Maps of Music

A Thousand Suns (2010)

Where the lyrics of A Thousand Suns take you, and where it was really made.

A record about nuclear fear takes its title from a Bhagavad Gita line that J. Robert Oppenheimer later used to describe the atomic bomb.

Key places

Primary sessions at NRG Recording Studios (2010)

Recording site NRG Recording Studios (Hollywood) — Primary recording sessions for the album were held at NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, running from 2008 until mid 2010. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• A Thousand Suns: fourth studio album by American rock band Linkin Park
• First released in multiple nations on September 8, 2010; in the US on September 14, 2010 by Warner Bros. Records
• Produced by Mike Shinoda and Rick Rubin, who had also produced the previous album Minutes to Midnight (2007)
• Concept album dealing with human fears such as nuclear warfare
• The band described it as a drastic departure from their previous work
• Blends human ideas with technology, according to Chester Bennington's comments to MTV
• Longest studio album by the band to date, running 47 minutes and 48 seconds
• Title refers to the Bhagavad Gita

Background

• Recording began in 2008, over a year after the release of Minutes to Midnight (2007)
• In May 2009, Shinoda said the new album would not be Hybrid Theory or Minutes to Midnight
• Bennington kept writing for the album while touring with Dead by Sunrise in support of their 2009 album Out of Ashes
• The original plan was an early 2010 release, but Shinoda was concerned with the quality of the tunes
• Shinoda later said the album was not a concept record in the strict sense, being more abstract than many concept albums

Recording

• Primary recording sessions took place at NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
• Sessions ran from 2008 until mid 2010
• Compared to Minutes to Midnight, Shinoda contributed many more vocals, while Brad Delson's guitar riffs were pushed further into the background

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Linkin Park was formed in Agoura Hills, California, in 1996 by high school friends Mike Shinoda, Rob Bourdon, and Brad Delson.
• The band began as Xero, recorded a four-track demo in 1997, and changed its name to Hybrid Theory after Chester Bennington joined in 1999.
• Warner Bros. Records advised another name change, and the band chose Linkin Park.

Members

• The original lineup included vocalist Chester Bennington and drummer Rob Bourdon.
• Bennington died by suicide in July 2017, and the band went on hiatus.
• In September 2024 the reformed lineup was announced, with Emily Armstrong and Colin Brittain added to Shinoda, Delson, Joe Hahn, and Dave Farrell.

Career

• Debut album Hybrid Theory (2000) was certified Diamond by the RIAA and sold more than 4.8 million copies in its first year.
• Meteora (2003) followed, and Minutes to Midnight (2007) marked a change in sound.
• A Thousand Suns (2010), Living Things (2012), The Hunting Party (2014), and One More Light (2017) explored electronic, rock, and pop directions.
• The band has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.
• Eighth album From Zero (2024) returned to a heavier sound.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Metacritic: generally favorable reviews, with a weighted average of 66 out of 100 from 10 critic scores
• Rick Florino of Artistdirect: five stars out of five, saying all rock music would revolve around Linkin Park after this album
• Ian Winwood of Kerrang!: an excellent rating, calling it a political album with songs that were constructed as much as written
• Christopher Weingarten of The Village Voice: compared it to Radiohead's OK Computer and called it 2010's best avant-rock nuclear-anxiety concept record
• Dave de Sylvia of Sputnikmusic: an extremely well-crafted rock album, somewhat better than Minutes to Midnight but short of Hybrid Theory
• David Buchanan of Consequence of Sound: three and a half stars out of five
• Mikael Wood of Spin: six stars out of ten, calling The Messenger the most unexpected track
• Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly: a B rating, noting the jarring mix of industrial grind, hip-hop swagger and teenage-wasteland angst
• Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone: three stars out of five, saying the band was feeling its way toward a new identity
• Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic: a clear continuation of its predecessor, but the subdued rhythms and raps turn monochromatic
• Jim Farber of The New York Daily News: one star out of five, citing many fragments among its 15 cuts
• Johnny Firecloud of Antiquiet: condemned it as a melodramatic farce
• Fans were polarized, and the split was visible from the release of The Catalyst as a single

Reappraisal

• Blunt Magazine (2021): described it as a rap metal supernova
• Kerrang! (2021): called it a daring concept album and ranked it the band's third best behind Meteora and Hybrid Theory

Records

• Debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 241,000 copies
• Fourth US number-one album for the band, though first-week sales were lower than Minutes to Midnight's 623,000
• Passed half a million sales in December 2010; 906,000 copies in the US by June 2014 (SoundScan)
• US gold certification on January 11, 2011
• Number one in Canada with 23,000 copies sold in the first week; Canadian platinum in February 2011
• Debuted at number two on the UK album chart with 46,711 copies; BPI gold on September 10, 2010
• Number one in Australia for four weeks; ARIA gold by the end of 2010
• RIAA platinum certification in August 2017

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album was exhibited at a 3-D laser exhibition at Music Box Theater in Hollywood on September 7, 2010.
• Warner Music Japan released a limited edition bundle with a 1/144 scale Gundam model kit, and The Catalyst became the theme song of Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs.
• Freddie Mercury's fans are not involved here; the contest winner Czeslaw NoBraiN Sakowski from Swidnica, Poland, received credit for supplemental programming on When They Come for Me.
• Blackout was featured in FIFA 11, and the song won Best Song in a Video Game at the MTV Video Game Awards.
• Shinoda's Wretches and Kings points to Public Enemy, and Chuck D later provided vocals on a remix by HavocNdeeD.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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