Linkin Park have shared the official visualizer for one of the heaviest songs of their career, QWERTY.
Fittingly, the clip reflects the energy of the hard-hitting Minutes To Midnight-era B-side with its buzzsaw distortion and cathartic vocal delivery. The clip arrives as part of the rollout of the band's first career-spanning greatest hits collection Papercuts (Singles Collection 2000-2023). QWERTY has also been made available on streaming as part of Papercuts digital release.
Papercuts (Singles Collection 2000-2023) is available for purchase in various physical formats from our Maniacs store. Linkin Park were inspired to thoughtfully curate Papercuts by their fans’ passionate reception of the 20th Anniversary Editions of Hybrid Theory in 2020 and Meteora last year. That enthusiasm led to this comprehensive retrospective of the band’s journey so far.
Mike Shinoda said, “In the making of each Linkin Park album, I want to love and believe in each 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. Thank you for being a part of our journey. We hope you enjoy Papercuts.”
Linkin Park teased Papercuts with the never-before-released track Friendly Fire. Recorded during the 2017 sessions for their seventh album One More Light, it features a powerhouse vocal performance from the late Chester Bennington. Cinematic keys and a delicate beat underline emotionally charged verses as humming guitar uplifts the introspective chorus, “We’re pulling apart for no reason, we’re pulling a trigger in a useless war…what are we fighting for.” It embodies the style, soul, and spirit of classic LP. The song arrived accompanied by an official video, directed and edited by long-time collaborator Mark Fiore which features never-before-seen studio and live footage.
Speaking about Friendly Fire guitarist Brad Delson added, “‘Friendly Fire’ was always one of our favourite 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, and 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.”
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