Living Things is the fifth studio album by the American rock
band Linkin Park was scheduled for release last June 20, 2012. Production was
handled by vocalist Mike Shinoda and Rick Rubin, who both co-produced the
band's previous studio albums Minutes to Midnight (2007) and A Thousand Suns
(2010).
The band states that Living Things combines elements from
their previous four studio albums to create a new sound. They stated they
finally felt they were in "familiar territory" and "comfortable
in their own skin" after years of experimentation that resulted in their
two previous studio albums, Minutes to Midnight and A Thousand Suns. Living
Things was chosen as the album's title because of the numerous personal topics
about people implemented on the album.
The lead single for the album, "Burn It Down", was
sent to radio and released to digital music retailers on April 16, 2012.
Shinoda spoke to Co.Create about the album's art, saying
that it will "blow them [the fans] away...the average person is not going
to be able to look at it and go, I understand that that’s completely new, like
not just the image but the way they made the image is totally new. So there’s
going to be that." On April 9, 2012, the band released a teaser video for
the album on Tumblr. Warner Bros. Records announced that the album's art will
be released on April 16, 2012, the same day "Burn It Down" will be
released.
On April 15, 2012, Mike Shinoda posted a blog update
confirming that the new album title will be Living Things and that the album
will be available for pre-order through their website, starting April 16.
Living Things will be released on June 26, 2012. Pre-orders for the album began
in April 17, 2012; upon purchase, fans will be subscribed to Living Things
Remixed, remixed songs from the album. In celebration of the release of Living
Things, the band teamed up with music streaming website Spotify to release live
compilations of each album era.
The band had numerous influences and inspirations for Living
Things. Shinoda told Rolling Stone that "Skin to Bone" and
"Roads Untraveled" contained folk music influenced by the works of
Bob Dylan, as well as the inspirations of Dylan. In the seventh track
"Victimized", which Rolling Stone described as "the band's most
aggressive track in years", were influenced by punk rock bands such as
Pennywise and Dirty Rotten Imbeciles.Shinoda noted the minimal content of
numerous punk rock songs attributed to the short length of
"Victimized"; bassist Dave "Phoenix" Farrel noted that the
song's working title, "Battle Axe", "which to me is..what that
song is; it's just this big 'crack' and then you're out." Like the band's
first two albums, the penultimate song ("Tinfoil") is an
instrumental. Brad Delson, the band's guitarist, had vocals in the tenth track
"Until It Breaks", which was Delson's idea.
On March 28, 2012, Shinoda confirmed that the album's first
single is "Burn It Down". On April 11, 2012, it was confirmed that it
would be sent for radio airplay and released to iTunes digital download on
April 16, 2012. Shinoda also confirmed they were filming a music video for the
song, with the band's turntablist Joe Hahn directing the video. The band teamed
up with the Lotus F1 team to create a musical racing iPad app entitled Linkin
Park GP, where players drive a Lotus E20 and interact with an environment that
allows the player to create a remix of "Burn It Down", as well as
zooming into individual sections of the song. The music video for "Burn It
Down" premiered on MTV on May 24, 2012.
Living Things is now released globally and being distributed
in the country by Warner Music
Philippines.
