Meteora is the second studio album by Linkin Park, first released on March 25, 2003.
Music style
Compared to the previous 2000 Hybrid Theory, Meteora is characterized by more relevant influences from rapcore (”Lying From You”, “Hit The Floor”, “Figure.09″), hip hop (”Nobody’s Listening”) and electronic music (”Breaking The Habit”). Their instrumental song Session was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 2003.
Background info and production
The album was named after The Meteora. After seeing these monasteries 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, 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 more than 5.5 million sold in the U.S. alone.
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. The album performs this trick between “Foreword”, “Don’t Stay” and “Somewhere I Belong”, “Easier to Run” and “Faint,” and “Figure.09″,”Breaking the Habit”, “From The Inside”, and “Nobody’s Listening”.
There is also a Special Edition of Meteora, which includes the “Making of Meteora” DVD documentary. They are packaged together in a blue tinted case with the standard Meteora cover.The Tour Edition of Meteora is a 2 disc set. The second disc, which is a Video CD, has the music videos for Somewhere I Belong, Faint, Numb, and Breaking the Habit. This edition also comes in a standard plastic case, rather than their trademark Meteora case.
Track listing
“Foreword” – 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” – 2:55
“Nobody’s Listening” – 2:58
“Session” – 2:24
“Numb” – 3:07
source:wikipedia
