A Thousand Suns
Encyclopedia
A Thousand Suns is the fourth studio album by American rock
band Linkin Park
. It was first released on September 14, 2010. The album was written by the band and co-produced by Linkin Park vocalist
Mike Shinoda
and Rick Rubin
, who previously worked together to produce Minutes to Midnight
(2007). The lead single for the album, "The Catalyst
", was sent to radio and released to digital music retailers on August 2, 2010. The band promoted the album through the A Thousand Suns World Tour
from October 2010 to September 2011. Three more singles were released to promote the album, namely "Waiting for the End
", "Burning in the Skies
" and "Iridescent
".
A Thousand Suns is a concept album
dealing with human fears such as nuclear warfare
. "On this record, the concepts blend human ideas with technology [...] Human fears, your fear of what's going to happen in the world, the music kind of references that", said Mike Shinoda on an interview with MTV
. The album's title comes from the Hindu
Sanskrit
scripture, the Bhagavad Gita
: "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one," a quote made famous by J. Robert Oppenheimer in reference to the atomic bomb. Upon release, the album was met with mixed reviews, but has been a commercial success debuting at number 1 on over ten charts.
. In November 2008, lead singer Chester Bennington
stated this "sound[ed] a little daunting to me, so, I think my confidence level will drop, but when it was presented to us by this friend of ours, we liked the idea. It was an inspiring idea, and it was something we could relate a lot of the things we like to write about to." In May 2009, a Billboard
magazine story was published where Shinoda revealed info on the album, saying: "I feel like we've been writing a lot. I'd say we've got about half the music done, though I shouldn't say halfway because who knows how long the next batch of songs will take. But all the material's just kind of coming together, and every week we meet up and assess the situation and for the rest of the week we just go and work on whatever we find exciting." He also explained the experimentation that the band would be working with. "It's not going to be Hybrid Theory. It's not going to be Minutes to Midnight. And if we do it right, it'll have a cutting edge sound that defines itself as an individual record separate from anything else that's out there."
As with their previous album, Minutes to Midnight, Shinoda and Rick Rubin
served as the album's producers.
Drummer Rob Bourdon referred to himself and the band as "perfectionists" when asked about the new project. "We tend to be perfectionists and its sort of how we work, We like being in the studio and when we get in there we write a ton of material." Bourdon admitted that the album was a challenge to complete. "We've been making music for a long time so one of the challenges was to evolve and make something to keep us interested and also have a lot of fun in the process. We've been used to making a certain type of music and using sounds to accomplish that. So to break out of that and push ourselves to grow is definitely challenging."
in May 2009, Shinoda revealed that the band was in the process of writing and recording material for the album. The album was originally scheduled for an early 2010 release, but Shinoda was largely concerned with "the quality of the tunes" and stated that "if we need to take a step back and make sure everything is top, top quality by our standards, we will." Shinoda also stated that, in comparison to Minutes to Midnight, the new album would have a bigger "thread of consistency" and would be more experimental and "hopefully more cutting-edge".
The style of the album has been compared to the music of Pink Floyd
and contains the high pitched sonar "ping" from Echoes
at the end of "Robot Boy" and continuing into "Jornada del Muerto".
It has also been stated that the album honors the hip-hop group Public Enemy. On the song "Wretches and Kings", Shinoda stated "There is a homage to Chuck D
on there. It's probably the most hip-hop song on the record and one of the most aggressive... Public Enemy were very three-dimensional with their records because although they seemed political, there was a whole lot of other stuff going on in there too. It made me think how three-dimensional I wanted our record to be without imitating them of course, and show where we were at creatively." The opening line of the first and second verse ("To save face, how low can you go?" and "So keep pace, how slow can you go?") are references to the Public Enemy song "Bring The Noise
", which opens with the verse "Bass! How low can you go?" in a melodically similar fashion. Chuck D would later provide vocals on a remix by HavocNdeeD. "When They Come for Me" also pays homage to Public Enemy with the line "Chuck said that uzi weigh a motherfuckin' ton", in which the song "Miuzi Weighs a Ton" was on their album Yo! Bum Rush the Show
. "When They Come for Me" also referenced The Blueprint2: The Gift & The Curse
, the seventh studio album of hip hop artist Jay-Z
, whom the band collaborated with in the 2004 EP Collision Course
. The album also features samples of notable speeches by American political figures, including Martin Luther King, Jr.
, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Mario Savio
.
"When it came to doing things that felt very much like older Linkin Park, like mixing hip-hop with a rock chorus, [we] felt like, if we were going to do it, we need to really do it in a way that felt natural and felt original and felt like it was something we hadn't done in the past," Chester Bennington stated in an interview with MTV
News who referred to Linkin Park's new style as being less technical and instead being more organic: "[While] there are hip-hop songs on the album — 'Wretches and Kings', 'When They Come for Me' — they're like nothing the band have tried before: snarling, raw, dark and [...] strangely organic."
Compared to their previous record, Minutes to Midnight
, the amount of vocals contributed by Shinoda is greatly increased, while Brad Delson
's guitar riffs are put more in the background, described by Gary Graff of Billboard
as "on the back burner (and barely even in the oven)". Shinoda raps in three tracks, specifically "When They Come for Me", "Wretches and Kings" and second single "Waiting for the End
", while he sings on numerous songs (specifically verses), such as third single "Burning in the Skies
", "Robot Boy", "Blackout", fourth single "Iridescent
" and first single "The Catalyst". Bennington and Shinoda sing simultaneously together on "The Catalyst", "Jornada del Muerto" and "Robot Boy", while "Iridescent" features all band members singing together. On "The Requiem" and "Fallout", Shinoda alters his voice using a pitch correction
device. This album is not as heavy as the band's previous work. Some fans have criticized them for this, but this is by no means a universally accepted view; the band have always said that they will pursue whatever direction they prefer creatively, rather than go with what will make them the most money.
", which was released on August 2.
From July 9, 2010 until July 25, 2010, Linkin Park held the contest "Linkin Park, Featuring You". In the contest, fans could download stems from the album's first single, "The Catalyst", remix the stems and/or write their own parts for the song on any instrument. The winner of this contest was Czeslaw "NoBraiN" Sakowski from Świdnica, Poland
, whose remix is featured as an additional track on the album, available via Best Buy
and Napster
. The album's liner notes
also credit Sakowski with "supplemental programming
" on "When They Come for Me". The top 20 remixes that were selected by the band are being considered for future use as b-sides and online downloads. Two of the remixes (by DIGITALOMAT and ill Audio) have since been released via the band's webpage as free mp3 downloads, while two others have (by Cale Pellick and DJ Endorphin) been released on an exclusive German release of "The Catalyst".
The music video for "The Catalyst", directed by band member Joseph Hahn, premiered on August 26, 2010. On August 31, 2010, It was announced that the band would perform the single live for the first time at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards
on September 12, 2010. The venue of the debut live performance was Griffith Observatory
, an iconic location used in Hollywood Movies. However, the venue was held secret till the performance but was revealed to be a prominent landmark of Los Angeles.
On September 2, 2010, Linkin Park released another track from A Thousand Suns, "Wretches and Kings" to those who had pre-ordered the album. The tracks on record were exhibited at a 3-D Laser Exhibition at The Music Box in Hollywood on September 7. On September 8, 2010, the band further debuted two more tracks "Waiting for the End" and "Blackout" on their Myspace Page. The band, on their official website declared the "Full Experience Myspace Premiere" of the album on September 10.
"Waiting for the End
" was released as the album's second single on October 1, 2010. The music video for the song premiered on October 8, 2010 and was also directed by Joe Hahn.
The band started worldwide promotion of the album through the A Thousand Suns World Tour
, which started on October 7, 2010 and ended in September 25, 2011. The band performed an entire setlist in the Puerta de Alcalá
Gate in Madrid
, in which their live performance of "Waiting for the End" was shown in the 2010 MTV Europe Music Awards.
The band has also promoted A Thousand Suns by featuring songs from the album in numerous video games. During the Japanese release of the album on September 15, 2010, Warner Music Japan announced that "The Catalyst" would be the official theme song of Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs.
. The song "Blackout" was featured in the soccer video game, FIFA 11
. The band released another video game called Linkin Park Revenge (an edition of Tap Tap Revenge
), which features four new songs from the album as well as six songs from previous albums. The song "Wretches and Kings" is featured in the trailer for the video game EA Sports MMA
. Six songs from the album ("Blackout", "Burning in the Skies", "The Catalyst", "The Messenger", "Waiting for the End", and "Wretches and Kings") are available as downloadable content
in the "Linkin Park Track Pack" for the rhythm video game Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
. The track pack was released on October 19, 2010 on the PlayStation Store
, Xbox Live Marketplace
, and Wii Shop Channel
. In addition, for those who purchased Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock from Amazon.com
between October 17 and October 23, they received a copy of A Thousand Suns. Three songs will also be remixed and released as downloadable content for the rhythm video game DJ Hero 2
in the winter (2010). On January 11, 2011, a Linkin Park track pack was released for the rhythm video game Rock Band 3
. This pack includes "Waiting for the End" and five other songs from previous albums.
On January 22, 2011, Linkin Park announced that their next single would be "Burning in the Skies
". The video premiered February 23, with the single's release on March 21.
On March 5, 2011, Mike Shinoda announced the European release of A Thousand Suns +, a limited re-issue of the album, which would later be released on March 28, 2011. The re-release includes a live DVD of the band's full MTV Europe Music Awards concert at Puerta de Alcalá, Madrid on November 7, 2010, as well as a free MP3 of the show.
On April 13, 2011, Shinoda confirmed that the album's fourth single will be "Iridescent
". He also confirmed that there will be a new, slightly shorter version of the song, which will be part of the soundtrack of the upcoming film Transformers: Dark of the Moon, as well as the fact that a music video will be shot for the single.
, selling 241,000 copies, beating out Trey Songz
's Passion, Pain & Pleasure
by 1,000 sales (Nielsen SoundScan
).
In the second week, the album slid to number three with 70,000 copies, and two months into its release, in December 2010, it had already passed a half million in sales. A Thousand Suns had sold 784,000 albums in June 2011. The album debuted at number two in the UK with sales of 46,711, behind The Script's album Science & Faith, which sold 70,816. In Canada, the album peaked at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart
with 23,000 copies sold.
, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 66 based on 10 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Rick Florino of Artistdirect
gave the album five stars out of five, saying that "after A Thousand Suns, all rock 'n' roll will revolve around Linkin Park" and credited Linkin Park for creating their own genre. Ian Winwood with Kerrang!
gave it an "excellent" rating, saying that it "can only be best described as a political album". He praised the writing of the songs, saying that "These are songs that have been constructed as much as they've been written" and said that its closest comparison was Public Enemy's 1990 album, Fear of a Black Planet
. Dave de Sylvia with Sputnikmusic
called it "an extremely well-crafted rock album," saying it was somewhat better than its predecessor Minutes to Midnight
(2007), but doesn't live up to their debut, Hybrid Theory
(2000). David Buchanan of Consequence of Sound
gave the album a respected 3.5 stars out of five, saying, "Some might argue this new sound is posturing, complete mutation to the point of absurdity; in the band’s associated artwork and videos, evolution has been touted from day one. In essence, Linkin Park has been chasing this all along, and now it has become tangible, complete."
James Montgomery of MTV
praised the album for being "sprawling, discordant, ambitious and an all-out game changer" while comparing it with English alternative rock band Radiohead
's 2000 album Kid A
, but pointed out that A Thousand Suns is more optimistic. Jordy Kasko with Review Rinse Repeat gave it a perfect rating, calling it an "epic quest". He compared it to Pink Floyd
's The Dark Side of the Moon
and Radiohead's Kid A, saying "A Thousand Suns is an ALBUM. It is not a collection of songs. It is not meant to be listened to as such. The band is going so far as to release an iTunes version that is one track, 47 minutes and 56 seconds long. This is no more an 'album' by conventional standards than Dark Side of the Moon or Kid A are. Sure, there are identifiable songs, but to understand or to appreciate any of them you must take them in the context of the entire album". Christopher Weingarten of The Village Voice
praised the album, calling it "2010's best avant-rock nuclear-anxiety concept record", as well as comparing it to Radiohead's OK Computer
.
Mikael Wood with Spin
gave it six out of ten stars, saying that it "contains plenty of aggressively arty material" and called the track "The Messenger" the "most unexpected track on the boldly conceived A Thousand Suns". Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly
gave the album a B rating and said "on A Thousand Suns at times the band's odd mélange of industrial grind, hip-hop swagger, and teenage-wasteland angst feels jarring". Jody Rosen with Rolling Stone
gave it three out of five stars, saying they are "feeling their way toward a new identity", although she defined their skill for melody as "obvious" and said that they sounded like "a killer Linkin Park tribute band". Australia's Music Network magazine gave the album a mixed review, stating it's "a radical shift for the band, but it’s also a very uneven one... while there's some commanding moments ('The Catalyst,' 'Wretches and Kings'), many of the tracks feel like experiments rather than fully-formed songs".
However, Johnny Firecloud with Antiquiet condemned the album, referring to it as a "melodramatic farce", and said it was a "mechanized mess of sentimentality [...] the 15 track collection is entirely unconvincing as a call to action for uprising and activism". Stephen Thomas Erlewine
with Allmusic commented saying that the album was a "clear continuation" of its predecessor, referring to it as "recycled ideas" and saying that "the problem is, the subdued rhythms, riffs and raps of A Thousand Suns winds up monochromatic". Jim Farber of The New York Daily News
gave the album one star of five, stating that "no fewer than 15 cuts crowd the tight 47-minute length of the CD, many of them fragments or, more accurately, sonic non sequiturs". Jamie Primack of The Badger Herald
wrote that "there are at least five filler tracks that contain nothing more than noise and sound bites [....] the full-length songs aren’t particularly daring or interesting".
Features
Production
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Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band Linkin Park
Linkin Park
Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. Formed in 1996, the band rose to international fame with their debut album, Hybrid Theory, which was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2005 and multi-platinum in several other countries...
. It was first released on September 14, 2010. The album was written by the band and co-produced by Linkin Park vocalist
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
Mike Shinoda
Mike Shinoda
Michael "Mike" Kenji Shinoda is an American musician, record producer, and artist. He is best known as the rapper, principal songwriter, keyboardist, vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the rock band Linkin Park, along with his co-frontman and lead singer Chester Bennington, and as a solo rapper in...
and Rick Rubin
Rick Rubin
Frederick Jay "Rick" Rubin is an American record producer and the co-president of Columbia Records. Along with Russell Simmons, Rubin was the co-founder of Def Jam Records and also established American Recordings...
, who previously worked together to produce Minutes to Midnight
Minutes to Midnight (album)
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 debuted at number one in the United States and in 15 other countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada. The album was produced by Mike Shinoda...
(2007). The lead single for the album, "The Catalyst
The Catalyst
"The Catalyst" is a song by American rock band Linkin Park. Released on August 2, 2010, it is the first single from their fourth studio album, A Thousand Suns, which was released on September 8, 2010...
", was sent to radio and released to digital music retailers on August 2, 2010. The band promoted the album through the A Thousand Suns World Tour
A Thousand Suns World Tour
A Thousand Suns World Tour was a worldwide concert tour by American rock band Linkin Park. The tour supported the band's fourth studio album A Thousand Suns. The tour ranked 35th in Pollstar's "Top 50 Worldwide Tour ", earning over 20 million dollars.-Background:Linkin Park announced their upcoming...
from October 2010 to September 2011. Three more singles were released to promote the album, namely "Waiting for the End
Waiting for the End
"Waiting for the End" is a song by American rock band Linkin Park, released on October 1, 2010. It is the second single from their fourth studio album, A Thousand Suns, which was released on September 14, 2010...
", "Burning in the Skies
Burning in the Skies
"Burning in the Skies" is a song by American rock band Linkin Park. It was announced as the band's third single from their fourth studio album A Thousand Suns on the 20th of January 2011, and it was released on March 21....
" and "Iridescent
Iridescent (song)
"Iridescent" is a song by American alternative rock band Linkin Park. It was announced as the band's third US and overall fourth and final single from their fourth studio album, A Thousand Suns, which was released on September 14, 2010. A music video for the song was directed by Joe Hahn, the...
".
A Thousand Suns is a concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
dealing with human fears such as nuclear warfare
Nuclear warfare
Nuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
. "On this record, the concepts blend human ideas with technology [...] Human fears, your fear of what's going to happen in the world, the music kind of references that", said Mike Shinoda on an interview with MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
. The album's title comes from the Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
scripture, the Bhagavad Gita
Bhagavad Gita
The ' , also more simply known as Gita, is a 700-verse Hindu scripture that is part of the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, but is frequently treated as a freestanding text, and in particular, as an Upanishad in its own right, one of the several books that constitute general Vedic tradition...
: "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one," a quote made famous by J. Robert Oppenheimer in reference to the atomic bomb. Upon release, the album was met with mixed reviews, but has been a commercial success debuting at number 1 on over ten charts.
Writing and recording
Recording for the album began in 2008, shortly after the release of Minutes to MidnightMinutes to Midnight (album)
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 debuted at number one in the United States and in 15 other countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada. The album was produced by Mike Shinoda...
. In November 2008, lead singer Chester Bennington
Chester Bennington
Chester Charles Bennington is an American musician, singer-songwriter and actor. He is best known as the lead vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Linkin Park....
stated this "sound[ed] a little daunting to me, so, I think my confidence level will drop, but when it was presented to us by this friend of ours, we liked the idea. It was an inspiring idea, and it was something we could relate a lot of the things we like to write about to." In May 2009, a Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
magazine story was published where Shinoda revealed info on the album, saying: "I feel like we've been writing a lot. I'd say we've got about half the music done, though I shouldn't say halfway because who knows how long the next batch of songs will take. But all the material's just kind of coming together, and every week we meet up and assess the situation and for the rest of the week we just go and work on whatever we find exciting." He also explained the experimentation that the band would be working with. "It's not going to be Hybrid Theory. It's not going to be Minutes to Midnight. And if we do it right, it'll have a cutting edge sound that defines itself as an individual record separate from anything else that's out there."
As with their previous album, Minutes to Midnight, Shinoda and Rick Rubin
Rick Rubin
Frederick Jay "Rick" Rubin is an American record producer and the co-president of Columbia Records. Along with Russell Simmons, Rubin was the co-founder of Def Jam Records and also established American Recordings...
served as the album's producers.
Drummer Rob Bourdon referred to himself and the band as "perfectionists" when asked about the new project. "We tend to be perfectionists and its sort of how we work, We like being in the studio and when we get in there we write a ton of material." Bourdon admitted that the album was a challenge to complete. "We've been making music for a long time so one of the challenges was to evolve and make something to keep us interested and also have a lot of fun in the process. We've been used to making a certain type of music and using sounds to accomplish that. So to break out of that and push ourselves to grow is definitely challenging."
Style and composition
In an interview with Rolling StoneRolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
in May 2009, Shinoda revealed that the band was in the process of writing and recording material for the album. The album was originally scheduled for an early 2010 release, but Shinoda was largely concerned with "the quality of the tunes" and stated that "if we need to take a step back and make sure everything is top, top quality by our standards, we will." Shinoda also stated that, in comparison to Minutes to Midnight, the new album would have a bigger "thread of consistency" and would be more experimental and "hopefully more cutting-edge".
The style of the album has been compared to the music of Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
and contains the high pitched sonar "ping" from Echoes
Echoes (Pink Floyd song)
"Echoes" is a song by Pink Floyd including lengthy instrumental passages, sound effects, and musical improvisation. Written in 1970 by all four members of the group , "Echoes" provides the extended finale to Pink Floyd's album Meddle...
at the end of "Robot Boy" and continuing into "Jornada del Muerto".
It has also been stated that the album honors the hip-hop group Public Enemy. On the song "Wretches and Kings", Shinoda stated "There is a homage to Chuck D
Chuck D
Carlton Douglas Ridenhour , better known by his stage name, Chuck D, is an American rapper, author, and producer. He helped create politically and socially conscious rap music in the mid-1980s as the leader of the rap group Public Enemy.- Early life :Ridenhour was born in Queens, New York...
on there. It's probably the most hip-hop song on the record and one of the most aggressive... Public Enemy were very three-dimensional with their records because although they seemed political, there was a whole lot of other stuff going on in there too. It made me think how three-dimensional I wanted our record to be without imitating them of course, and show where we were at creatively." The opening line of the first and second verse ("To save face, how low can you go?" and "So keep pace, how slow can you go?") are references to the Public Enemy song "Bring The Noise
Bring the Noise
"Bring the Noise" is a song by the hip hop group Public Enemy. It was included on the soundtrack of the 1987 film Less Than Zero and was also released as a single that year. It later became the first song on the group's 1988 album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back...
", which opens with the verse "Bass! How low can you go?" in a melodically similar fashion. Chuck D would later provide vocals on a remix by HavocNdeeD. "When They Come for Me" also pays homage to Public Enemy with the line "Chuck said that uzi weigh a motherfuckin' ton", in which the song "Miuzi Weighs a Ton" was on their album Yo! Bum Rush the Show
Yo! Bum Rush the Show
* Q magazine - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...a stunning opening...just the first, in retrospect almost shy, step on a remarkable journey...a hard, droning extension of the basic drum`n'scratch Def Jam template that had served LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys so well."* Melody Maker - Recommended - "It...
. "When They Come for Me" also referenced The Blueprint2: The Gift & The Curse
The Blueprint 2: The Gift & the Curse
-See also:*List of number-one albums of 2002 *List of number-one R&B albums of 2002 - External links :* at Discogs...
, the seventh studio album of hip hop artist Jay-Z
Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter , better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having a net worth of over $450 million as of 2010...
, whom the band collaborated with in the 2004 EP Collision Course
Collision Course (album)
Critics were divided over Collision Course, with some praising the album, while others negatively received it.David Jeffries of allmusic praised the album, calling it "awesomely fun". K.B...
. The album also features samples of notable speeches by American political figures, including Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Mario Savio
Mario Savio
""...But we're a bunch of raw materials that don't mean to be - have any process upon us. Don't mean to be made into any product! Don't mean - Don't mean to end up being bought by some clients of the University, be they the government, be they industry, be they organized labor, be they anyone!...
.
"When it came to doing things that felt very much like older Linkin Park, like mixing hip-hop with a rock chorus, [we] felt like, if we were going to do it, we need to really do it in a way that felt natural and felt original and felt like it was something we hadn't done in the past," Chester Bennington stated in an interview with MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
News who referred to Linkin Park's new style as being less technical and instead being more organic: "[While] there are hip-hop songs on the album — 'Wretches and Kings', 'When They Come for Me' — they're like nothing the band have tried before: snarling, raw, dark and [...] strangely organic."
Compared to their previous record, Minutes to Midnight
Minutes to Midnight (album)
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 debuted at number one in the United States and in 15 other countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada. The album was produced by Mike Shinoda...
, the amount of vocals contributed by Shinoda is greatly increased, while Brad Delson
Brad Delson
Bradford Phillip "Brad" Delson is an American guitarist, best known as the lead guitarist and one of the founding members of the Grammy Award winning rock band Linkin Park. He is also the A&R Representative for Machine Shop Recordings....
's guitar riffs are put more in the background, described by Gary Graff of Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
as "on the back burner (and barely even in the oven)". Shinoda raps in three tracks, specifically "When They Come for Me", "Wretches and Kings" and second single "Waiting for the End
Waiting for the End
"Waiting for the End" is a song by American rock band Linkin Park, released on October 1, 2010. It is the second single from their fourth studio album, A Thousand Suns, which was released on September 14, 2010...
", while he sings on numerous songs (specifically verses), such as third single "Burning in the Skies
Burning in the Skies
"Burning in the Skies" is a song by American rock band Linkin Park. It was announced as the band's third single from their fourth studio album A Thousand Suns on the 20th of January 2011, and it was released on March 21....
", "Robot Boy", "Blackout", fourth single "Iridescent
Iridescent (song)
"Iridescent" is a song by American alternative rock band Linkin Park. It was announced as the band's third US and overall fourth and final single from their fourth studio album, A Thousand Suns, which was released on September 14, 2010. A music video for the song was directed by Joe Hahn, the...
" and first single "The Catalyst". Bennington and Shinoda sing simultaneously together on "The Catalyst", "Jornada del Muerto" and "Robot Boy", while "Iridescent" features all band members singing together. On "The Requiem" and "Fallout", Shinoda alters his voice using a pitch correction
Pitch correction
Pitch correction is the process of correcting the intonation of an audio signal without affecting other aspects of its sound. Pitch correction first detects the pitch of an audio signal , then calculates the desired change and modifies the audio signal accordingly...
device. This album is not as heavy as the band's previous work. Some fans have criticized them for this, but this is by no means a universally accepted view; the band have always said that they will pursue whatever direction they prefer creatively, rather than go with what will make them the most money.
Release and promotion
On July 8, 2010, the band officially announced that the album would be released on September 14, 2010 in the US. The band also revealed that the album's first single would be "The CatalystThe Catalyst
"The Catalyst" is a song by American rock band Linkin Park. Released on August 2, 2010, it is the first single from their fourth studio album, A Thousand Suns, which was released on September 8, 2010...
", which was released on August 2.
From July 9, 2010 until July 25, 2010, Linkin Park held the contest "Linkin Park, Featuring You". In the contest, fans could download stems from the album's first single, "The Catalyst", remix the stems and/or write their own parts for the song on any instrument. The winner of this contest was Czeslaw "NoBraiN" Sakowski from Świdnica, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, whose remix is featured as an additional track on the album, available via Best Buy
Best Buy
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...
and Napster
Napster
Napster is an online music store and a Best Buy company. It was originally founded as a pioneering peer-to-peer file sharing Internet service that emphasized sharing audio files that were typically digitally encoded music as MP3 format files...
. The album's liner notes
Liner notes
Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
also credit Sakowski with "supplemental programming
Programming (music)
Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices, often sequencers or computer programs, to generate music. Programming is used in nearly all forms of electronic music and in most hip hop music since the 1990s. It is also frequently used in modern pop and rock...
" on "When They Come for Me". The top 20 remixes that were selected by the band are being considered for future use as b-sides and online downloads. Two of the remixes (by DIGITALOMAT and ill Audio) have since been released via the band's webpage as free mp3 downloads, while two others have (by Cale Pellick and DJ Endorphin) been released on an exclusive German release of "The Catalyst".
The music video for "The Catalyst", directed by band member Joseph Hahn, premiered on August 26, 2010. On August 31, 2010, It was announced that the band would perform the single live for the first time at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards
2010 MTV Video Music Awards
The 2010 MTV Video Music Awards took place on September 12, 2010 at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, honoring the best music videos from the previous year...
on September 12, 2010. The venue of the debut live performance was Griffith Observatory
Griffith Observatory
Griffith Observatory is in Los Angeles, California, United States. Sitting on the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood in L.A.'s Griffith Park, it commands a view of the Los Angeles Basin, including downtown Los Angeles to the southeast, Hollywood to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest...
, an iconic location used in Hollywood Movies. However, the venue was held secret till the performance but was revealed to be a prominent landmark of Los Angeles.
On September 2, 2010, Linkin Park released another track from A Thousand Suns, "Wretches and Kings" to those who had pre-ordered the album. The tracks on record were exhibited at a 3-D Laser Exhibition at The Music Box in Hollywood on September 7. On September 8, 2010, the band further debuted two more tracks "Waiting for the End" and "Blackout" on their Myspace Page. The band, on their official website declared the "Full Experience Myspace Premiere" of the album on September 10.
"Waiting for the End
Waiting for the End
"Waiting for the End" is a song by American rock band Linkin Park, released on October 1, 2010. It is the second single from their fourth studio album, A Thousand Suns, which was released on September 14, 2010...
" was released as the album's second single on October 1, 2010. The music video for the song premiered on October 8, 2010 and was also directed by Joe Hahn.
The band started worldwide promotion of the album through the A Thousand Suns World Tour
A Thousand Suns World Tour
A Thousand Suns World Tour was a worldwide concert tour by American rock band Linkin Park. The tour supported the band's fourth studio album A Thousand Suns. The tour ranked 35th in Pollstar's "Top 50 Worldwide Tour ", earning over 20 million dollars.-Background:Linkin Park announced their upcoming...
, which started on October 7, 2010 and ended in September 25, 2011. The band performed an entire setlist in the Puerta de Alcalá
Puerta de Alcalá
The Puerta de Alcalá is a Neo-classical monument in the Plaza de la Independencia in Madrid, Spain. It stands near the city center and several meters away from the main entrance to the Parque del Buen Retiro...
Gate in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, in which their live performance of "Waiting for the End" was shown in the 2010 MTV Europe Music Awards.
The band has also promoted A Thousand Suns by featuring songs from the album in numerous video games. During the Japanese release of the album on September 15, 2010, Warner Music Japan announced that "The Catalyst" would be the official theme song of Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs.
is a 3D Arcade Fighting game and the newest in the series of Gundam VS video game series developed by Capcom and published by Namco Bandai Games. It's the sequel to Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Gundam NEXT. The game was first unveiled at the AOU 2010 and confirmed to be released on September 28,...
. The song "Blackout" was featured in the soccer video game, FIFA 11
FIFA 11
FIFA 11 is the 18th title in Electronic Arts' FIFA series of football video games. Developed by EA Canada, it was published by Electronic Arts worldwide under the EA Sports label...
. The band released another video game called Linkin Park Revenge (an edition of Tap Tap Revenge
Tap Tap Revenge
Tap Tap is a series of rhythm games by Tapulous available for the iOS of which several versions, both purchasable and free, have been produced. The goal of the game is to tap each of the colored balls when they reach a line at the bottom of the screen. If the ball is hit on the beat, the player...
), which features four new songs from the album as well as six songs from previous albums. The song "Wretches and Kings" is featured in the trailer for the video game EA Sports MMA
EA Sports MMA
EA Sports MMA is a fighting video game which was published by EA Sports and developed by EA Tiburon from 2008 to 2010. It was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 19, 2010 in North America and October 22, 2010 everywhere else....
. Six songs from the album ("Blackout", "Burning in the Skies", "The Catalyst", "The Messenger", "Waiting for the End", and "Wretches and Kings") are available as downloadable content
Downloadable content
Downloadable content is official additional content for a video game distributed through the Internet. Downloadable content can be of several types, ranging from a single in-game outfit to an entirely new, extensive storyline, similarly to an expansion pack. As such, DLC may add new game modes,...
in the "Linkin Park Track Pack" for the rhythm video game Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is a music video game and the sixth main entry in the Guitar Hero series for the PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 consoles. The game was released September 24, 2010 in Europe, September 28, 2010 in North America and September 29, 2010 in Australia...
. The track pack was released on October 19, 2010 on the PlayStation Store
PlayStation Store
The PlayStation Store is an online virtual market available to users of Sony's PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable game consoles via the PlayStation Network. The Store offers a range of downloadable content both for purchase and available free of charge. Available content includes full games,...
, Xbox Live Marketplace
Xbox Live Marketplace
The Xbox Live Marketplace is a virtual market designed for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console that allows Xbox Live members to download purchased or promotional content...
, and Wii Shop Channel
Wii Shop Channel
The Wii Shop Channel is an online shop for the Wii video game console that allows users to download Virtual Console and WiiWare games, and new channels. Downloading may require redeeming Wii Points. The channel launched with Wii on November 19, 2006...
. In addition, for those who purchased Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock from Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
between October 17 and October 23, they received a copy of A Thousand Suns. Three songs will also be remixed and released as downloadable content for the rhythm video game DJ Hero 2
DJ Hero 2
DJ Hero 2 is a rhythm video game and a sequel to DJ Hero, a spinoff of the Guitar Hero series. DJ Hero 2 uses a special turntable-controller, the same as introduced in DJ Hero, to simulate turntablism, the act of creating a new musical work from one or more previously recorded songs using record...
in the winter (2010). On January 11, 2011, a Linkin Park track pack was released for the rhythm video game Rock Band 3
Rock Band 3
Rock Band 3 is a music video game, developed by Harmonix Music Systems. The game was initially published and distributed by MTV Games and Electronic Arts, respectively, with Mad Catz taking over both roles a year later. It is the third main game in the Rock Band series...
. This pack includes "Waiting for the End" and five other songs from previous albums.
On January 22, 2011, Linkin Park announced that their next single would be "Burning in the Skies
Burning in the Skies
"Burning in the Skies" is a song by American rock band Linkin Park. It was announced as the band's third single from their fourth studio album A Thousand Suns on the 20th of January 2011, and it was released on March 21....
". The video premiered February 23, with the single's release on March 21.
On March 5, 2011, Mike Shinoda announced the European release of A Thousand Suns +, a limited re-issue of the album, which would later be released on March 28, 2011. The re-release includes a live DVD of the band's full MTV Europe Music Awards concert at Puerta de Alcalá, Madrid on November 7, 2010, as well as a free MP3 of the show.
On April 13, 2011, Shinoda confirmed that the album's fourth single will be "Iridescent
Iridescent (song)
"Iridescent" is a song by American alternative rock band Linkin Park. It was announced as the band's third US and overall fourth and final single from their fourth studio album, A Thousand Suns, which was released on September 14, 2010. A music video for the song was directed by Joe Hahn, the...
". He also confirmed that there will be a new, slightly shorter version of the song, which will be part of the soundtrack of the upcoming film Transformers: Dark of the Moon, as well as the fact that a music video will be shot for the single.
Commercial
The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
, selling 241,000 copies, beating out Trey Songz
Trey Songz
Tremaine "Trey" Aldon Neverson , better known by his stage name Trey Songz, is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer and actor. His debut album, I Gotta Make It, was released in 2005, while his second album, Trey Day, was released in 2007...
's Passion, Pain & Pleasure
Passion, Pain & Pleasure
Passion, Pain & Pleasure received positive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 71, based on five reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews"...
by 1,000 sales (Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan is an information and sales tracking system created by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett. Soundscan is the official method of tracking sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada...
).
In the second week, the album slid to number three with 70,000 copies, and two months into its release, in December 2010, it had already passed a half million in sales. A Thousand Suns had sold 784,000 albums in June 2011. The album debuted at number two in the UK with sales of 46,711, behind The Script's album Science & Faith, which sold 70,816. In Canada, the album peaked at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart
Canadian Albums Chart
The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS...
with 23,000 copies sold.
Critical
As was the case with its predecessor, Minutes to Midnight, A Thousand Suns received mixed reviews upon release, with some critics proving very receptive to the album and others much less so. As a whole, however, A Thousand Suns received a better reception than Minutes to Midnight. At MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 66 based on 10 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Rick Florino of Artistdirect
ARTISTdirect
Founded in 1994, Artistdirect, Inc. is an online digital media entertainment company. It owns several websites including Artistdirect.com, UBL.com and the Artistdirect Network...
gave the album five stars out of five, saying that "after A Thousand Suns, all rock 'n' roll will revolve around Linkin Park" and credited Linkin Park for creating their own genre. Ian Winwood with Kerrang!
Kerrang!
Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on June 6, 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper...
gave it an "excellent" rating, saying that it "can only be best described as a political album". He praised the writing of the songs, saying that "These are songs that have been constructed as much as they've been written" and said that its closest comparison was Public Enemy's 1990 album, Fear of a Black Planet
Fear of a Black Planet
Fear of a Black Planet is the third studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released April 10, 1990, on Def Jam Recordings and Columbia Records. Production for the album was handled by the group's production team The Bomb Squad, who expanded on the dense, sample-layered sound of the...
. Dave de Sylvia with Sputnikmusic
Sputnikmusic
Sputnikmusic, or simply Sputnik, is a music website offering music criticism and music news alongside features commonly associated with wiki-style websites...
called it "an extremely well-crafted rock album," saying it was somewhat better than its predecessor Minutes to Midnight
Minutes to Midnight (album)
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 debuted at number one in the United States and in 15 other countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada. The album was produced by Mike Shinoda...
(2007), but doesn't live up to their debut, Hybrid Theory
Hybrid Theory
Hybrid Theory is the debut album by American rock band Linkin Park, released on October 24, 2000 through Warner Bros. Records. The album was a huge commercial success, having sold over 10 million units in the United States alone as of 2010 and peaking at number two on the Billboard 200 while also...
(2000). David Buchanan of Consequence of Sound
Consequence of Sound
Consequence of Sound, also known often as CoS, is a Chicago-based music website featuring news, album and concert reviews, and editorials. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook micro-site, which serves as an on-line database for music festival news and rumors...
gave the album a respected 3.5 stars out of five, saying, "Some might argue this new sound is posturing, complete mutation to the point of absurdity; in the band’s associated artwork and videos, evolution has been touted from day one. In essence, Linkin Park has been chasing this all along, and now it has become tangible, complete."
James Montgomery of MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
praised the album for being "sprawling, discordant, ambitious and an all-out game changer" while comparing it with English alternative rock band Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
's 2000 album Kid A
Kid A
Kid A is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released in October 2000 by the Parlophone label. A commercial success worldwide, Kid A went platinum in its first week of release in the United Kingdom. Despite the lack of an official single or music video as publicity, Kid A...
, but pointed out that A Thousand Suns is more optimistic. Jordy Kasko with Review Rinse Repeat gave it a perfect rating, calling it an "epic quest". He compared it to Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
's The Dark Side of the Moon
The Dark Side of the Moon
The Dark Side of the Moon is the eighth studio album by English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in March 1973. It built on ideas explored in the band's earlier recordings and live shows, but lacks the extended instrumental excursions that characterised their work following the departure...
and Radiohead's Kid A, saying "A Thousand Suns is an ALBUM. It is not a collection of songs. It is not meant to be listened to as such. The band is going so far as to release an iTunes version that is one track, 47 minutes and 56 seconds long. This is no more an 'album' by conventional standards than Dark Side of the Moon or Kid A are. Sure, there are identifiable songs, but to understand or to appreciate any of them you must take them in the context of the entire album". Christopher Weingarten of The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
praised the album, calling it "2010's best avant-rock nuclear-anxiety concept record", as well as comparing it to Radiohead's OK Computer
OK Computer
OK Computer is the third studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released on 16 June 1997 on Parlophone in the UK and 1 July 1997 by Capitol Records in the US. It marks a deliberate attempt by the band to move away from the introspective guitar-oriented sound of their previous...
.
Mikael Wood with Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
gave it six out of ten stars, saying that it "contains plenty of aggressively arty material" and called the track "The Messenger" the "most unexpected track on the boldly conceived A Thousand Suns". Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave the album a B rating and said "on A Thousand Suns at times the band's odd mélange of industrial grind, hip-hop swagger, and teenage-wasteland angst feels jarring". Jody Rosen with Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
gave it three out of five stars, saying they are "feeling their way toward a new identity", although she defined their skill for melody as "obvious" and said that they sounded like "a killer Linkin Park tribute band". Australia's Music Network magazine gave the album a mixed review, stating it's "a radical shift for the band, but it’s also a very uneven one... while there's some commanding moments ('The Catalyst,' 'Wretches and Kings'), many of the tracks feel like experiments rather than fully-formed songs".
However, Johnny Firecloud with Antiquiet condemned the album, referring to it as a "melodramatic farce", and said it was a "mechanized mess of sentimentality [...] the 15 track collection is entirely unconvincing as a call to action for uprising and activism". Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine is a senior editor for Allmusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for Allmusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes. He is also frontman and guitarist for the Ann Arbor-based band Who Dat?Erlewine is the nephew...
with Allmusic commented saying that the album was a "clear continuation" of its predecessor, referring to it as "recycled ideas" and saying that "the problem is, the subdued rhythms, riffs and raps of A Thousand Suns winds up monochromatic". Jim Farber of The New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
gave the album one star of five, stating that "no fewer than 15 cuts crowd the tight 47-minute length of the CD, many of them fragments or, more accurately, sonic non sequiturs". Jamie Primack of The Badger Herald
The Badger Herald
The Badger Herald is a newspaper serving the University of Wisconsin–Madison community. Founded in 1969, it is one of America's first independent daily student newspapers. The paper is published Monday through Friday during the academic year...
wrote that "there are at least five filler tracks that contain nothing more than noise and sound bites [....] the full-length songs aren’t particularly daring or interesting".
Track listing
Personnel
Linkin Park- Chester BenningtonChester BenningtonChester Charles Bennington is an American musician, singer-songwriter and actor. He is best known as the lead vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Linkin Park....
– vocals, percussions, guitar - Brad DelsonBrad DelsonBradford Phillip "Brad" Delson is an American guitarist, best known as the lead guitarist and one of the founding members of the Grammy Award winning rock band Linkin Park. He is also the A&R Representative for Machine Shop Recordings....
– guitarsElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, backing vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
, keyboard - Mike ShinodaMike ShinodaMichael "Mike" Kenji Shinoda is an American musician, record producer, and artist. He is best known as the rapper, principal songwriter, keyboardist, vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the rock band Linkin Park, along with his co-frontman and lead singer Chester Bennington, and as a solo rapper in...
– vocals, guitars, percussions, keyboards - Dave "Phoenix" Farrell – bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, percussion, samples, backing vocals - Joe HahnJoe HahnJoseph "Joe" Hahn , better known by his stage name, Mr. Hahn, is an American turntablist and director best known as the DJ and sampler for the band Linkin Park.-Personal Biography:...
– turntablesTurntablismTurntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating music using phonograph turntables and a DJ mixer.The word 'turntablist' was coined in 1995 by DJ Babu to describe the difference between a DJ who just plays records, and one who performs by touching and moving the records, stylus and mixer...
, synthesizerSynthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
, samplesSampling (music)In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
, backing vocals - Rob Bourdon – drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, percussionsPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
, backing vocals
Features
- Martin Luther King, Jr.Martin Luther King, Jr.Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
– speech/speaker/speaking part – "Wisdom, Justice, and Love" - J. Robert Oppenheimer – interviewee – "The Radiance"
- Mario SavioMario Savio""...But we're a bunch of raw materials that don't mean to be - have any process upon us. Don't mean to be made into any product! Don't mean - Don't mean to end up being bought by some clients of the University, be they the government, be they industry, be they organized labor, be they anyone!...
– speech/speaker/speaking part ("Bodies upon the gears" speech) – "Wretches and Kings"
Production
- Rick RubinRick RubinFrederick Jay "Rick" Rubin is an American record producer and the co-president of Columbia Records. Along with Russell Simmons, Rubin was the co-founder of Def Jam Records and also established American Recordings...
– producerRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music... - Mike Shinoda – producer, engineerAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
, creative directorCreative DirectorA creative director is a position often found within the graphic design, film, music, fashion, advertising, media or entertainment industries, but may be useful in other creative organizations such as web development and software development firms as well....
, Pro ToolsPro ToolsPro Tools is a digital audio workstation platform for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, developed and manufactured by Avid Technology. It is widely used by professionals throughout the audio industries for recording and editing in music production, film scoring, film, and television... - Neal Avron – mixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
- Kymm Britton – publicity
- Anton Brooks – publicity
- Lindsay Chase – production coordination
- Brad Delson – Pro ToolsPro ToolsPro Tools is a digital audio workstation platform for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, developed and manufactured by Avid Technology. It is widely used by professionals throughout the audio industries for recording and editing in music production, film scoring, film, and television...
- Ryan DeMarti – production coordination, A&RA&RArtists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
- Nicolas Fournier – assistant
- Joe Hahn – creative director
- Jerry Johnson – drum technician
- Liza Joseph – A&RA&RArtists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
- Frank Maddocks – art direction, design, creative director
- Ethan Mates – engineer, Pro ToolsPro ToolsPro Tools is a digital audio workstation platform for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, developed and manufactured by Avid Technology. It is widely used by professionals throughout the audio industries for recording and editing in music production, film scoring, film, and television...
- Vlado Meller – masteringAudio masteringMastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
- Josh Newell – engineer, Pro ToolsPro ToolsPro Tools is a digital audio workstation platform for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, developed and manufactured by Avid Technology. It is widely used by professionals throughout the audio industries for recording and editing in music production, film scoring, film, and television...
- Czeslaw "NoBraiN" Sakowski – programmingProgramming (music)Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices, often sequencers or computer programs, to generate music. Programming is used in nearly all forms of electronic music and in most hip hop music since the 1990s. It is also frequently used in modern pop and rock...
- Mark Santangelo – assistant
- Peter Standish – marketing
- Josh Vanover – artworkCover artCover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book , magazine, comic book, video game , DVD, CD, videotape, or music album. The art has a primarily commercial function, i.e...
, creative director - Ellen Wakayama – creative director
- Tom Whalley – A&RA&RArtists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
Charts
| Chart (2010) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
1 |
| Austria Albums Top 75 Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the name of the official Austrian singles chart, as well as the radio show which presents it, aired Fridays on Hitradio Ö3. The show presents the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart. It premiered on 26 November 1968 as Disc Parade and was presented by Ernst Grissemann... |
1 |
| Belgian Albums Chart Ultratop 50 Ultratop 50 singles, often just Ultratop 50, is the weekly chart of fifty best-selling singles in Flanders, Belgium, and is produced and published by the Ultratop organization. The chart has existed since March 31, 1995... (Flanders) |
2 |
| Belgian Albums Chart Ultratop 50 Ultratop 50 singles, often just Ultratop 50, is the weekly chart of fifty best-selling singles in Flanders, Belgium, and is produced and published by the Ultratop organization. The chart has existed since March 31, 1995... (Wallonia) |
4 |
| Canadian Albums Chart Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS... |
1 |
| Czech Republic Albums Chart | 1 |
| Danish Albums Chart Tracklisten Tracklisten is a Danish top 40 record chart that is presented every Thursday midnight at .The weekly Danish Singles Chart also known as Track Top-40 combines the 40 best selling tracks from legal music downloads and the sales of music singles on either CD or vinyl... |
2 |
| European Top Albums Chart | 1 |
| Finnish Albums Chart | 6 |
| French Albums Chart Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... |
4 |
| German Albums Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
1 |
| Greek Albums Chart Greek Albums Chart International Federation of the Phonographic Industry Greece or IFPI Greece is the Greek branch of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and is the official charts provider and recording sales certification body for Greece. Currently two charts are compiled, one for sales of... |
2 |
| Hungarian Albums Chart Mahasz Mahasz is the Hungarian music industry association, founded in 1992. Mahasz hands out the Hungarian Music Awards and maintains the music charts for Hungary.... |
3 |
| Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
3 |
| Italian Albums Chart Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy.... |
1 |
| Japanese Albums Chart Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc... |
2 |
| Netherlands Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
7 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
1 |
| Norwegian Albums Chart VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... |
4 |
| Polish Albums Chart Polish Music Charts The Polish Music Charts are two official album charts and seven singles charts in Poland, provided by ZPAV, the Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry . The first, the Top 100, is a monthly chart based on data received from the album companies... |
2 |
| Portuguese Albums Chart Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa The Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa is currently the only recording industry association in Portugal. Created in 1989, it succeeded GPPFV and UNEVA .... |
1 |
| Russian Albums Chart Russian Music Charts The Russian Music Charts are Russian music industry standard popularity rankings compiled weekly by 2M and Tophit . Albums and tracks rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through retail data captured electronically each week from Russian music retailers... |
3 |
| Spanish Albums Chart | 3 |
| Swedish Albums Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
5 |
| Swiss Albums Chart Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
1 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
2 |
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
1 |
| US Alternative Albums (Billboard) | 1 |
| US Rock Albums (Billboard) | 1 |
Certifications
| Territory | Provider | Certification |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | ARIA Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956... |
Platinum |
| Austria | IFPI | Gold |
| Canada | CRIA Canadian Recording Industry Association Music Canada is a Toronto-based, non-profit trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 to represent the interests of companies that record, artists, manufacture, production, promotion and distribution of music in Canada... |
Platinum |
| Denmark | IFPI | Gold |
| Finland | ÄKT/IFPI | Gold |
| GCC | IFPI | Gold |
| Germany | BVMI Bundesverband Musikindustrie The Bundesverband Musikindustrie or simply BVMI represents the music industry in Germany. The association represents the interests of nearly 350 labels and music industry related enterprises.... |
Platinum |
| Japan | RIAJ | Gold |
| New Zealand | RIANZ Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
Gold |
| Poland | ZPAV/OLiS Polish Music Charts The Polish Music Charts are two official album charts and seven singles charts in Poland, provided by ZPAV, the Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry . The first, the Top 100, is a monthly chart based on data received from the album companies... |
Platinum |
| Portugal | AFP Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa The Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa is currently the only recording industry association in Portugal. Created in 1989, it succeeded GPPFV and UNEVA .... |
Platinum |
| Russia | NFPP | Platinum |
| Switzerland | IFPI | Gold |
| United Kingdom | BPI British Phonographic Industry The British Phonographic Industry is the British record industry's trade association.-Structure:Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including all four "major" record companies , associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies... |
Gold |
| United States | RIAA Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States... |
Gold |
| France | SNEP | Gold |
Year-end charts
| Chart (2010) | Position |
|---|---|
| Japan Oricon Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc... albums chart |
50 |
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
53 |
| US Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Alternative Albums |
5 |
| US Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Rock Albums |
7 |
| US Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Hard Rock Albums |
2 |
Singles
| Year | Song | Peak chart positions | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
US Alt. |
US Rock Rock Songs Rock Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine which ranks the airplay of songs on alternative, mainstream rock and triple A radio stations. The first chart was published in the issue dated June 20, 2009. "Know Your Enemy" by Green Day was the first number-one song. The Rock Songs... |
AUS ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
NZL |
UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
AUT Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the name of the official Austrian singles chart, as well as the radio show which presents it, aired Fridays on Hitradio Ö3. The show presents the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart. It premiered on 26 November 1968 as Disc Parade and was presented by Ernst Grissemann... |
BEL Ultratop 50 Ultratop 50 singles, often just Ultratop 50, is the weekly chart of fifty best-selling singles in Flanders, Belgium, and is produced and published by the Ultratop organization. The chart has existed since March 31, 1995... |
FIN |
FRA Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... |
GER Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
ITA Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy.... |
IRL Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured... |
NLD Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart, which started as the "Veronica Top 40", because the offshore radio station Radio Veronica was the first to introduce it. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the station was forced to stop broadcasting... |
POR Portugal Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the... |
SWE Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
SWI Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
||
| 2010 | "The Catalyst The Catalyst "The Catalyst" is a song by American rock band Linkin Park. Released on August 2, 2010, it is the first single from their fourth studio album, A Thousand Suns, which was released on September 8, 2010... " (Gold) |
27 | 1 | 1 | 33 | 27 | 40 | 18 | 6 | — | — | 11 | — | — | 95 | 27 | 31 | 29 |
| "Waiting for the End Waiting for the End "Waiting for the End" is a song by American rock band Linkin Park, released on October 1, 2010. It is the second single from their fourth studio album, A Thousand Suns, which was released on September 14, 2010... " (Gold) |
42 | 1 | 2 | — | — | 90 | 34 | 20 | — | 58 | 29 | — | — | — | 26 | — | 58 | |
| 2011 | "Burning in the Skies Burning in the Skies "Burning in the Skies" is a song by American rock band Linkin Park. It was announced as the band's third single from their fourth studio album A Thousand Suns on the 20th of January 2011, and it was released on March 21.... " |
— | — | — | — | — | — | 35 | — | — | — | 43 | — | — | — | 35 | — | 41 |
| "Iridescent Iridescent (song) "Iridescent" is a song by American alternative rock band Linkin Park. It was announced as the band's third US and overall fourth and final single from their fourth studio album, A Thousand Suns, which was released on September 14, 2010. A music video for the song was directed by Joe Hahn, the... " |
81 | 19 | 29 | 39 | — | 93 | 52 | — | — | — | 46 | — | — | — | — | — | 69 | |
Album number-one chart successions
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Release history
| Region | Date | Format(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | September 8, 2010 | Digital download, CD, LP, DVD |
| Austria | ||
| Belgium | ||
| Canada | ||
| Denmark | ||
| Finland | ||
| France | ||
| Germany | ||
| Greece | ||
| Ireland | ||
| Italy | ||
| Luxembourg | ||
| Mexico | ||
| Netherlands | ||
| New Zealand | ||
| Norway | ||
| Portugal | ||
| Spain | ||
| Sweden | ||
| Switzerland | ||
| United Kingdom | ||
| Hungary | September 9, 2010 | |
| Poland | September 13, 2010 | |
| Brazil | September 14, 2010 | |
| United States | ||
| Japan | September 15, 2010 September 29, 2010 November 24, 2010 |
Digital download, CD, CD+DVD Gunpla 30th Edition |