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 band's final album to feature two of their longtime members: co-lead vocalist Chester Bennington, who died by suicide two months after the album's release, and drummer and co-founder Rob Bourdon, who opted not to return for the band's reformation in 2024.
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.Linkin Park have collaborated with Stormzy. NME. April 10, 2017. Retrieved April 10, 2017.
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. One More Light 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. Mike Shinoda began the pre-production of One More Light on his smartphone 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",Zayed Hassan Interview / Linkin Park Contest Winner Open Labs. August 7, 2015. Martin Garrix,Martin Garrix's Rumored Collab With Mike Shinoda Gets Leaked Your EDM Hot Karl,246 Jensen & Matty SoundCloud Mike Baczor of the band Her0,Rocking on the brink of stardom Berksmont News The Lonely Island, which resulted in "Things in My Jeep",Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping – "Things In My Jeep" Linkin Park. May 23, 2016. Retrieved April 13, 2017. and One Ok Rock.Linkin Park-One OK Rock. Facebook None of these collaborations, however, made the final version of the album. The album marks the second to be self-produced following The Hunting Party.
Composition As a new concept to the band, all the songs featured on the album began with vocals being recorded first.Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda Interview ZSTG-IP February 16, 2017. They worked on the story first, then the hook, and finally the music. In an interview with Zane Lowe, Shinoda explained the composition as, "In terms of the style of the record, it's one of the most diverse stylistically, there's more genres mashed into this album than anything we've ever put out. You don't hear a lot of super heavy guitars. There isn't any screaming on the record." He adds, "To some extent it is a very polished record. Stylistically we wanted to blend all of the sound and genres together in a way you can’t tell them apart".Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park interview with Zane Lowe beats 1 Radio February 12 2017 AntiDiary February 16, 2017. As to why they chose "Heavy" to present the album to the world, he told Billboard, "One of the reasons why we chose 'Heavy' as the first single is because it is really the core sound of the album. This wasn't a scenario where the whole album sounds one way and the single sounds different. This is how the album sounds. So we wanted to go out with a song like that, where everybody can get a sense of the direction of this body of work." According to him, a lot of songs on the album can make the listener think of old songs by The Cure or Tears for Fears.Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda Talks 'Heavy' New Single & Hooking up With Kiiara Billboard. February 16, 2017
In an interview with MusicRadar, Brad Delson explained,
Further elaborating on his guitar work, Delson said, "I love the acoustic work on 'Sharp Edges'. I really like all of the layering of guitars on 'Invisible' as well. There's also a really unique presentation of the guitar in a way that I don’t think we’ve ever done on a song called 'Sorry For Now'. That was one of the things that we were really excited about – it is wildly different to anything else that we have been doing."
The album features collaborations with songwriters and other artists. "Heavy" features vocals by pop singer Kiiara, and "Good Goodbye" features verses by rappers Pusha T and Stormzy.Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington LIVE on Facebook with 92.3 AMP 92.3 AMP Radio New York February 21, 2017. Genre-wise, the album has been described as pop, pop rock, electropop, and electronic rock.
Recording
The band had been writing and recording mostly in Los Angeles but also had a few sessions in London and Canada where they worked with a few songwriters.Mike Shinoda fala um pouco mais sobre o novo álbum a Revista Kerrang. Road To Revolution Brasil. December 29, 2016. In Los Angeles, the band started working at the Larrabee Studios where they had worked for their previous album. After noticing the band needed a bit more space they shifted to Sphere Studios.Studio Update #6 – Mike & Brad Podcast by LINKIN_PARK, Listen free on SoundCloud SoundCloud. July 27, 2016. Starting in early 2016 the band decided to open up their process to fans through social media by doing live streams, posting pictures and videos of their day by day in the studio, and sending studio updates to their mailing list.
In an interview with Billboard, Shinoda said "We've focused almost exclusively on songwriting, not on sound, not on genre, not on arrangement, on words and melodies. And that is something Rick [Rubin] has always told us to do years past and we never listened because we started always track first. Now we're writing songs and now we're just starting to get into the style of that."Linkin Park Talk 2016 Album at Charity Poker Tournament: 'We Have a Mountain of Material' Billboard. April 6, 2016 While working with Justin Parker in London, Mike also learned a different approach to songwriting: to write without any sound in mind and, instead, write with meaning in mind. Instead of writing tracks piece by piece, the band wouldn't leave a session without having a song. It would all start as a conversation, and out of those the songs would build progressively from a chord progression to lyrics.
Among the collaborators are Justin Parker,Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda Talks Pop Co-Writes Energy 103.7 Conner Youngblood, Jon Green,Jon Green-Profile Universal Music Publishing Group blackbear,Producer blackbear thinks "One More Light" is Linkin Park's "best album" – Music News ABC News Radio. Andrew Goldstein,Linkin Park – Sorry for Now* Lyrics Genius Lyrics Eg White, Emily Wright,Mike Shinoda: 'Heavy' Single Is Core Sound Of New Linkin Park Album Blabbermouth February 17, 2017. Retrieved April 13, 2017. Andrew Bolooki, Andrew Dawson, RAC, Corrin Roddick, and Ross Golan.Live with Linkin Park -iHeart Radio Canada Internet Archive American singer Kiiara also had a seven-hour session with Linkin Park to record her vocals for "Heavy", and rappers Stormzy and Pusha T contributed to the album with original verses. In the past, the band had a different approach to collaborations, as explained by Mike: "Usually it means we’ve finished the song but we'll ask somebody to add something to the top of it." He added: "Generally, here's how it would work: we'd get in the room with someone, and start on something from scratch with them. We worked mostly in the same way we always write songs, but with extra firepower in the room."LPAssociation Interview – Mike Shinoda Discusses New Linkin Park Album 'One More Light' LP Association. February 21, 2017.
Bennington had also reached out to Billy Howerdel of A Perfect Circle to collaborate on a song for the album. The two collaborated on a track titled "Eat the Elephant", but it was ultimately left off the album, due to it not matching the direction of One More Lights sound. Howerdel completely reworked the song musically and lyrically, and recorded it with Maynard James Keenan on vocals for their April 2018 album Eat the Elephant.
Artwork and packaging In an interview with Kerrang! magazine, Shinoda explained that the children seen on the album cover are those of a friend of the band and represent what the band members feel when their respective families get together. The photo was shot at Venice Beach by Frank Maddocks, who has previously contributed to artworks for Deftones and Green Day's Revolution Radio. The album cover also somewhat resembles the logo of the film company Lakeshore Entertainment.
The album was made available on Linkin Park's official website in five different packages: CD + LPU membership, vinyl + LPU Membership, CD bundle, vinyl bundle, and the "Just Give Me Everything" box set. All offers were accompanied by an LPU digital membership. Both the CD bundle and vinyl bundle include a One More Light T-shirt and a silver Linkin Park logo enamel pin. The box set was bound inside a special One More Light super deluxe box with a 48-page hardcover book featuring all the best photos from the album package and all the lyrics, a unique 2.4" × 1.8" instant photo of the band, and a gold enamel pin set featuring a Linkin Park pin, an LP Hex logo pin, and a "OML" logo pin. It also included both the CD and vinyl versions of the album as well as the One More Light T-shirt.
Promotion
The first single, "Heavy", was released via Los Angeles radio station KROQ on February 16, 2017. The track is a duet with American singer and songwriter Kiiara, marking the first time a Linkin Park song from a studio album has featured a female vocalist. The song was written by Linkin Park with Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter, while Emily Wright and Andrew Bolooki handled vocal production. The band released a second track from the album, "Battle Symphony", on March 16, 2017, with an accompanying lyric video. A third track from the album, "Good Goodbye", was released for download on April 13, 2017, along with an accompanying lyric video followed by a music video. The song features American rapper Pusha T and English hip hop artist Stormzy. On May 10, 2017, the band put out one final pre-release track, "Invisible", with an accompanying lyric video. "Talking to Myself" was sent to alternative radio July 25, 2017, as the album's second official single. The music video for "Talking to Myself" was released on July 20, 2017, the same day of Bennington's death.