Recharged

Recharged (stylized as RECHARGED) is the second remix album by Linkin Park. It consists of remixed versions of songs from the album Living Things as well as the previously unreleased studio track "A Light That Never Comes" featuring Steve Aoki.

Background

In March 2013, Linkin Park started a closed beta for their new Facebook game called "LP Recharge" for fans who had signed up on social media to test the game. The tagline for the game was, "Humanity is at a turning point. Defeat the Hybrid Domination. Restore the Planet's resources." This was a new game that the band was working on after they experimented with "8 Bit Rebellion", a game app in 2010. At the time, fans did not know that the game had anything to do with the release of a new remix album.

In a July 29, 2013 interview with Huffington Post, Mike said to the question of, "Can you give an update as far as what’s going on with Linkin Park?", "Yeah. Other than the game, which we’re very excited about, we’re working on a new album, we’re about to go on a tour in Asia, and I can’t give you too many details about what we have going on, but I think in the next month, we have something very exciting for fans and I’m only allowed to pique your interest. That’s all I'm allowed to say. I promise something very exciting for Linkin Park fans in the next month."

On August 8th, 2013, in an interview with Chester and Yahoo News, the piece said, "Linkin Park have already finished one song for their new album and they'll be releasing it soon. The track features a yet-unnamed special guest."

On August 10th, 2013, Linkin Park kicked off their short six show tour of Asia in support of Living Things. The first two shows of the tour came at Japan's Summer Sonic festival in Chiba, Japan and Osaka, Japan. During the Linkin Park set in Chiba, Mike mentioned in both Japanese and English that fans should go attend the Steve Aoki performance later that night at "Midnight Sonic". At the Aoki show, Mike and Chester joined Aoki to perform the new Linkin Park & Steve Aoki song A Light That Never Comes. This was the first inclination that Linkin Park was working on a new project of some sort, as the collaboration happened randomly and besides Mike's announcement and a tweet by the festival, the collaboration and song were unknown beforehand.

After the performance, Mike tweeted that he and Chester had performed a new LPxSA song in Japan. "Steve and I met up like a year ago, maybe more. It happened pretty organically, just shooting ideas back and forth. It is a Linkin Park & Steve Aoki collaboration. We are only planning to perform it when we are with Steve. it's a collaboration."

Just over a month later on September 12th, 2013, the album RECHARGED was announced. The game "LP Recharge" was also launched on this same date, with Linkin Park saying, "LP Recharge is officially out. Starting today you can play the game and work together to unlock our new single with Steve Aoki, A LIGHT THAT NEVER COMES. Once the song is unlocked you can stream it for free on XBOX Music." In the end, the game was developed to be a promotion to go along with the release of the album.

"A LIGHT THAT NEVER COMES will be on the upcoming album, RECHARGED, a collection of interpretations of songs from LIVING THINGS.

RECHARGED will be released October 29th on CD, VINYL, and DIGITAL.

A limited-edition version of the album will also be available and feature an interactive 3D sculpture based on LIVING THINGS album artwork. In addition, a 48 page art booklet, both LIVING THINGS and RECHARGED albums, and a magnetic stylus that allows you to interact with the liquid solution in the 3D sculpture to create unique patterns and designs will be included.

Pre-orders for RECHARGED are set to begin on Monday September 16th on LINKINPARK.COM , while digital and iTunes pre-orders will begin once the new single is unlocked through LP Recharge."

"I think this song and release show where we're at right now. Making the song with Steve, premiering it through the Recharge Facebook game, and debuting it via Microsoft's Xbox Music—I think it's all indicative of our band's commitment to experimentation and pushing boundaries." - Mike"

Mike's message from the Linkin Park Facebook page:

"After Reanimation I told many people I would never put together another album of remixes…but as I began to hear all the amazing reinterpretations of LIVING THINGS, I had to change my mind. The result, RECHARGED, is definitely worth it. I can’t wait for you guys to hear this amazing project, with contributions by Pusha T, DATSIK, KillSonik, Bun B, Money Mark, and others. Our new song with Steve Aoki, A LIGHT THAT NEVER COMES is on the album as well, plus a special remix of the new song by the inimitable Rick Rubin.

Enjoy the music,

- Mike"

Writing and Recording

Remixes for the album weren't worked on in one specific studio, instead the process worked slightly similar to how Linkin Park made Reanimation. The band sent stems for songs out to individual artists to remix themselves and they worked on it before sending it back. The difference with Reanimation is that Linkin Park actually did meet some artists in person to work on remixes.

Work on remixes began at least as early as July 2012. In a personal note dated July 23, 2012, Tech N9ne revealed he would guest performing on one of the forthcoming remixes from "LIVING THINGS REMIXED". The rapper tweeted the following picture of a "To-Do" list which included the item "verse for Linkin Park". However, the song he contributed a verse to ended up not being released.

Composition

When the preorder for Living Things went live on linkinpark.com, many fans opted in for the subscription to receive "LIVING THINGS REMIXED." With this remix subscription, fans were to receive one remix for each month the next eight months starting with June 2012. That would put the end date at January 2013. However, only seven months worth of remixes were released.

Remixes released included: Burn It Down (RAC Remix), Burn It Down (Paul Van Dyk Mix), Burn It Down (Tom Swoon Remix), Until It Breaks (Datsik Remix), Roads Untraveled (Rad Omen Remix feat. Bun B), Until It Breaks (Money Mark Remix), Powerless (Enferno Remix), and a fanmade remix Burn It Down (Bobina Remix). This would put the number of remixes released at seven (with an additional fan mix as a bonus). That is of course eight total remixes, but at the end of the December email, it said: "Thanks for your support. Look for another remix next month."

Additionally, the Lost In The Echo remix contest from September 2013 had this listed as one of the prizes for not only the Grand Prize Winner, but the Popular Vote Winner as well: "Have their remix released to Linkin Park fans who had pre-ordered LIVING THINGS" This means two Lost In The Echo remixes (one of them being the "Dual Personality Mix" and the other being the "Soundcrafters Remix") were missing from the LIVING THINGS REMIXED subscription as well as one final remix for January 2013 - three remixes in total.

It is assumed that the large number of remixes for Living Things prompted the band to decide to release their favorites of the bunch as the Recharged album.

With the preorder bonus track of Burn It Down (Paul Van Dyk Mix), this means that six songs on the album were already released to fans. The LPTV episode from Australia and New Zealand 2013 entitled "You're A Legend" featured part of a second unreleased remix of Castle Of Glass by Mike. A 2013 internal WBR promo CD for the album had this song on the tracklisting as "Castle of Glass (Linkin Park Remix)" but it was later swapped out for the final one that made the album. To date, this second Castle Of Glass remix remains unreleased.

During a Q&A about Recharged on Facebook, Mike Shinoda confirmed the band received a remix of "In My Remains" for the album but didn't like it enough to release. He wrote, "GREAT QUESTION. We actually didn't get a great remix of the song. We liked all these remixes a lot more...maybe that means we got it right on the original of IN MY REMAINS? HA"

Track Listing

Standard Edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	A Light That Never Comes (Linkin Park x Steve Aoki)	Linkin Park	3:48
2	Castle Of Glass (M. Shinoda Remix)		6:20
3	Lost In The Echo (KillSonik Remix)		5:09
4	Victimized (M. Shinoda Remix)		2:59
5	I'll Be Gone (Vice Remix feat. Pusha T)		4:00
6	Lies Greed Misery (Dirtyphonics Remix)		4:50
7	Roads Untraveled (Rad Omen Remix feat. Bun B)		5:28
8	Powerless (Enferno Remix)		6:07
9	Burn It Down (Tom Swoon Remix)		4:46
10	Until It Breaks (Datsik Remix)		6:00
11	Skin To Bone (Nick Catchdubs Remix feat. Cody B. Ware and Ryu)		3:54
12	I'll Be Gone (Schoolboy Remix)		6:11
13	Until It Breaks (Money Mark Headphone Remix)		4:29
14	A Light That Never Comes (Rick Rubin Reboot)		4:40

Pre-Order Edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
15	Burn It Down (Paul Van Dyk Remix)	Linkin Park	8:00

Live Performance

Songs Played Live

• A Light That Never Comes
• Castle Of Glass (M. Shinoda Remix) (Partially, as a part of the Experience Version of "Castle Of Glass" and as the instrumental for "Kenji")
• Victimized (M. Shinoda Remix) (Partially, in Joe's Solo)
• Skin To Bone (Nick Catchdubs Remix feat. Cody B. Ware and Ryu) (Partially, as one of the verses for Mike's Solo)

Reception

Gallery

• 

  Standard cover

• 

  Vinyl cover

• 

  Living Things + Recharged Ultimate Deluxe Box Set

External Links

• http://www.mtv.com/news/1716108/linkin-park-recharged-stream/
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ragogna/urgent-matters-talking-wi_b_3668740.html
• http://lplive.net/forum/?showtopic=10197
• http://lplive.net/forum/?showtopic=10081
• http://lplive.net/forum/?showtopic=9699
• http://lplive.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=9812
• https://youtu.be/BhBvk7tKncI
• http://lpcatalog.com/item/2013_recharged/promo/w11155-14_us