Overview
One More Light is the seventh studio album by American rock band Linkin Park. It was released on May 19, 2017, through Warner Bros. Records and Machine Shop. It is the band's first album to have a title track, as they felt that the song "One More Light" was the heart of the album. It is also the last Linkin Park album to be released before the death of lead vocalist Chester Bennington on July 20, 2017, and subsequent hiatus.
The band recorded the album between September 2015 and February 2017 in multiple studios. Band members Brad Delson and Mike Shinoda served as the album's primary producers. The sound of One More Light has been described as being more pop-focused, departing from the alternative rock and alternative metal sounds of their previous albums. The album features guest vocal appearances from Pusha T, Stormzy, and Kiiara, and production and songwriting collaborations with J. R. Rotem, Julia Michaels, Justin Tranter, Ross Golan, Andrew Goldstein, Blackbear, and Eg White.
The album's lead single, "Heavy", featuring Kiiara, was released on February 16, 2017. "Battle Symphony", "Good Goodbye", and "Invisible" were released as promotional singles prior to the album's release. "Talking to Myself" and "One More Light" were released as radio singles later on. The album received mixed reviews from music critics; this, along with accusations of selling out, prompted an angry response from Bennington. Despite the mixed critical reception the album performed well commercially, debuting at number one in several countries; it also became the band's fifth number-one album on the Billboard 200 and was certified Gold in five countries.
Background
In 2014, Linkin Park released their sixth studio album The Hunting Party. The album, produced by Mike Shinoda and Brad Delson, marked a shift from the overall rock sound in their previous albums produced with help of Rick Rubin. Shinoda began the pre-production of One More Light on his smart phone in mid-2015 during The Hunting Party Tour. The main production began as soon as the tour ended. In the process, the band decided to write songs with some external help. They worked with Zayed Hassan, which resulted in his song "Sailing Through the Clouds", Martin Garrix, Hot Karl, Mike Baczor of the band Her0, The Lonely Island, which resulted in "Things in My Jeep", and One Ok Rock. None of these collaborations, however, made the final version of the album.
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