Earlier this week, Linkin Park began teasing a new song — well, sort of. The track, titled "Friendly Fire," was initially recorded during the sessions for 2017's One More Light, but was ultimately shelved to be released as a B-side sometime down the line.
That time is now. Today (February 23rd), Linkin Park dropped "Friendly Fire" in full. Poignantly, the single features one of the last recorded vocal performances by their late, great frontman Chester Bennington, who tragically died by suicide the same year it was recorded.
One More Light was characterized by the more electro-pop sound that Linkin Park grew into over the years, and "Friendly Fire" fits right into that sonic pocket. Listen above via YouTube.
The song will appear on a new career-spanning Linkin Park best-of album, Papercuts (Singles Collection 2000-2023), which is due out April 12th via Warner Records.
In addition to "Friendly Fire," Papercuts encompasses everything from classic hits like "Crawling" and "Somewhere I Belong" to the coveted rarity "QWERTY." The compilation will be available on all digital platforms and CD, cassette and various vinyl variants, including a Zoetrope picture disc and limited-edition colors. Papercuts is available for pre-order now.
According to guitarist Brad Delson, "Friendly Fire" was always one of the band's 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," he explained of why the song was shelved. "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."
Delson added: "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."
