Some artists do really well in that equation and other artists don't get attention in that equation. It's always the artists who don't do well that complain. That's just life."

The band played very few shows together during those years, and Mike Shinoda focused his efforts on his solo project, Fort Minor. Chester Bennington took the first steps towards his future side project, Dead By Sunrise, appearing with several artists as a special guest.

The album marks a departure from the band's earlier sound, following a more alternative rock sound instead of the nu-metal style of Hybrid Theory and Meteora. The songs featured more politically charged lyrics and many songs, like "In Pieces" and "The Little Things Give You Away" included guitar solos, a first for Linkin Park. Mike also did not rap as much as he did during the earlier albums, rapping on only two songs, "Bleed It Out" and "Hands Held High". Instead, he started singing, and took lead singing vocals on the song "In Between", which is another first for the band.

The name of the album is derived from the concept of the Doomsday clock. Chester explained in an interview with MTV, "The title is a reference to the Doomsday Clock, which was created by these scientists at the University of Chicago after the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Japan to end World War II... Given the idea that mankind now had this ultimate destructive power, they were contemplating what the repercussions of this would be and the idea that the end of the world could be imminent." He continued, "After WWII, when the Soviet Union tested their first bomb, the Doomsday Clock was set. It basically has hands from the 45-minute mark until midnight… and at 45 past the hour, it means the world is relatively stable, but since we have this [nuclear] power, we’re always just 15 minutes away from the end of the world... Right now we’re at [five] minutes until midnight.”

Chester added, "Naming the album was harder than anything else. We always find ourselves over-thinking titles of all the records and even when it came down to naming the band. It was hard finding a title that suited the mood of the songs that were finally chosen for the album. I was watching a documentary on the doomsday clock and they kept repeating the phrase “Minutes to Midnight”. From that perspective; midnight is the end of the world as we know it. That’s a little dreary for me but I I thought it worked. The fact that the album is so different from the previous records and that we were more mature and embarking on a new era seemed to fit well with the title. I think the title really captured how we were feeling and where we were going in so many different ways."

The album cover was done by Frank Maddocks, who said, "This album popped up in my phone at the gym today. I still love seeing this album cover. It was a really good experience in restraint in design and not overdoing it. The original photo is by James Minchin III and we shot at the Salton Sea. I designed the logo on my laptop on the bands tour bus on the way to the shoot. Always fun working with these guys! Good times!" Other photos from the Salton Sea photoshoot were used in the booklet and deluxe edition book. Frank said, "These are shot on a plastic Holga camera, 120 film. Cross processed. Double exposure in camera. No Photoshop or filters." The new "LP" icon / logo pressed on the CD was also designed by Maddocks.

Writing and Recording

While Mike was on tour with Fort Minor, he routinely emailed song ideas back and forth to band members as Linkin Park slowly began work on the album. There have been several 2005-era demos released like "After Canada" and "Divided" on LP Underground albums. Starting as early as November 2005, the band met at a studio they referred to as the Korn Studio, lent to them by their friends in Korn while LP was trying to find a place to get together and run through song ideas collectively. "Valentine's Day", one of the first songs written for the album, was written at this studio, along with "Announcement Service Public". Brad briefly mentions the studio on the album DVD. Mike in an interview the day The Rising Tied came out was asked what CDs were in his CD player right now and he said "a demo of some new Linkin Park songs. I'm not making that up, either. I have to pull my CD changer magazine out when I get out of my car, in case it gets stolen - I couldn't let the LP stuff leak.

In February 2006, Joe Hahn announced to Linkin Park fans that the band had chosen Rick Rubin as the producer of the album, saying, "We wanted to step it up as far as working with a producer and really try to create an atmosphere that will challenge us in different ways. We chose Rick Rubin because his credits alone speak a lot about his ability and his open-mindedness as a producer, working on everything from the old Def Jam, Beastie Boys and Run DMC, to Slayer, Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I think the common denominator with all these groups is that they create great music through the years that has stood the test of time."

Mike said that the writing sessions originally had a lot of material that sounded like previous Linkin Park work, "When we started writing the music, it just did not feel inspired. It felt boring. It felt like we were just rehashing old ideas, and we were not ready to do that. We closed the chapter on it and did something that we felt was not only challenging creatively, lyrically, musically, all those things but it's also going to be a challenge for the fans to say, 'What do you think about this?' This is not only different for us, but it's different for a lot of bands. It's the kind of album I don't hear very often because from song to song everything is very, very different."

Chester said about Rick Rubin, "He told us right from the beginning: ‘whatever you think your fans like to hear, whatever music you think you need to make, just forget about it. Whatever limitations you think you have, just put it out to rest and throw it out the window because none of it matters. What matters is making music that you are excited about regardless of style, a particular sound or anything like that.’ He really encouraged us to stay on that path throughout making the album because it was easy for us to fall back to our old patterns and old ways of making music."

He added, "We also wanted to live up to what we say about ourselves. So we went to great lengths to change the sound of the band and rediscover how to write songs that didn’t corrupt what we had already created, and that was a really difficult process. That was one of the reasons it took so long. We could write songs like those on Hybrid Theory and Meteora in our sleep. Writing songs on Minutes to Midnight was really difficult for us. We had to open our minds and be willing to explore."

The album was mostly recorded at Rick Rubin's mansion at Laurel Canyon and was finished at the band's familiar "home" studio at NRG Recordings in Hollywood, CA. In the summer of 2006, the band embarked on a short tour in Japan to get out of the studio. Prior to the tour, they really wanted to debut a new song in Japan, so they were working on an unfinished demo "Grecian". At rehearsals, Phoenix brought in a brand new idea for a song, they worked some of it out, and Mike and Chester finished the lyrics on the plane only to perform it for the first time as band at the first show's soundcheck in Tokyo. Doing away with "Grecian", "QWERTY" was debuted live in Tokyo. While "QWERTY" did not make the album, it was released on the LP Underground 6.0 CD after Rick Rubin had the band change the structure of the track a bit when they returned home from Japan.

As well as veering away from the classic Linkin Park sound, the band approached the recording of the album in a different manner. Each member of the band worked on individual seeds at their home studios, rather than convening all at once in an specified area. Rick Rubin had the band record "what they wanted to record," instead of aiming at the sound they were expected to make. This brought together loads of seeds that were not fully developed for other members of the band to help expand upon. For example, the song "Grecian" was created by Phoenix in his home studio, by playing guitar to a click. When taken to the studio, Mike and Brad added additional guitar parts and Chester added scat vocals to it, developing the idea from multiple different perspectives. A large part of recording the vocal melodies were done in scat vocals, rather than writing lyrics to accompany the melodies beforehand.

The band recorded a majority of the initial seeds from their own home studios. Working on the seeds as a band took place at NRG Recordings in West Hollywood from January 2006 to mid-2006, after moving from the Korn Studio. The band then moved their gear to The Mansion in Laurel Canyon, sometimes referred to as the Houdini House. Rob Bourdon said the change of scenery helped the band's creative process: "Watching cars pass by helped the process... It made us feel like we were still part of society instead of being cramped in."

If you ask each of the guys you'll probably get a different bit of history on that house because it's a little bit sketchy as to whether it was Houdini's house for a while or whether it was his mistress's house. Or even prior to that I think it was like Bugsy Siegel owned it, etc. - Phoenix

It just has that kind of feeling like some bad stuff's gone down. None of us were comfortable spending the night in the little upstairs bedroom there. It had this room that was set up sometimes as a vocal room, and then there was like this little square door back in the back of the room and it opened up to like this, it was kind of odd, like it looked like a little , like you put the gimp in there, you know. - Chester

The band did not return to NRG until the end of the process. During the recording of two songs, "Patience" and "Ebow Idea", the band experimented with recording all the parts together as a band for the first time ever. Beforehand, Linkin Park had approached recording tracks by recording all parts separately (granted, they did end up recording the songs via multitracks). The band only approached songs in a live manner when they needed to perform the songs live, and never in the studio whilst recording an album until this point.

At the end of the Minutes To Midnight recording sessions, Linkin Park invited composer David Campbell back, who they previously worked with on Meteora, to add string arrangements to six songs, four of which made the album outright - "Leave Out All The Rest", "Shadow Of The Day", "Hands Held High", "The Little Things Give You Away", iTunes bonus track "No Roads Left", and outtake "Blackbirds". David Campbell, Mike, and Brad wrote the string arrangements, with David conducting the violin, viola, cello, and bass performances which are highlighted on the album's DVD.

"What I've Done" was the last song finished for the album and was written after the rest of the album was completed since it needed a "big single" to push it. Joe Hahn claimed it encompassed the meaning of the album: "Lyrically, it's about recognizing the faults of the past and trying to move on to the future, and that's what the album's about."

Linkin Park recorded an incredible amount of music for the album. With about one hundred to one hundred and fifty song ideas, around thirty song ideas came close to their final form. In the end, seventeen songs total for Minutes To Midnight were recorded and twelve made the album. Over the next few years, the band slowly released four of the five remaining songs to fans. "No Roads Left" was a bonus track on the iTunes version of Minutes To Midnight and was released immediately. "Across The Line" is a song that was shown in the Minutes To Midnight DVD in a very rough demo form and was called "Japan" at the time; the song was released on the LP Underground 9 CD in 2009. "Blackbirds" is what fans referred to unofficially as the "Sixth String Song" for years as Linkin Park recorded strings for six songs in the album sessions, but ended up releasing five. A clip of the very end of "Blackbirds" was shown on the album DVD, and it was finally released with the band's 8 Bit Rebellion game in April 2010. That November, "What We Don't Know" was released on the LP Underground X CD.

Unfortunately, the identity of the seventeenth song remains unknown. Two other songs, "Pretend To Be" and "Not Alone", were recorded in the same sessions and released in 2008 and 2010, respectively. The band said that both were "not finished" in 2007 and were worked on later. "Pretend To Be" on the LP Underground X album is listed as being from 2008 (although this could be a mistake) and "Not Alone" was described as a song that had its lyrics completely scrapped and rewritten following the 2010 Haiti earthquake. "The Last Line" from the MALL release was also seen in the Minutes To Midnight DVD under the demo title "Ammosick." In November 2015, the band released "Chance Of Rain" on the LP Underground 15 CD, with Mike saying, "But we always liked this song and it made actually all the way to the mix process and, you know, just at the very last minute it didn't make the cut." Unfortunately, we have not been able to confirm the identity of the seventeenth song and as there are several possibilities, we will not know unless the band confirms it themselves.

In a May 18, 2020 stream, Mike was asked about the identity of this fifth song that didn't make the album. He said, "We always have lots of songs that get scrapped from an album, so I don't know. The fifth? Got me, I don't know. I wish I could tell you. Probably something that is unreleased."

Some of the other thirty song ideas have been released on LP Underground CDs and have been reworked into other songs. "Homecoming" on the LP Underground 12 CD is a good example of one of these other ideas and is a full-fledged instrumental song. Others, like "Debris", from the same LPU CD, made it into the next album's recording sessions.

Composition

Minutes To Midnight saw Linkin Park's departure from their signature nu-metal sound. The album is geared more towards alternative rock, but has elements of alternative metal, classic rock, punk, and hip-hop. In an interview with CNA, Chester Bennington talked about producer Rick Rubin's contribution to the album's sound: "Rick has brought more of a stripped down, classic-rock and hip-hop kind of feel." In an interview with MTV, Bennington himself claimed, "We’re straying away from a lot of the predictable sounds we’ve had in the past, but there’s no question in your mind when you hear it that it’s Linkin Park."

On previous efforts, Mike Shinoda had only rapped on studio albums. Minutes To Midnight features Shinoda tackling vocals, both lead and background. He sings backing vocals on "Given Up", "What I've Done", "No More Sorrow", "Valentine's Day", and "The Little Things Give You Away". "In Between" and bonus track "No Roads Left" feature Shinoda's first solo lead vocals since 2003's "Massive", found on the Lost Demos CD of Meteora|20. His hip-hop past is still prevalent throughout the album, notably on tracks like "Bleed It Out" and "Hands Held High".

Releases

On March 6, 2007, Mike Shinoda posted blog entries on the Linkin Park MySpace and Fort Minor MySpace pages, announcing the band's album Minutes To Midnight would be released on May 15, 2007.

On March 10, he said, "yes, MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT, like the doomsday clock. don't take that at face value. there are layers of meaning, most are metaphoric. yes, "what i've done" is the first single. again, not face value. no, not emo. also, not rap rock, not nu metal, not metal, not punk, not scene, not hip hop, not classic rock, not polka, not any other lame label. yes, may 15th. anyway, thanks for sticking around and being here for the big news. we love you guys, and can't wait for you to hear the new music!"

• Album Version
• Tour Edition
• Live Around The World
• iTunes Remaster
• iTunes Edition
• iTunes Bonus DVD Edition
• Special Edition Bonus DVD
• Japanese Bonus Edition
• Japanese Tour Edition
• Wal-Mart Edition
• Best Buy Edition
• Circuit City Edition
• Asian Tour Edition
• European Tour Edition
• 15 Year Deluxe Edition (Digital Only)

Wrong Song Versions & 15 Year Deluxe Edition Fix

On May 12, 2022, it was revealed that Linkin Park would be releasing a deluxe edition of Minutes To Midnight on digital streaming platforms the next day, May 13. The new deluxe edition featured a combination of bonus tracks found on the Japanese and iTunes versions of the album. The band announced, "Join us in celebrating 15 years of Minutes to Midnight with 4 bonus tracks including “No Roads Left” and “Across the Line.” Now streaming everywhere: http://lprk.co/MTMDlx #MinutesToMidnight"

The four bonus tracks included were "No Roads Left", "Across the Line", "Given Up" (Third Encore Session), and "What I've Done" (Distorted Remix).

This deluxe edition for the 15th year anniversary fixes issues with three songs that were released with alternate (incorrect) versions, differing from the main album release in May 2007.

On the January 2013 iTunes release of Minutes To Midnight with bonus tracks, three songs were released in incorrect forms: - "Shadow of the Day" had additional strings, one less synth track, and the palm-muted guitar in the first two choruses and second verse was removed. In addition, the synthesized bass was replaced with the real bass earlier in the track, with the switch happening on the second verse, rather than the first guitar solo. - "No Roads Left" had louder strings and an added sampled drum track over it. - "Across the Line" had no bass at all throughout the entire first verse of the song.

The "Shadow of the Day" issue dates back to September 2007 with the digital single where the alternate version can be heard in the "Making of Shadow of the Day" video. The error was noticed in 2012 in the HDTracks 24 bit version of the album, and the other two tracks were noticed with the January 2013 "Mastered for iTunes" release. The wrong versions of the first two tracks were also included on the 2017 Minutes To Midnight picture vinyl release. The alternate mixes were again included on the Wal-Mart exclusive yellow vinyl pressing of Minutes To Midnight in fall 2021.

It is assumed that the label accidentally switched the masters for the album at some point, which is why the wrong versions were being included on releases.

In 2022, the 15 year deluxe edition of the album returned both "No Roads Left" and "Across the Line" to their original forms. However, "Shadow Of The Day" was slightly different - it featured a re-recorded guitar part in the choruses for an unknown reason, and the part has a wrong note on the "...and the shadow of the day" line where it is supposed to follow the bass and go down to a G instead of going up to a D like it does on every other time through the progression, but it goes up to a D in that spot on the new recording. It is unknown if the original guitar tracks were lost or if Mike (or someone else) had to re-record the guitar part in 2022~ for the fix or not.

Digital

• Minutes To Midnight // {-14tr- + Faint live, WID live, cat. 093624995708}
• Minutes To Midnight (Deluxe Version) [Clean] // {+ NRL, ATL, cat. 093624948957}
• Minutes To Midnight (Deluxe Version) // {+ NRL, ATL, cat. 093624948971}
• Minutes To Midnight // {-13tr- + About MTM audio commentary, cat. 093624996118}
• Minutes To Midnight (Deluxe Version) [Clean] // {-13tr- + WID live, Digital Booklet}
• Minutes To Midnight (Deluxe Version) [Explicit] // {-13tr- + WID live, Digital Booklet}
• Minutes To Midnight // {-12tr- + MTM audio commentary, Behind The Scenes (Video), What I've Done (Video), Digital Booklet, cat. 0075993999907}
• Minutes To Midnight (Bonus Video Version) // {+ Behind The Scenes (Video), What I've Done (Video)} [A]
• Minutes To Midnight (Japanese Version) // {-14tr- + NRL, WID live itunes exclusive, WID video, cat. 093624994329} [J]
• Minutes To Midnight [Clean] // {cat. 093624998310}
• Minutes To Midnight [Explicit] // {cat. 093624447764}

Track Listing

Standard Edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	Wake	Linkin Park	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		4:50
6	What I've Done		3:26
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

Tour Edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
13	No Roads Left	Linkin Park	3:49
14	What I've Done (Distorted Remix)		3:17
15	Given Up (Third Encore Session)		3:09

Live Around The World

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	Wake (Live from Taipei, 2007)	Linkin Park	1:48
2	Given Up (Live from Taipei, 2009)		3:18
3	Leave Out All The Rest (Live from Frankfurt, 2008)		3:22
4	Bleed It Out (Live from Melbourne, 2010)		5:33
5	Shadow Of The Day (Live from Melbourne, 2010)		4:32
6	What I've Done (Live from New York, 2008)		4:58
7	Hands Held High (Live from Osaka, JP)		3:59
8	No More Sorrow (Live from Taipei, 2009)		4:57
9	Valentine's Day (Live from Amnéville, 2008)		3:21
10	In Between (Live from Paris, 2008)		3:18
11	In Pieces (Live from Köln, 2008)		3:42
12	The Little Things Give You Away (Live from Shanghai, 2007)		7:42

iTunes Pre-Order Bonus Track

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
13	No Roads Left	Linkin Park	3:52

iTunes Edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
13	What I've Done (Live)	Linkin Park	3:24

Mastered For iTunes Deluxe Edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
13	No Roads Left	Linkin Park	3:49
14	Across The Line		3:12

Digital Bonus Video Edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
13	Behind The Scenes (Video)	Linkin Park	3:47
14	What I've Done (Video)		3:27
15	About Minutes To Midnight (Audio Commentary)		13:41

Wal-Mart Edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
13	Breaking The Habit (Live)	Linkin Park	4:25
14	What I've Done (Live)		3:24

Best Buy Edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
13	What I've Done (Live)	Linkin Park	3:29
14	No More Sorrow (Live)		3:45
15	Given Up (Live)		3:12

Circuit City Edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
13	Faint (Live)	Linkin Park	2:44
14	What I've Done (Live)		3:25

Special Edition Bonus DVD

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
13	The Making Of Minutes To Midnight	Linkin Park	39:42
14	"What I've Done" (Music Video)		3:28
15	Making Of The "What I've Done" Music Video		20:49
16	Advanced Resolution PCM Stereo of Tracks 1 - 12

Japanese Edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
13	Faint (Live)	Linkin Park	2:46

Japanese Tour Edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
13	Faint (Live)	Linkin Park	2:44
14	No Roads Left		3:49
15	What I've Done (Distorted Remix)		3:17
16	Given Up (Third Encore Session)		3:09

Asian Tour Edition Downloadable Tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	One Step Closer (Live)	Linkin Park	3:44
2	Lying From You (Live)		2:56
3	Somewhere I Belong (Live)		4:31
4	No More Sorrow (Live)		3:55
5	Papercut (Live)		3:49

European Tour Edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
13	No Roads Left	Linkin Park	3:49
14	What I've Done (Distorted Remix)		3:17
15	Given Up (Third Encore Session)		3:09

European Tour Edition Downloadable Tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	What I've Done (Live)	Linkin Park	7:27
2	One Step Closer (Live)		4:10
3	Faint (Live)		4:07

2022 Deluxe Edition (Digital Only)

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
13	No Roads Left	Linkin Park	3:48
14	Across The Line		3:10
15	Given Up (Third Encore Session)		3:08
16	What I've Done (Distorted Remix)		3:47

Personnel

Linkin Park

• Chester Bennington: Vocals, Rhythm Guitar on "Shadow Of The Day" and "No Roads Left"
• Mike Shinoda: Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Piano, Production, String Arrangements on "Leave Out All The Rest", "Shadow Of The Day", "Hands Held High", "The Little Things Give You Away", and "No Roads Left", as well as "Blackbirds"
• Brad Delson: Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals, String Arrangements on "Leave Out All The Rest", "Shadow Of The Day", "Hands Held High", "The Little Things Give You Away", and "No Roads Left", as well as "Blackbirds"
• Dave "Phoenix" Farrell: Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals
• Joseph Hahn: Turntables, Sampling, Programming, Backing Vocals
• Rob Bourdon: Drums, Backing Vocals

Production

• Produced by Rick Rubin and Mike Shinoda
• Engineers: Dana Neilsen, Andrew Schelps, and Ethan Mates
• Engineer Assisting: Phillip Broussard, Jr.
• Mixing: Neal Avron
• Mixing Assisting: Nicolas Fournier and George Gumbs
• Mastering: Dave Collins

Orchestra

All performers appear on "Leave Out All The Rest", "Shadow Of The Day", "Hands Held High", "The Little Things Give You Away", and "No Roads Left", as well as "Blackbirds."

• Arrangements: David Campbell, Mike Shinoda, and Brad Delson
• Conducting: David Campbell
• Violin: Charlie Bisharat, Mario DeLeon, Armen Garabedian, Julian Hallmark, Gerry Hilera, Songa Lee-Kitto, Natalie Leggett, Josefina Vergara, and Sara Parkins
• Viola: Matt Funes and Andrew Picken
• Cello: Larry Corbett and Suzie Katayama
• Bass: Oscar Hidalgo

Artwork

• Creative Direction: Frank Maddocks, Ellen Wakayama, Mike Shinoda, and Joe Hahn
• Art Direction: Frank Maddocks, Nikos Constant
• Design: Frank Maddocks
• Artwork: Ekundayo, Phil Hale, Usugrow
• Photography: James Minchin III, Frank Maddocks
• Studio Photography: Joe Hahn

Management

• Worldwide Representation: Rob McDermott for Mad Mac Entertainment
• Management Team: Ryan DeMarti and Trish Evangelista
• Booking Agent: Michael Arfin for Artist Group International
• Legal: Danny Hayes for Davis, Shapiro, Lewit, and Hayes
• Business Managers: Jonathon Schwartz and Michael Oppenheim for Gudvi, Sussman, and Oppenheim
• Worldwide Licensing and Merchandising: BandMerch

Live Performance

Songs Played Live

• Wake
• Given Up
• Leave Out All The Rest
• Bleed It Out
• Shadow Of The Day
• What I've Done
• Hands Held High
• No More Sorrow
• Valentine's Day
• In Between
• In Pieces
• The Little Things Give You Away

"No Roads Left" was rehearsed for the Minutes To Midnight European Tour 2008 (Part 2), but ultimately not played. For two shows on the band's A Thousand Suns Asian Tour, it was partially performed over the extended bridge of "Bleed It Out".

"Hands Held High" was often performed a cappella style over the extended "Krwlng" Intro for "Crawling" in 2008 and 2009. On the International Tour in 2009, Mike rapped the first verse by itself before rapping the second verse over the "Crawling" intro. In 2014, Mike rapped the first verse of the song over his Solo Medley twice.

"The Little Things Give You Away" was performed acoustically at the LPU Summit in 2010.12.15 Homebush, NSW.

Throughout 2012 through 2015, "Leave Out All The Rest" and "Shadow Of The Day" were featured in the Ballad Medley.

Tours

• Minutes To Midnight Promo Tour
• Minutes To Midnight European Tour 2007
• Projekt Revolution 2007
• Australian and New Zealand Tour 2007
• Minutes To Midnight Asian Tour
• Minutes To Midnight European Tour 2008
• Minutes To Midnight North American Tour
• Minutes To Midnight European Tour 2008 (Part 2)
• Projekt Revolution 2008
• Music For Relief Asian Benefit Tour (Cancelled)
• International Tour

Reception

Critical Reception

Minutes To Midnight released to mixed critical reviews. Review aggregation site Metacritic shows the album as having received a 56, indicating "mixed to average reviews". Rolling Stone gave the album a strong review, claiming that Linkin Park has transcended the nu-metal scene they started in and have become "more of something else — topical — and furiously good at it." Mikael Wood from Spin also gave the album a positive review, discussing Linkin Park's move away from the "arena-emo hooks" and an attempt to garner "the sort of respect showered on brainy indie faves like Arcade Fire."

In a more mixed review of the album, James Minchin of Entertainment Weekly claims the album borrows too heavily from its influences, citing "Shadow Of The Day" as Linkin Park's "With Or Without You" and pointing out the similarities between the piano intro of "What I've Done" and the iconic theme from the horror film Halloween. Minchin also criticizes Bennington's singing on many of the slower tracks, claiming that, while Shinoda is off the track, "Bennington is forced all the more to be his own egocentric, emo-centric foil." He does, though, praise "Bleed It Out" as one of the most exciting things to ever come from the band. Minutes To Midnight also got a more mixed reception from The New York Times, where they claimed the band abandoned rap-rock and nu-metal for emo, and that this transition "doesn’t always go smoothly." They criticize "Valentine's Day" for its "hilarious chorus" and deem Shinoda as little more than "Eminem Lite" on the hip-hop driven "Hands Held High". He is later praised, though, for his performance on "In Between", where he does a "more-than-passable impression of a lovelorn emo singer.

New Musical Express harshly panned the album, calling it "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." In particular, "Hands Held High" is pointed out as the album's worst song, claiming it is the "funniest thing you'll hear all year".

Chart Performance

The album debuted at #1 on the The Billboard 200, selling over 623,000 copies within its first week. It was the 7th top selling album of 2007.

Gallery

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  Parental Advisory label

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  Non-PA

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  Colored artwork from the vinyl

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  Digipak booklet cover

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  Tour Edition

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  Asian Tour Edition with obi

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  Limited Special Edition (CD+DVD)

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  BestBuy Limited Special Edition (CD+DVD)

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  Special Edition (CD+DVD)

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  Super Fan Edition art book cover

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  Picture vinyl Side A

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  Picture vinyl Side B

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  Picture vinyl sticker

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  Walmart Yellow vinyl

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  Songbook

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  Unused artwork

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  Unused artwork

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  Unused artwork

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  Unused artwork

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  Unused artwork

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  Unused artwork

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  Unused artwork

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  Unused artwork

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  Unused artwork

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  Unused artwork

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  Minutes To Midnight: Live Around The World digital album

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  Studio Collection 2000–2012 digital box set

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  Poster

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  World Tour 2008 program

Trivia

• "The Little Things Give You Away" is the second longest track in Linkin Park's discography. The honor of longest goes to "A Line In The Sand" from The Hunting Party.
• Minutes To Midnight is the first studio album by Linkin Park to have explicit language.
• Minutes To Midnight marks the first time guitar solos have ever appeared on a Linkin Park album with "Shadow Of The Day", "What I've Done", "In Pieces", and "The Little Things Give You Away" all featuring solos.
• For the first time on Linkin Park's studio albums, Mike Shinoda took lead singing vocals, on the song "In Between".
• This album marks the first time Linkin Park did not choose Don Gilmore to produce one of their studio albums. Instead, Rick Rubin produced the album. It also marks the first time Mike Shinoda received a producer credit.
• Minutes To Midnight is featured on Rick Rubin: In The Studio, a book discussing the making of each record Rick Rubin produced.

External Links

Music Videos

• What I've Done: LPTV | WBR | WMG | MTV
• What I've Done (Australian Version)
• Bleed It Out: LPTV | WBR | MTV
• Shadow Of The Day: LPTV | WBR | WMG | MTV
• Shadow Of The Day (Alternative Ending)
• Shadow Of The Day (Director's Cut)
• Given Up: LPTV | WBR | WMG | MTV
• Leave Out All The Rest: LPTV | WBR | WMG | MTV

Live Videos

• Bleed It Out (Live Earth 2007): LPTV
• Bleed It Out (Live in Milton Keynes): LPTV | WMG
• Given Up (Live in Milton Keynes): LPTV
• Leave Out All The Rest (Live in Milton Keynes): LPTV | WBR | WMG
• What I've Done (Red Square 2011): LPTV