Meteora (album)

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Meteora
Studio album by Linkin Park
Released	March 25, 2003
Recorded	August – December 2002 at NRG Recordings in North Hollywood, California
Genre	Nu metal Rapcore
Length	36:32
Label	Warner Bros. Records
Producer(s)	Don Gilmore
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
Linkin Park chronology
Reanimation (2002)	Meteora (2003)	Live in Texas (2003)

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

[edit] 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.

Furthermore, none of the songs off this album feature profanity, just like all the others by the band (excluding early songs/demos, LPU songs, Collision Course, and Xero songs).

[edit] 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 a half 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".

[edit] Track listing

1. "Foreword" – 0:13
2. "Don't Stay" – 3:07
3. "Somewhere I Belong" – 3:33
4. "Lying from You" – 2:55
5. "Hit the Floor" – 2:44
6. "Easier to Run" – 3:24
7. "Faint" – 2:42
8. "Figure.09" – 3:17
9. "Breaking the Habit" – 3:16
10. "From the Inside" – 2:55
11. "Nobody's Listening" – 2:58
12. "Session" – 2:24
13. "Numb" – 3:07

[edit] Chart performance

[edit] Album

Meteora has topped the album charts in both the UK and the U.S. since its release and has reached #2 in Canada and Australia. It was the best selling rock album of 2003.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Album sales

• Week 1: 851,000
• Week 2: 252,000 (1,093,000)
• Week 3: 173,000 (1,270,000)
• Week 4: 182,000 (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, despite being in Week 25, was still at #16 on the Charts, and stayed in The Top 50 even longer. It is considered one of the strongest albums of that year and one of the most consistent albums in recent memory.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Critical response

Despite the strong sales response from fans, Meteora received a mediocre response from critics. The overall Metacritic score was 62, indicating a mixed response among the sources used to compile the score, while with a higher user score of 8.3. [1]

• 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". [2]
  • 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. [3]
  • Billboard Magazine described Meteora as "a ready-made crowdpleaser". Best Tracks: "Somewhere I Belong", "Breaking the Habit" [4]
  • The New Musical Express said it had "massive commercial appeal" but left the reviewer "underwhelmed" Rating 7 Best track: "Breaking the Habit". [5]
• The band received average reviews from All Music Guide, 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" [6]
  • Allmusic.com described it as "nothing more and nothing less than Hybrid Theory Part 2". Best tracks: "Somewhere I Belong", "Lying from You", "Breaking the Habit", "Hit the Floor" [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".

[edit] Trivia

• The intro of the song "Nobody's Listening" was featured in Jetix Spain's advertisement for the anime series Naruto. [8]
• Track 12, "Session", is mostly instrumental. With turntables, guitars, and drums. Towards the end a noise which sounds like someone [possibly Chester or Mike] screaming is heard. A similar track, "Cure for the Itch", is featured on Hybrid Theory (2000).
• Track 12, "Session" is featured in the movie: The Matrix Reloaded

[edit] External links

• Meteora Lyrics
• All Music guide Meteora article
• Meteora Metacritic summary