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Meteora (Album)Meteora is an album by Linkin Park, first released on March 25 2003. Making of the album The album was named after The Meteora. After seeing these monastaries on a trip to Europe, the band were inspired by the way they were built, almost defying gravity. It was this feeling of greatness and awesome accomplishment that Linkin Park wished to convey with their music, thus, the name. Don Gilmore co-produced the album. Linkin Park comprehensively rehearsed the album recording more than 40 choruses for the first single "Somewhere I Belong". Like the band's first album Hybrid Theory, which is the 21st century's highest selling debut album selling 14 million albums worldwide, Meteora was recorded using ProTools software. It has sold nearly 10 million albums worldwide, 4 million in the US Musicality The video of the song "Somewhere I Belong" features some surrealistic creatures moving from a painting that may have been inspired by Salvador Dal's works - possibly The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1946) or The Elephants (1948). This album shows Linkin Park becoming less rapcore. Although there are rap-driven songs (especially Nobody's Listening and Faint), many of the well-received songs of Meteora have little or no rap (such as "Breaking The Habit" and "Numb"). According to some sources, "Breaking the Habit" is based on a tragic experience of a friend of Mike Shinoda, who wrote the song. Other sources say that the song, though penned by Shinoda, actually reflects singer Chester Bennington's experience with cocaine. It is arguably one of Linkin Park's most stark and controversial songs. Along with the multitude of theories as to its subject, there are also many ideas about what the song means. Common speculations include suicide, self-mutilation, and drug abuse. Track listing - "Foreword" (Intro) (0:13)
- "Don't Stay" (3:07)
- "Somewhere I Belong" (3:33)
- "Lying From You" (2:55)
- "Hit The Floor" (2:44)
- "Easier To Run" (3:24)
- "Faint" (2:42)
- "Figure.09" (3:17)
- "Breaking The Habit" (3:16)
- "From The Inside" (2:53)
- "Nobody's Listening" (2:58)
- "Session" (2:23)
- "Numb" (3:05)
Singles - "Somewhere I Belong" was the lead single from the album.
- It is about a man who is terribly hurt inside and wants to heal and feel the real world. He wants to feel what is really real, let go of his pain and find something he wanted all along. The music video features Chester singing with the band in some kind of odd hall with flames surrounding it, while the band's rapper Mike Shinoda sings between a group of people wearing "death" cloaks. The band's main lyrics composers Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington rewrote over 30 choruses for the song alone. This song is peformed at most live performances.
Charting album positions Billboard Music Charts 2003 Meteora has topped album charts in both the UK and US since its release and has reached #2 in Canada and Australia. It was one of the best selling rock albums of 2003. Charting singles Meteora has a number of songs that have topped the modern and mainstream rock charts and enjoyed success in the pop charts throughout the world. 2003 Somewhere I Belong Mainstream Rock Tracks No. 1 2003 Somewhere I Belong Modern Rock Tracks No. 1 2003 Somewhere I Belong The Billboard Hot 100 No. 38 2003 Somewhere I Belong BBC Radio One Official Chart show No. 20 2003 Somewhere I Belong Canadian Singles Chart No. 2 2003 Somewhere I Belong World Modern Rock No. 1 2003 Somewhere I Belong World Internet Sales No. 1 2003 Faint Radio One Official Chart No. 30 2003 Faint Billboard Modern Rock No. 1 2003 Faint World Modern Rock No. 1 2003 Faint Billboard Mainstream Rock No. 2 2003 Faint Billboard Hot 100 No. 38 2004 Numb The Billboard Hot 100 No. 11 2004 Numb Modern Rock Tracks No. 1 2004 Numb Mainstream Rock Tracks No. 1 2004 Numb World Modern Rock No. 1 2004 Breaking the Habit Modern Rock Tracks No. 17 2004 Breaking the Habit Mainstream Rock Tracks No. 18 2004 Breaking the Habit Netherlands Top 40 No. 5 2004 Breaking the Habit Canada Muchmusic Chart No. 7 2004 Breaking the Habit China Top 20 No. 1 2004 Breaking the Habit World Modern Rock No. 8 2004 Lying from You Modern Rock Tracks No. 1 2004 Lying from You Mainstream Rock Tracks No. 2 2004 Lying from You World Modern Rock No. 9 2003 Don't Stay MP3.com Top 20 No. 8 Critical response Despite the strong sales response from fans, Meteora received a poor response from critics. For example, Metacritic gave the album a meta rating of 59 indicating a mixed response. http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/linkinpark/meteora/1 The album received excellent reviews from: E! Online, Entertainment Weekly. The album received good reviews from: Dot Music, Billboard, New Musical Express, . The band received average reviews from: Allmusic.com, Rolling Stone, Blender, Q Magazine, ShakingThrough.net. The band received poor reviews from: Uncut, Playlouder, The Onion E! Online rated it an A- expected it to "shoot straight for the stars". Best tracks: "Don't Stay", "Somewhere I Belong", "Numb" http://www.eonline.com/Reviews/Facts/Music/RevID/0,1107,2917,00.html/2 Entertainment Weekly described it as "radio-friendly perfection". Dot Music described it as a "guaranteed source of ubiquitous radio hits". Best Tracks: "Somewhere I Belong", "Faint", "Lying on the Floor", "Nobody's Listening" rating 8 out of 10http://uk.launch.yahoo.com/l_reviews_a/28815.html/3 Billboard Magazine described Meteora as "a ready-made crowdpleaser". Best Tracks: "Somewhere I Belong", "Breaking the Habit" http://www.billboard.com/bb/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1844735/4 The New Musical Express said it had "massive commercial appeal" but left the reviewer "underwhelmed" Rating 7 Best track: "Breaking the Habit". http://www.nme.com/reviews/11264.htm/5 Rolling Stone said the band "squeezed the last remaining life out of this nearly extinct formula" (nu-metal) Rating 3 stars Best tracks: "Breaking the Habit", "Lying From You", "Figure .09", "Numb" http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album?id=265830/6 Allmusic.com described it as "nothing more and nothing less than Hybrid Theory Part 2" Best tracks: "Lying from You", "Breaking the Habit", "Hit the Floor" http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=SUB030407240527&sql=10:ypdgylo4xpeb~T0/7 Blender described it as "harder, denser, uglier" (#15, page 128) while Q Magazine described it as "less an artistic endeavour than an exercise in target marketing". External links
The Meteora are hilltop monasteries in north-east Greece.
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