“Faint” by Linkin Park

"Faint" is Linkin Park at full sprint, the seventh track on their 2003 second album Meteora and its second single, released on June 9 that year. Don Gilmore produced with the band and recorded it, Andy Wallace mixed, and all six members share the writing credit.

It's the tightest, twitchiest thing on the record: Rob Bourdon's drums gallop, Brad Delson's guitar chops and grinds, and a string section of violins, violas and cellos saws away underneath, giving the rush a jittery edge. Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington split the vocals between rapid-fire verses and a chorus hurled out like a desperate scream.

It topped the US Modern Rock Tracks chart, the band's third number one there, and got a Kerrang! Award nomination for Best Single. It later got a second life on Collision Course, their mashup EP with Jay-Z, spliced with "Jigga What, Jigga Who" from Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life, and in May 2025 it became the band's fifth song to pass a billion streams on Spotify.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.