Background
"No Roads Left" is one of the seventeen songs recorded for Minutes To Midnight in 2006-2007 and is one of the five songs that did not make the album, along with "Across The Line", "What We Don't Know", "Blackbirds", and another unknown fifth song. The demo title for the song was "Patients", but in the album documentary the song was also called "No Roads Left But One" at one point.
Mike is featured on lead vocals on this song. In the Making Of Minutes To Midnight DVD, Chester said that he recorded vocals for the track, but Mike's ended up fitting better, similar to what happened on "In Between", which is on the album. Mike explained on the DVD that it was an honor that Chester and the rest of the band thought that his vocals were better than Chester's on the track.
Along with "No More Sorrow", "No Roads Left" is one of two songs that Linkin Park tried recording collectively as a band in one take for Minutes To Midnight. However, neither of these performances made the album and Linkin Park elected to use individual multitrack recordings instead.
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", 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.
The song was released on the iTunes edition of Minutes To Midnight the day of the album's release as a bonus track.
At the Minutes To Midnight album listening event with Stryker on May 7, 2007, Phoenix said, "There are some other songs that are actually even finished, to some extent, that we voted on the album. Fun side note, Chester and Rick were the only two guys that had chosen as their choice all the songs that did make the album. I think we limited ourselves from the seventeen that we had to the twelve that we loved." Brad added, "There's actually a song called "No Roads Left", if you buy the album on iTunes, you can get it, you can get one of those b-sides."
Alternate Mix
On January 15, 2013, Linkin Park released a "Mastered for iTunes" version of Minutes To Midnight and the version of "No Roads Left" that was included had louder strings and an added sampled drum track over it. This version of the track was also included on the 2017 Minutes to Midnight picture vinyl release, along with the alternate version of "Shadow Of The Day."
In total, the three songs affected from the Minutes To Midnight era with different versions are "Shadow Of The Day", "No Roads Left", and "Across The Line." It is assumed that the label accidentally switched the masters for the album at some point, which is why the wrong versions are being included on releases.
In fall 2021, Linkin Park updated all three songs on digital streaming platforms to the correct versions. "Shadow Of The Day" 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 this recording.
Versions
Note: Only the date of the very first release of each version is listed.
| Title | Album | Length | Recorded | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Roads Left | Minutes To Midnight | 3:49 | 2007 | May 14, 2007 |
|
| No Roads Left | Minutes To Midnight | 3:48 | 2007 | January 15, 2013 |
|
Live
"No Roads Left" was never performed live in full. It was rehearsed in May 2008 for the June 2008 European Tour in support of Minutes To Midnight. It appeared on rehearsal setlists in "Set Y" to start the first encore, along with "Breaking The Habit." At the 2008.05.29 LPU Secret Show, the band gave fans setlists after the performance and "No Roads Left" was on "Set Y." However, Linkin Park decided just before the tour began to not play the song at all, and it never debuted live. Due to the setlist photo being poor quality from the rehearsal of Set Y, it is unknown if "Pushing Me Away" (Studio Version) took the place of the song in the setlist, or not.
During the next tour, Projekt Revolution 2008, the song was heavily requested by fans at Linkin Park Underground Meet & Greets. The band never completely ruled out performing the song; fans reported Mike Shinoda going as far as saying it was possible and they were still considering adding it to the tour. According to the band's crew at the time, "No Roads Left" was considered to be an alternate for "We Made It" on Projekt Revolution, but it never ended up being played.
In an LPU chat on November 18, 2009, Rob said, "Not sure if we will play No Roads Left live, we did try it out and didn’t love the way it came across live." In another LPU chat on June 17, 2011, Mike said, "We played it in practice once or twice and it doesn't really sound good."
On the A Thousand Suns World Tour, Mike sang verse one and the chorus of "No Roads Left" over Bleed It Out in Chiba, Japan on September 11, 2011 at the 5th LPU Summit. After doing it again on September 13, 2011 in Yokohama, Japan, there have been no more appearances of "No Roads Left" live in any form.
On Mike's 2018-19 Post Traumatic Tour, he said if he took a request and performed "No Roads Left" live, he'd have to consider taking ALL of the crazy requests from fans. The track did not end up being performed.
Personnel
- Chester Bennington
- Mike Shinoda
- Brad Delson
- Dave "Phoenix" Farrell
- Joseph Hahn
- Rob Bourdon
Orchestra
- 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
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
Lyrics
Standing alone with no direction
How did I fall so far behind
Why am I searching for perfection
Knowing it's something I won't find
In my fear and flaws
I let myself down again
All because
I run / 'til the silence splits me open
I run / 'til It puts me underground
'Til I have no breath
And no roads left but one
When did I lose my sense of purpose
Can I regain what's lost inside
Why do I feel like I deserve this
Why does my pain look like my pride
Oh oh
In my fear and flaws
I let myself down again
All because
I let myself down
In my fear and flaws
I run / 'til the silence splits me open
I run / 'til it puts me underground
'Til I have no breath
And no roads left but one
No roads left but one
In my fear and flaws
I let myself down again
All because
I run / And the silence splits me open
I run / And it puts me underground
But there's no regret
And no roads left to run