Last week, Linkin Park teased the track “Friendly Fire” and other previously unreleased songs that were recorded with the late Chester Bennington during 2017’s ‘One More Light’ sessions. Now, the band have revealed the details of a career-spanning greatest hits album, and shared ‘Friendly Fire’ in full. The band wrote on X: “
Papercuts – Singles Collection (2000-2023) | Available April 12 | Pre-order now and stream “Friendly Fire” from the One More Light 2017 sessions. https://lprk.co/papercuts #FriendlyFireLP #Papercuts”
The greatest hits album, titled ‘Papercuts (Singles Collection 2000-2023)’, is a 20-song overview of the band’s best-selling tracks over the past two decades – including classics such as ‘In The End’, ‘Burn It Down’ and ‘Numb’. Set for release on April 12, the album will also features the track ‘Lost’ – a previously unreleased song which was included on the band’s ‘Meteora’ 20th anniversary collection. Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda says of the upcoming album: “In the making of each Linkin Park album, I want to love and believe in each individual song completely. I hope that if any one track is heard on its own in the world, it is something I can feel proud of, and something that takes root inside the listener and becomes part of the energy that connects us. Curating the tracks for ‘Papercuts’ was a joy. Each song in this collection is both a singular moment on our timeline and an evolving story that is as much ours as it is yours. From our first release ‘One Step Closer’ to the brand-new ‘Friendly Fire,’ this tracklist spans all our chapters so far.”
Lead guitarist Brad Delson shares: “‘Friendly Fire’ was always one of our favorite songs from the One More Light sessions. Something about it wasn’t quite right so as close as it got to the finish line, we chose to set it aside for later. When we started looking for an unreleased track to include on our greatest hits collection, I was blown away by the power of the song, the power of the storytelling, the power of the vocal, the sonic landscape and I actually thought that it was closer than maybe we had realized at the time. We got together to work on it and connect some of the missing pieces that for whatever reason hadn’t revealed themselves during the recording of One More Light. I can’t wait for people to hear it. It’s such a beautiful, compelling, heartbreaking, hopeful story and it really resonates with me today.”
‘Friendly Fire’ was released along with a music video that was directed and edited by long-time collaborator Mark Fiore, featuring never-before-seen studio and live footage. You can check it out – here.
To pre-order ‘Papercuts,’ head here.
Editorial credit: Christian Bertrand / Shutterstock.com
