Minutes to Midnight Songwriting Credits by Linkin Park

Minutes to Midnight is the third studio album by Linkin Park, released in May 2007 on Warner Bros. Records and produced by Rick Rubin alongside Mike Shinoda, Rubin's first collaboration with the band, and the album that most deliberately broadened their sound away from the nu-metal categorization of the first two records toward a more mainstream rock and alternative approach. Bennington and Shinoda co-wrote all material; the album's 12 tracks include the radio-accessible 'What I've Done' (a self-examination piece that reached number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart), the full-band rock of 'Bleed It Out,' and the meditative 'Shadow of the Day,' with significantly less rapping by Shinoda than on the first two albums. The deliberate de-emphasis of the rap component divided longtime fans who had defined their identity around the hybrid formula while expanding the album's commercial accessibility on pop radio. Minutes to Midnight debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 623,000 first-week sales and has been certified five-times platinum in the United States. The album is generally regarded as the opening of a creative transition period rather than a peak statement, the beginning of the band's search for an identity beyond the nu-metal category.