Maps of Music

Living Things (2012)

Where the lyrics of Living Things take you, and where it was really made.

Linkin Park's fifth album was built by mixing elements of all four earlier albums, and it still debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.

Key places

Where Living Things was recorded (2012)

Recording site NRG Recording Studios (Hollywood) — Living Things was recorded at NRG Recording Studios, the place where this album was made. It was the last album Rick Rubin produced for the band. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Living Things: fifth studio album by American rock band Linkin Park
• Released under Warner Bros. Records and Machine Shop Records on June 20, 2012, in Japan
• Released in the rest of the world during the following week
• Produced by Mike Shinoda and Rick Rubin
• Last album produced by Rubin and recorded at NRG Recording Studios
• Lead single Burn It Down released on April 16, 2012
• Certified Platinum by the RIAA in August 2017

Background

• Previous two studio albums: Minutes to Midnight (2007) and A Thousand Suns (2010)
• Shinoda and Rubin co-produced both of those earlier albums
• The band said the album combines elements from their previous four studio albums
• The band felt they were back in familiar territory after years of experimentation
• Title chosen because of the numerous personal topics on the album
• Recording started in March 2011 and ended in April 2012
• In June 2011 Chester Bennington told Kerrang! that new material was underway

Recording

• Bennington said Rubin gives the band room to work on their own
• Bennington said Shinoda guides the band through the process of each song
• Bennington called the Shinoda and Rubin partnership our golden ticket

Cover

• Album art released on April 16, 2012, along with the first single
• Shinoda said the artwork would be new in both image and the way it was made

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Linkin Park was formed in Agoura Hills, California, in 1996 by high school friends Mike Shinoda, Rob Bourdon, and Brad Delson.
• The band began as Xero, recorded a four-track demo in 1997, and changed its name to Hybrid Theory after Chester Bennington joined in 1999.
• Warner Bros. Records advised another name change, and the band chose Linkin Park.

Members

• The original lineup included vocalist Chester Bennington and drummer Rob Bourdon.
• Bennington died by suicide in July 2017, and the band went on hiatus.
• In September 2024 the reformed lineup was announced, with Emily Armstrong and Colin Brittain added to Shinoda, Delson, Joe Hahn, and Dave Farrell.

Career

• Debut album Hybrid Theory (2000) was certified Diamond by the RIAA and sold more than 4.8 million copies in its first year.
• Meteora (2003) followed, and Minutes to Midnight (2007) marked a change in sound.
• A Thousand Suns (2010), Living Things (2012), The Hunting Party (2014), and One More Light (2017) explored electronic, rock, and pop directions.
• The band has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.
• Eighth album From Zero (2024) returned to a heavier sound.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Metacritic: mixed or average reviews, weighted average 60 out of 100 from 15 critic scores
• Loudwire (Chad Childers): the album keeps expanding their worldview and adds more of the anger from Hybrid Theory
• AllMusic (Stephen Thomas Erlewine): calls it a fitting soundtrack for aging rap-rockers who are comfortable in their skin but restless at heart
• The Guardian (Dave Simpson): says the album is more personal than A Thousand Suns, with recovery from traumatic experiences as an underlying theme
• The Guardian (Dave Simpson): says the album would have benefited from more adventure but still sounds like a band enjoying an unexpected second life
• Melodic (Johan Wippsson): says the album is too pop-oriented and made for the charts compared with earlier work
• PopMatters (Jordan Blum): calls it a very good entry that is simply not as special as its precursor
• The Observer (Phil Mongredien): praises the band's refusal to play it safe
• About.com (Tim Grierson): says the record ends up being a diverting experience rather than an arresting one
• The A.V. Club (Evan Rytlewski): says the band's moves can only take Linkin Park so far
• NME (Hamish MacBain): calls it a predictable earache in the review's sub-description

Reappraisal

• Critical reception was mixed overall, with praise for boldness and criticism of the songwriting and the electronic turn

Records

• Debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 223,000 copies in the US
• Fell to number 5 in its second chart week with 64,000 copies
• Reached number one in 17 countries, the band's best-charting album to that point
• Debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart with 41,000 copies
• Debuted at number one in Canada with at least 20,000 copies
• Gold in Australia for at least 35,000 shipments and Gold in Switzerland
• 681,000 copies sold in the United States as of 2014
• RIAA Platinum certification in August 2017

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Joe Hahn, the band's turntablist, directed the music video for Burn It Down
• The band teamed up with the Lotus F1 team to create the racing iPad app Linkin Park GP, which lets players remix Burn It Down
• Brad Delson sings on the tenth track Until It Breaks, which was his idea
• Victimized, the seventh track, was influenced by punk bands such as Pennywise and Dirty Rotten Imbeciles
• Living Things was chosen as the album's title because of the numerous personal topics on the album

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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