Band members Brad Delson and Mike Shinoda served as the album's primary producers.

The album features guest vocal appearances from Pusha T, Stormzy, and Kiiara, and production and songwriting collaborations with J. R. Rotem, Julia Michaels, Justin Tranter, Ross Golan, Andrew Goldstein, Blackbear, and Eg White.

The album received mixed reviews from music critics; this, along with accusations of selling out, prompted an angry response from Bennington.

In an interview with Zane Lowe, Shinoda explained the composition as, "In terms of the style of the record, it's one of the most diverse stylistically, there's more genres mashed into this album than anything we've ever put out.

I love the guitar work and tones that our engineer Ethan helped create with me and Mike [Shinoda] throughout this album.

In an interview with Billboard, Shinoda said "We've focused almost exclusively on songwriting, not on sound, not on genre, not on arrangement, on words and melodies.

[30] American singer Kiiara also had a seven-hour session with Linkin Park to record her vocals for "Heavy", and rappers Stormzy and Pusha T contributed to the album with original verses.

In the past, the band had a different approach to collaborations, as explained by Mike: "Usually it means we’ve finished the song but we'll ask somebody to add something to the top of it."

The two collaborated on a track titled "Eat the Elephant", but it was ultimately left off the album, due to it not matching the direction of One More Light's sound.

Howerdel completely reworked the song musically and lyrically, and recorded it with Maynard James Keenan on vocals for their April 2018 album Eat the Elephant.

The photo was shot at Venice Beach by Frank Maddocks, who has previously contributed to artworks for Deftones and Green Day's Revolution Radio.

The track is a duet[37] with American singer and songwriter Kiiara, marking the first time a Linkin Park song from a studio album has featured a female vocalist.

The song was written by Linkin Park with Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter, while Emily Wright and Andrew Bolooki handled vocal production.

The band released a second track from the album, "Battle Symphony", on March 16, 2017, with an accompanying lyric video.

The song features American rapper Pusha T and English hip hop artist Stormzy.

For promotional purposes, a picture of TV color bars was uploaded to the Instagram by the Linkin Park Global Ambassadors and many other people related to the band such as Joe Hahn, Mike Shinoda, Chester Bennington, Phoenix, Lorenzo Errico, Adam Ruehmer, Jim Digby, Christian Tachiera, Tobias Fance, Frank Maddocks, Tal Cooperman, and Warner Bros. Records' official account.

The band also released a series of 8 videos on their official website showing fans their process of creating songs for the album.

[42] Linkin Park did a stripped-down performance with Kiiara at NRG Studios, which was broadcast live on Facebook the same day "Heavy" was released along with its lyric video and the album pre-order.

[43] Acoustic performances of the lead single by Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda helped promote One More Light.

"[57] Neil Z. Yeung of AllMusic agreed, stating that "The issue isn't that it's a pop effort; indeed, they get points for a brave attempt so outside of their wheelhouse.

The problem is that much of One More Light is devoid of that visceral charge that previously defined much of their catalog... there's no feral screaming from Chester Bennington, there are barely any riffs, and DJ Hahn has disappeared beneath the textured studio sheen.

"[52] Troy L. Smith at The Plain Dealer described "Invisible" and "Nobody Can Save Me" as "well-rounded pop songs," but also noting, "That won't stop Linkin Park diehards from getting a sweet tooth from the whiny 'Halfway Right' or the boring title track.

[53] Newsday gave the album a B+ and praised the band's new direction, comparing it to the works of Coldplay and Owl City and concluding "One More Light shows how well Linkin Park has absorbed the current pop scene and applied it to their own music to genuinely reflect who they are today, not who some fans want them to be.

"[56] The band, specifically frontman Chester Bennington, lashed out in response to the negative reception of One More Light's material.

[61][53][62] Similarly, in a separate interview with Kerrang, Bennington, in response to claims of selling out with the album, said "If you're gonna be the person who says like 'they made a marketing decision to make this kind of record to make money' you can fucking meet me outside and I will punch you in your fucking mouth.

"[63][62] In the same interview, Mike Shinoda also rejected the claims that they had made the album "for monetary reasons", responding, "that's not how I operate.

"[67]The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, beating out Kendrick Lamar's Damn to the top spot by selling 111,000 copies in its first week with 100,000 of which coming from pure sales.

[71][72] This would be the lowest charting album by the band in the country since their debut Hybrid Theory which also peaked at number 4.