"Leave Out All the Rest" is the third track and the fifth and final single from Linkin Park's third studio 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". It 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 starts with a string sample and electric piano intro, followed by the verse. The song is a sort of confession (possibly to a friend or loved one) and an attempt at redemption. The lyrics speak of someone who's made some poor choices in the past and wronged others and he fears condemnation. It also mentions the differences between two individuals that shouldn't matter. The main person wants to be remembered as a good person in other peoples' memory when he dies or leaves in another way.

The song combines various synths and samples with raw guitars and drums and powerful vocals. It is a more pop rock 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").

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

Single Potential

In a Kerrang review/interview of the band, and the album, vocalist Chester Bennington had this say about "Leave Out All the Rest", "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 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. Mike Shinoda has also stated that Rick Rubin (producer for Minutes to Midnight) said "This sounds like a massive single" and according to Shinoda, was the first to realize the song's potential as a single.

Music video

In an interview with MTV, Mike had said that the video, directed by bandmate Joe Hahn, would take place in a futuristic, sci-fi influenced setting, and will depict 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 about. The video features no performance footage, though Chester Bennington is seen singing during most of his solo scenes. The video has respectively been influenced by the British movie Sunshine, borrowing similar imagery and a similar concept. Joe said:

On May 30, 2008 on Myspace, Linkin Park released a statement on their widget saying that the premiere for the video will be on June 2, 2008. The video was also said to be "Out Of This World!".

The video leaked before the official release date, also on May 30.

The video also featured in the top ten songs of the week on VH1.

Track listings

CD1

Digital download/CD2

Chart performance

The song managed to spend one week on the Billboard Pop 100 without being officially released as a single, at number 98.. 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, behind there's only "Given Up" that failed the top 200.

Chart (2007)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Pop 100	98
Chart (2008)	Peak position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart	24
Finland Singles Chart	19
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart	38
Polish National Top 50	38
Portugal Singles Chart	33
UK Singles Chart	90
U.S. Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks	11
U.S. Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks	33
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks	32
U.S. Billboard Pop 100	86

References