I know many people complain about M2M having no theme, I on the other hand believe it does I was thinking about it last night when I could hardly get to sleep and I think it's a pretty good thought I may be wrong but here it goes. The THEME of Minutes to Midnight is Endings, Conclusions, Finishing off, Closing. These words all all basically connected. Wake: it's not a song, and it has no words put perhaps the name has something to do with it Wake - "A vigil held over a corpse the night before burial" letting someone go, the end of knowing a person, the end of friendship. of life. Given up: It's easiest to figure out on this song, because it literally screams it at you. "Put me out of my misery!!" Endings someone misery, and and discomfort with themselves Bleed it out: "For the thousandth time, I bleed it out" I think this song is talking about Finishing/Accomplishing what people have tried to do over and over again Leave out all the Rest: this song talks about what will go on after someones life comes to an End What I've done: "Erase what I've become, and forgive what I've done" It's about putting an end to ones own guilt, and mistakes, and forgiving themselves. Starting over1 Shadow of the day: This talks about letting go of feelings, and emotional weight that has been burdened upon one "And the shadow of the day, will embrace the world in gray, and the sun will set for you" In pieces: song talk about stopping to put up with someones cold cruelty and lies Valentines day: is about the end of an relationship and what it feels like to be alone In between: talks about putting an end to dishonesty and a stop to all the lies No More sorrow: This song, is basically about quiting to put up with someones shit, selfishness, mistakes, stupidity Hands held High, is about putting an end to useless wars, the rights that are taken from us (freedom of speech) and a whole stew of other things I could go into many more details to about how these songs are all about endings, conclusions, accomplishments, closings and finishings but I feel that I don't need to. I don't think it's possible to deny these points that I've made and if you can, well hats off to you good sirs and ladies. The examples I have given should stand out, they do to me. I don't know if anyone else sees it. But that's what I think the main theme to M2M is. TYPES OF ENDINGS. Even the album title itself talks about it. Minutes to Midnight, the minutes counting down the End of the world. Or maybe the theme is “The End of Somethings, The Start of Some Other Things” Thank you for reading. Discuss!!
WAKE Mike: This is an intro track that starts the album - you can hear a needle going down on a record and i think it sets the tone for what's to come. GIVEN UP Brad: We had a really bad song called 'fire in the city' - the chorus actually had the words 'fire in the city' on it! Mike was the only person who liked it. rather than just scrap the song, we mined it for any good parts. Mike: It felt like brad stole my car and ripped out the stereo. Brad: I took the bassline and the drums and built weird sounds around it, which eventually became this song. Chester's screaming: 'What the fuck is wrong with me? Put me out of my fucking misery!' so, without explaining exactly what the song's about, it's pretty clear he's not happy. LEAVE OUT ALL THE REST Chester: We knew this was going to be a single from the very beginning, so we worked really hard on making sure it had great lyrics. I'm singing 'Pretending someone else can save me from myself' during it because it's supposed to feel like an apology letter, as though i'm moving on but i want people to remember the good things and not the bad things. A lot of the song is about humility. BLEED IT OUT Mike: I wrote the lyrics to this about 100 times. it's always frustrating as a lyricist to come in with a new version that you spent hours on and have the band tell you that it's not there yet. in one case, they listened to my lyrics for 30 seconds and told me to start over again. that was pretty hard. it felt like i was bringing in the lyrics, getting punched in the face and then going back to the drawing board. When it finally came together i said to the band 'I don't think anyone but us could have made a song like this'. It's a fucking bizarre death-party-rap-hoedown! SHADOW OF THE DAY Brad: This was probably the most difficult arrangement to nail. It sounded very derivative at first but then we kept replacing different elements on it. We put an acoustic guitar on it, then an electric banjo and then a marimba. It’s definitely one of the best songs we’ve written. WHAT I’VE DONE Mike: on the other albums, Brad and I started every song together. But this was the only song we wrote together and the last one we finished. We wanted a song that encapsulated the feel of the whole record and I think this is that song. You’re going to get something different out of this every time you listen to it. HANDS HELD HIGH Mike: Rick said to us that, if something sounded like it needed rapping, then we should try singing and vice versa. That’s why this song has rapping on it. Brad: a lot of the greatest accidents occurred when we combined elements that shouldn’t have worked together. NO MORE SORROW Rob: this is probably the heaviest song on the album. It was initially called ‘EBow idea’ Rick told Brad that he should use an EBow [guitar effect] on a different song. When he went in to work on that, he got frustrated and came up with the opening to this. Chester: I think this is a record you should listen to on headphones because you’ll hear different things, this is a song that shows there is depth to this record. VALENTINE’S DAY Chester: It’s definitely one of the poppier songs on the album. We have to be very careful sometimes that we don’t lose the integrity of what we’re doing – we’re a very dark band and we like it like that. We talk about uncomfortable things and try to make you comfortable with that. We tried to do that here in a more poppy song and I really like that aspect of the album. IN BETWEEN Chester: I knew that Mike should really sing this song. I tried it once, I did a good job, but it just didn't have the power of Mike's performance because he really believed what he was singing. Whatever it is the motherfucker is apologising for on this track, he's fucking serious! It comes from the most sincere and heartfelt place. IN PIECES Chester: I got divorced recently and that was very difficult. I also got remarried so there was a big contrast in my life. For a while I couldn’t be completely happy with the new life I was starting and I couldn’t end the last one. This is a song about that. The music has a kind of reggae vibe to it, almost. It’s really cool watching how the song goes from that, through pop and emerges as a full-on rock song at the end. THE LITTLE THINGS YOU GIVE AWAY Brad: this is our favourite song on the record. It's the biggest statement that we've ever made. Nothing could go after it as everything would get eclipsed by it. The thing that really makes it is the guitar solo. Mike: Brad has always avoided solos because he doesn't like to show off. But when he played that solo, though, it was one of the most emotional moments we've recorded. It says what the lyrics are saying without words. That tells what almost every track is about, and besides, the meanings to the songs on Minutes To Midnight are way too obvious.
well im not really trying to say what the song is about per se, but what the theme, the feel of the album is. I know what the songs are about. But people say it's a jumpy album that 4 or so talks about a bad relationship or something then you get to the other songs that are more contriversial. That's what i'm trying to get at the theme, feel of the album, not percisely what each song is about.
I actually agree with you. The album does seem to have this theme of things coming to an end. Meteora was just "I'm suffering" whereas MTM gives more legit reasons for them to say that (war, divorce, death, etc). I don't think this was intentional, though. Now if they can just make the next album more cohesive musically (as opposed to just lyrically) then they'll be in a good place.
The theme of the album sums up pretty much where Linkin Park stood before they began writing the album, back from hiatus and trying to end what they didn't like from before and create some new music they enjoy.
I think Gan is the most dead on. Those explanations from the band aren't about the theme of the album, but the process by which they wrote all the songs. It neither elaborates on their state of mind, or the overall goal they had, except to change. The majority of the songs deal death and the emotions that come with it, such as Bleed It Out, What I've Done, and The Little Things Give You Away. Valentine's Day, to me, seems to be a deliberate mockery of most other "Valentine's Day" songs. It feels like it's saying, "Hey, you might be alone on Valentine's Day, but the person I want to be with is DEAD!" The album wasn't just about lyrically expanding, but musically as well. There were plenty of subtle electronic pieces, but they were designed, just like the rest of the album, to work with eachother, not overshadow. Everything is worked very subtley. Personally, I'm glad they went this route with MTM. In the future they will write more heavy songs, but now they know how to write and perform them without making them into the stereotypical heavy guitars and drums and screaming.