More mellow than previous Linkin Park songs, this seems to be about someone thinking about a friend who is suffering, most likely from depression or a physical illness. He talks about how sometimes it is easier to just stop trying, even though everyone wants you to push onward. Life isn't nearly as simple as it seems, and sometimes giving up is the best solution.
The song has a very melancholy tone. Chester Bennington has the only vocal part on this, and he sings about how "the shadow of the day will embrace the world in grey and the sun will set for you." This is where he is talking about how eventually, everything ends. To dust you shall return (that's where the world is embraced in grey; death is here and you're going back to being the dust of the earth). The sun sets, the day is over - your life is done. The shadow of the day refers to what happens when a person dies - only their memory is left. Their memory is the shadow of their life. Shadow of the day.
Guitarist Brad Delson in Kerrang! magazine: "This was probably the most difficult arrangement to nail. It sounded very derivative at first but then we kept replacing different elements on it. We put an acoustic guitar on it, then an electric banjo and then a marimba. It's definitely one of the best songs we've written."
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