Burning in the Skies

This Rick Rubin-produced track is the third single from Linkin Park's fourth album, A Thousand Suns. The song made its full live debut at Linkin Park's Melbourne, Australia, show on December 13, 2010 during their A Thousand Suns World Tour.

The lyrics are awash with references of ruin and appears to be a self-chastising lament for mistakes of the past. It finds co-frontman Chester Bennington beseeching in the chorus: "I'm swimming in the smoke of bridges I've burnt/ So don't apologize I'm losing what I don't deserve." There are thematic similarities to the band's 2007 hit single, "What I've Done."

The album finds Linkin Park straying even further from their nu-metal roots into the realm of electronica and experimental rock in the vein of Radiohead's 2004 album, Kid A. Co-vocalist Mike Shinoda said the band drew on a range of influences for the album's sound. "I was listening to a lot of Radiohead, everything from MGMT to Pink Floyd," he explained in a 2020 Twitch stream. "I think there was some Nine Inch Nails and Tool in there. We a bunch of remixes with other people that were based on some of the things I was listening to at the time. But I wasn't listening to new Nine Inch Nails at the time - it was old Nine Inch Nails, like Broken and Fragile. The first four proper studio albums by Nine Inch Nails are my favorite ones. Also weird instrumental music, I was listening to like Gonjasufi and this group called f--kbuttons. Those are super crazy, by the way... Flying Lotus too... some really out there stuff which I loved and I still love. Tarot Sport was the album, Rough Steez," that was a track. So dope. Gang Gang Dance was another artist I was into that I was listening to a lot. Holy Fuck was another band. O+S, Caribou, Peter Bjorn and John, Naked & Famous. So I was listening to a lot of wild stuff and those influenced it."