LIVING THINGS is the fifth studio album from Linkin Park and was released on June 26th (US) 25th (UK/EU) 22nd (AUS/NZ) 2012. The album is the follow up to A Thousand Suns which saw a release in September 2010, making this the shortest turn around time for a Linkin Park album ever. The album is once again co-produced by Mike Shinoda and Rick Rubin who also shared the responsibilities on their previous two albums, Minutes To Midnight (2007) and A Thousand Suns (2010).

The album was officially announced on April 16th, 2012 to coincide with the release of the album's debut single BURN IT DOWN. The album artwork, track list and pre-order details were all posted in succession of each other making it the first time Linkin Park have co-released the debut single along with it's respective album details. The Honda Civic Tour was also announced simultaneously.

The title LIVING THINGS was first discovered via a series of puzzles leading up to the BURN IT DOWN single release. Fans participated in ciphering hidden code in the release of 16 puzzle pieces on http://burnitdown.linkinpark.com that were to form the BURN IT DOWN cover art. Each piece revealed a sequence of 5-4 digit number codes which when subtracted a certain way, revealed a letter. The ciphered text revealed LIVING THINGS as the answer. It was finally confirmed April 15th by Mike Shinoda and then officially announced on April 16th by Linkin Park.

The title of the album has been described by Mike Shinoda as a comment on the personal issues the album deals with: "We chose the album title 'Living Things' because it's more of a record about people. It's more about personal interactions. On the last few records we've had an interest in global issues and social issues and those things are still around, there are certainly traces of them, but this record is far more personal."

Mike Shinoda has described LIVING THINGS as a "firecracker" record filled with quick stand-out tracks stating that LIVING THINGS is "not a concept record. It's a song based record". The band have also touted LIVING THINGS as a foundation of all of the band's previous work, a collective use of all of the "tools in their toolbox" which allowed the band to be "comfortable in their skin" for the first time, by embracing both the past and present of Linkin Park.