I find guitar to be a dominant ingredient in any soup. The guitar work is nuanced and complementary to all of the other elements that we have put in there. There’s a lot of layers and a lot of different guitars. I wound up putting a lot of guitar on this album. In an interview with MusicRadar, Brad Delson explained, 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. This wasn't a scenario where the whole album sounds one way and the single sounds different. 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. Stylistically we wanted to blend all of the sound and genres together in a way you can’t tell them apart". There isn't any screaming on the record." He adds, "To some extent it is a very polished record. You don't hear a lot of super heavy guitars. 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. They worked on the story first, then the hook, and finally the music.
The album marks the second to be self-produced following The Hunting Party.Īs a new concept to the band, all the songs featured on the album began with vocals being recorded first. None of these collaborations, however, made the final version of the album. 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. In the process, the band decided to write songs with some external help. The main production began as soon as the tour ended. The pre-production of One More Light began in mid-2015 during The Hunting Party Tour by Shinoda on his phone. 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.
In 2014, Linkin Park released their sixth studio album The Hunting Party. This, along with accusations of selling out, prompted an angry response from Bennington. Despite a positive commercial performance, it received mixed reviews from music critics. 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.
" Talking to Myself" and " One More Light" were released as radio singles later on. " Battle Symphony", " Good Goodbye", and " Invisible" were released as promotional singles prior to the album's release. The album's lead single, " Heavy", featuring Kiiara, was released on February 16, 2017. It is also 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.
The album features guest vocal appearances from Pusha T, Stormzy, and Kiiara, and production and songwriting collaborations with JR Rotem, Julia Michaels, Justin Tranter, Ross Golan, Andrew Goldstein, blackbear, and Eg White. 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. Band members Brad Delson and Mike Shinoda served as the album's primary producers. The band recorded the album between September 2015 and February 2017 in multiple studios. It is the last Linkin Park album to feature lead vocalist Chester Bennington before his death on July 20, 2017. It was released on May 19, 2017, through Warner Bros. One More Light is the seventh studio album by American rock band Linkin Park.