Product Description

Third studio album from the all-conquering UK indie quartet. 'X & Y' took over 18 months to record, but the sessions provided Coldplay with 'Speed Of Sound' - their first US top ten single. This album is a natural progression from 2002's 'A Rush Of Blood To The Head', and was produced by the band in collaboration with Danton Supple and Ken Nelson.

Track Listing

1. Square One
2. What if?
3. White Shadows
4. Fix You
5. Talk
6. X&Y
7. Speed Of Sound
8. A Message
9. Low
10. Hardest Part
11. Swallowed In The Sea
12. Twisted Logic
13. (Hidden track: 'Til Kingdom Come)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #358 in Music
• Released on: 2005-06-06
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Coldplay were faced with a difficult choice as they set to work on X&Y. They could either follow Radiohead’s lead and use their enormous success and financial security as a springboard to a brave experimental future--or they could play it safe, repeat the tricks used on the 16 million-selling A Rush Of Blood To The Head, and consolidate their position as one of the biggest bands in the world. In truth, despite the Tetris-inspired artwork and presence of teaser track "Talk"--which steals its melody line from electro-futurists Kraftwerk’s gorgeous "Computer Love"--X&Y is more the latter than the former. Fans will be delighted by "What If?", a piano elegy that takes flight on strings, and slowly builds towards a Beatles' "A Day In The Life"-style climax, while the likes of "Fix You" and hidden track "'Til Kingdom Come"--originally written for country hero Johnny Cash--proves Martin’s skill for simple, affecting songwriting remains intact. One development, however, comes through the judicious inclusion of some rather pleasant synthesiser work--see "White Shadows", where Martin gently beseeches "Come on love, stay with me" over a gentle Eno-esque keyboard wash. Fair enough: the experimental albums can come later. --Louis Pattison

 

More Coldplay
A Rush of Blood to the Head (CD)	Parachutes (CD)	Coldplay: Live 2003 (Limited Edition DVD with Live CD)	Coldplay: Look at the Stars (Paperback)
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Album Description
Coldplay's massively anticipated new album, X&Y, is the follow-up to 2002's 16-million selling A Rush of Blood To The Head and includes the single "Speed of Sound". X&Y was recorded at studios in the UK and has been produced by Danton Supple (Morrissey, Elbow), Ken Nelson (Badly Drawn Boy, Kings of Convenience) and the band themselves.

Tracks include:

"Square One":Probable single. Built around a subtle electronic drum beat reminiscent of Brian Eno or Berlin-period Bowie, the song builds into a huge chorus featuring massive guitars and organ. Like Radiohead's "Paranoid Android", it sounds like their most ambitious and possibly best song yet.

"What If":Starting with a simple piano, a fragile-sounding Chris sings, "What if you decide/You don't want me there by your side... in your life". This album's "The Scientist".

"Talk":A possible B-side to the first single, "Talk" takes the riff from electronic music legends Kraftwerk's "Computer Love" and builds a completely new song. It keeps the mechanical beat of the original but adds a huge guitar and dancefloor filling bass-line. Stadiums won't be big enough to contain it.

"'Til Kingdom Come":This was written for Johnny Cash, but he died before he could record it. Coldplay's version is a sweet Dylan-esque folk song on acoustic guitar. "For you I'd wait til kingdom come/Until my days, my days are done." Chris vows.

"X&Y":The dreamy, synth-heavy song features the chorus, "You and me are floating on a tidal wave together/You and me are drifting into outer space." Beatles-style strings suddenly appear towards the end, and the anthemic singalong "woo-hoo-hoo" outro is set to become the sound of the summer festivals.

"The Hardest Part":A classic Coldplay love song about loss and heartbreak, in which Chris sings, "The hardest part was letting go, not taking part."

Customer Reviews

x must try harder- y?
I notice one of the tags for this album is 'music'. Yeah!
Coldplay, whadda they sound like?
well, sort of... music, really.
Whoo! I got to get me some of that!
Yes, it's the sonic equivalent of watching paint dry...

I'm sorry. I don't HATE this stuff. But that's the point... it's so WET. When did people like this get to masquerade as rock musicians? It's bad for you. Your children will grow up thinking this is what a rock band sounds like. Zeppelin who? no, I wanna listen to the guys who go "waaa.. waa... I'm sad and feeble..." When there's the likes of Gutter Twins, Aquila, Rufus Wainwright and The Veils out there barely making a dent, you should not be spending your money and valuable time on this.

bland and totally unworthy of 5 star reviews
do not be fooled by the plethora of 4/5 star reviews for this album - it is not worthy of it.

and before i get accused of simply hating Coldplay i will say that Parachutes and A Rush of Blood to the Head were both good to very good albums.

However, X&Y is not a very good album - the songwriting is predictable (not up to the standards of their first two albums), the production is dull (the added electronic sheen does make the material on offer any better), Chris Martin's singing is grating (his use of falsetto is constant and overbearing) and the lyrics are just plain bland.

I do not understand the amount of excellent reviews posted for this album (it is though somewhat balanced by the amount of bad reviews).

You people cannot be listening to enough music to have such inflated opinions of this album - try listening to Nick Cave, The Hold Steady, Field Music, Elbow, Jim Noir, Fleet Foxes, Raconteurs, Drive-by Truckers, Calexico, TV on the radio, Goldfrapp, etc., etc, and then go back to X&Y and tell me that it is worthy of 4/5 stars.

Please notice that this meant to be a review of the album and not simply an attack on Coldplay (like so many of the bad reviews posted).

open your ears and minds people.

Yawn.....
Anyone who claims to be a Coldplay fan and likes this album, clearly hasn't listened to 'Parachutes' or 'A Rush of Blood to the Head' two good strong albums, littered with really good songs like 'Yellow', 'Shiver', 'The Scientist', 'In My Place' etc... , whereas 'X & Y' has no good songs, the only half decent thing i liked about this album was one of the videos where an old lady is doing some acrobatic tricks.