Meteora (album)

Meteora is the second album by Linkin Park, first released on March 25, 2003.

Background info and production

The album was named after The Meteora. After seeing these monastaries on a trip to Europe, the band was 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 full-length Hybrid Theory, which is the 21st century's highest selling debut album selling 19 million albums worldwide, Meteora was recorded using Pro Tools software. In its 1st week it sold an estimated 810,000 units. To date, it has sold nearly 11 million copies worldwide, with 5.1 million sold in the US alone.

Music style

This album shows Linkin Park becoming a little more rapcore with almost seven tracks either being half rap and half vocals with a vocal chorus ("Easier To Run", "From The Inside"), rap and a vocal chorus ("Faint", "Figure.09") or the same as the former but with more rap orientated music ("Nobody's Listening"). There are also a few experimentations such as "Breaking The Habit", which Linkin Park fans and Linkin Park themselves are yet to define.

Note: the 5th track, "Hit the Floor", if you listen to the opening and main riff, it bears a striking resemblance to the Smashing Pumpkins song, The Everlasting Gaze, from the album MACHINA/The Machines of God.

Song Syncing

Also interesting to note is the almost complete synchronization of every song throughout the album. The precedent is immediately set with "Foreword," an intro to the album which finishes with a crashing sound (thought by many to be glass breaking, but it is in fact an external CD burner on a wooden table being smashed with an aluminum baseball bat). The sound effect smoothly transitions this cue into the album's first song "Don't Stay." Almost all the songs are likewise linked together, with some instrumental motif carrying over one song into the next. Besides the connection of "Foreword" and "Don't Stay," the album performs this trick best between "Easier to Run" and "Faint," and "Figure.09","Breaking the Habit" and "From The Inside"

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" (2:57)
"Session" (2:23)
"Numb" (3:05)

Songs

"Somewhere I Belong" was the lead single from the album. The music video features Chester singing with the band in a Gregorian-esque hall with flames surrounding it, while the band's rapper, Mike Shinoda, is "preaching" to a group of people wearing "death" cloaks. The band's main lyrics composers Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington rewrote over 40 choruses for the song alone. It is featured on Linkin Park's live CD/DVD, Live in Texas.

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 various drugs. 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.

Videos

The video of the song "Somewhere I Belong" features some surrealistic creatures moving from a painting that may have been inspired by Salvador Dalí's works - possibly The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1946) or The Elephants (1948). The video actually fits in context to the song with the idea that Chester "falls" into a dream, an environment created from objects within the room where he falls asleep, reflecting the lyrics; "I wanna find something I wanted all / Along, somewhere I / Belong"

The video of "Faint" was directed by Mark Romanek rather than Joe Hahn, who usually films the band's videos. The video featured a dramatically lit set in which the band was filmed performing the song at a concert, from behind, and so all that can be seen is silouhettes, until after the bridge, at which point the band, as well as the set behind them, can be seen. The video plays on the idea of being ignored (the same idea on which the song was written) and featured a crowd of LP Underground members.

The concept footage of "Numb" was filmed in Prague, completed in Los Angeles. Directed by Hahn, the video revolves around a girl (played by Briana Evigan) who is pressured by everyone around here to be something she cannot be - again, derived from the concept of the song itself.

Around that time, the video for "From The Inside" was also filmed, though Bennington became sick after its completion. The "From The Inside" video was actually filmed before the video for "Numb". In this video there is a riot, with the band playing admist the violence (some of the violent actions of the crowd/police reflect the music). Eventually, a young boy is also among the rioters, and screams; his screaming creates a ripple effect, resultingly causing everyone around him to fall to the ground, unconscious. The video was only released in foreign markets (outside the US) and to the Linkin Park Underground.

"Breaking The Habit", released in 2004, was an unusual video, made entirely through Japanese animation. Concept footage of the band playing was filmed and drawn over. The start of the video reveals a strange city and Chester having jumped off a building and landing on a car. A "ghost" comes out of the body and flies through the piping of an apartment nearby, encountering (not directly) various people with problems in their lives. Among the problems they are facing are drugs and marital problems. Halfway through the video, the events leading up to that point start going backwards in time, and Chester flies back up to the top of the building, where the rest of the band are, performing the remainder of the song. Originally, there was a video composed of live footage, made by Kimo Proudfoot.

Charting album positions

Billboard Music Charts 2003 Billboard 200 No. 1

Meteora has topped album charts in both the UK and US since its release and has reached #2 in Canada and Australia. It was the best selling rock album 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.

Year	Song	Chart	Rank
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.32
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	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.1
2004	Breaking the Habit	Mainstream Rock Tracks	No.2
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	World Modern Rock	No.9
2004	Lying from You	Modern Rock Tracks	No.1
2004	Lying from You	Mainstream Rock Tracks	No.2

Album Sales

Week 1: 834,000
Week 2: 259,000 (1,093,000)
Week 3: 177,000 (1,270,000)
Week 4: 181,000 (1,451,000)
Week 5: 94,000 (1,545,000)
Week 6: 87,000 (1,632,000)
Week 7: 73,000 (1,705,000)
Week 8: 59,000 (1,764,000)
Week 9: 57,000 (1,821,000)
Week 10: 51,000 (1,872,000)
Week 11: 51,000 (1,923,000)
Week 12: 52,000 (1,975,000)
Week 13: 47,000 (2,022,000)
Week 14: 45,000 (2,067,000)
Week 15: 45,000 (2,112,000)
Week 16: 47,000 (2,159,000)
Week 17: 45,000 (2,204,000)
Week 18: 46,000 (2,250,000)
Week 19: 47,000 (2,297,000)
Week 20: 47,000 (2,344,000)
Week 21: 48,000 (2,392,000)
Week 22: 46,000 (2,438,000)
Week 23: 43,000 (2,481,000)
Week 24: 44,000 (2,525,000)
Week 25: 36,000 (2,561,000)

The album stayed, despite in Week 25, was still at #16 on the Charts, and stayed in The Top 50 for much more longer. It is considered one of the strongest albums of that year and one of the most consistent albums in recent memory.

Critical response

Despite the strong sales response from fans, Meteora received a mediocre response from critics. For example, Metacritic gave the album a meta rating of 59 indicating a mixed response. ^*

The album received excellent reviews from E! Online and Entertainment Weekly.
- E! Online rated it an A-, and expected it to "shoot straight for the stars". Best tracks: "Don't Stay", "Somewhere I Belong", "Numb". ^*
- Entertainment Weekly described it as "radio-friendly perfection".
The album received good reviews from Dot Music, Billboard, and New Musical Express, .
- Dot Music described it as a "guaranteed source of ubiquitous radio hits". Best Tracks: "Somewhere I Belong", "Faint", "Lying from you", "Nobody's Listening"; rating 8 out of 10. ^*
- Billboard Magazine described Meteora as "a ready-made crowdpleaser". Best Tracks: "Somewhere I Belong", "Breaking the Habit" ^*
- The New Musical Express said it had "massive commercial appeal" but left the reviewer "underwhelmed" Rating 7 Best track: "Breaking the Habit". ^*
The band received average reviews from Allmusic.com, Rolling Stone, Blender, Q Magazine, and ShakingThrough.net.
- 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" ^*
- 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" ^*
- 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

2003 albums | Linkin Park albums | Enhanced CDs | Warner Bros. albums

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