Leave Out All the Rest

"Leave Out All the Rest" is a song by Linkin Park, the song was released as the fifth and final single from their third album Minutes to Midnight. Because of the song's popularity of digital sales during the release week of the album, it charted in the Top 100 songs for that week. On the album, the song segues into "Bleed It Out". The single was released on July 15, 2008.

Background information

The song's working titles were "Fear" and "When My Time Comes" according to the booklet. While writing, the group went through over thirty lyrical variations before completing the album version. The song combines various synths and samples with raw guitars and drums and powerful vocals. It is a more '80s influenced ballad that retains several elements from Linkin Park's previous work (bearing certain similarities to songs like "Easier to Run" and "Pushing Me Away"). A demo which features Mike Shinoda doing lead vocals can be heard on the Making of Minutes to Midnight documentary, as well as the Linkin Park Underground 9.0 CD where it is entitled "Fear". The song starts with a string sample and electric piano intro, followed by the verse. At the end of the song of the album version, a crowd can be heard which leads into "Bleed it Out", a song that features the background sound of a crowd throughout.

In a Kerrang! review/interview of the band, and the album, vocalist Chester Bennington had this to say about the song, "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 come and 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."^[5] Mike Shinoda has also stated that Rick Rubin (producer for Minutes to Midnight) was the first to have said "This sounds like a massive single".

Media appearances

The intro to the song was featured on an English advert for the U.S. television series Law & Order for Sky One.

It was also featured on the original motion picture soundtrack for the 2008 film Twilight. It is played during the end credits. Also, the performance from "Road to Revolution" is available on the Twilight special edition DVD.

"Leave Out All the Rest" was the title of a CSI episode that aired on November 6, 2008. The band made a deal with CBS to work the song into the episode. It contained several elements of the song throughout, and pieces of the verses, as well as the chorus, were played at the opening and end of the episode.^[6]

Music video

In an interview with MTV, Mike said that the video, directed by bandmate Joe Hahn, takes place in a futuristic, sci-fi influenced setting, and depicts what the daily life of the band's members would be like if they lived in outer space. The band lives in a rundown, artificial habitat that's making its way across the galaxy. At first, they are seen passing the time performing mundane tasks, but then gravity is lost onboard the vessel, sending the members floating into what looks like the sun or a star. The video features no performance footage, though Chester Bennington is seen singing during most of his solo scenes.^[7] The video has respectively been influenced by the British movie Sunshine, borrowing similar imagery and a similar concept. Joe said:

The video leaked on May 30, 2008, the same day the band released a statement on their widget at MySpace, saying that the premiere for the video would be on June 2, 2008. It featured in the top ten songs of the week on VH1.

Track listings

CD single

Japanese EP

Chart performance

The song managed to spend one week on the Billboard Pop 100 without being officially released as a single, at number 98.^[8] The song debuted on the U.S. Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks at 35 and until now the song peaked at 11. This is one of Linkin Park's lowest charting songs in the UK to date, peaking at 90, as well as on the Billboard Modern Rock chart, peaking at only 11. For comparison, the only Linkin Park single that has performed worse in the UK is "Given Up", which failed to chart. Currently the single has appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 peaking at number 99 and the Billboard Hot Digital Songs at number 72. The single has entered again peaking at number 94. Nevertheless, the single was still certified Gold by RIAA on 2009.

Year-end charts

References