Chris Martin - Vocals, Piano, Producer, Photography
Will Champion - Drums, Producer, Photography
Guy Berryman - Bass Guitar, Producer, Photography
Johnny Buckland - Guitar, Producer, Photography
Additional personnel
Matt McGinn - Guitar
Brian Eno - Synthesizer on [3]
Danton Supple - Producer
Ken Nelson - Producer
Michael H. Bauer - Mixing
George Marina - Mastering
Chris Athens - Mastering
Jon Bailey - Assistant Engineer
Will Hensley - Assistant Engineer
Jake Jackson - Assistant Engineer
Matt Lejeune - Assistant Engineer
Taz Mattar - Assistant Engineer
Adam Noble - Assistant Engineer
Mike Pierce - Assistant Engineer
Dan Porter - Assistant Engineer
Tim Roe - Assistant Engineer
Cryan Russell - Assistant Engineer
Adam Scheuermann - Assistant Engineer
Rob Smith - Assistant Engineer, Computer wizzardry
Brad Spence - Assistant Engineer
Jon Withnal - Assistant Engineer
Andrea Wright - Assistant Engineer
Mark Phytian - Computer wizzardry
Carmen Rizza - Computer wizzardry
Estelle Wilkinson - Management
Dave Holmes - Management
Phil Harvey - Wise Words
Dan Keeling - A&R
Tappin Gofton - Design and Direction
Kevin Westenberg - Photography
Tom Sheenan - Photography
After Radiohead stubbornly refused to accept the mantle of world's
biggest and most important rock band by releasing the willfully strange
rocktronica fusion Kid A in 2000, Coldplay stepped up to the plate with
their debut, Parachutes. Tasteful, earnest, introspective, anthemic,
and grounded in guitars, the British quartet was everything Radiohead
weren't but what the public wanted them to be, and benefited from the
Oxford quintet's decision to abandon rock stardom for arcane art rock.
Parachutes became was a transatlantic hit and 2002's sequel, A Rush of
Blood to the Head, consolidated their success by being bigger and
better than Parachutes, positioning Coldplay to not be just the new
Radiohead, but the new U2: a band that belongs to the world but whose
fans believe that the music is for them alone. To that end, Coldplay's
third album, X&Y -- slightly delayed so it follows Rush of Blood by
nearly three years, but that's no longer than the time separating OK
Computer and Kid A, or The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree -- is
designed to be the record that elevates Coldplay to the major leagues,
where they are at once the biggest and most important band in the
world. It's deliberate and sleek, cinematic and pristine, hip enough to
sample Kraftwerk and blend in fashionable retro-'80s post-punk
allusions without altering the band's core. Indeed, X&Y is hardly a
bold step forward but rather a consolidation of Coldplay's strengths,
particularly their skill at crafting surging, widescreen epics. But if
X&Y highlights their attributes it also brings Coldplay's
weaknesses into sharp relief. Forget the fact that they, by any stretch
of the imagination, do not rock -- rocking is simply against their
nature. They are a meditative band, reflecting on their emotions
instead of letting them go in a cathartic blast of noise and rhythm.
This isn't a problem -- after all, there have been plenty of great
bands that do not rock & roll -- but their terminal politeness does
cripple their music, preventing it from being as majestic as its
aspirations. Coldplay is well scrubbed and well behaved, possessing a
textbook education in classic rock and the good sense to never stretch
any farther than needed. They are the perfect middlebrow rock band --
clean, pristine, and rational, seemingly smart since they never succumb
to pounding, primal riffs, but also not weird enough to be genuine art
rock. It's ambitious, yet its ambitions are modest, not risky, so their
ambitions can be fulfilled without breaking a sweat. And since their
sweeping yet subdued theatricality does recall the more majestic
moments of Radiohead and U2, they have won millions of fans, but
another crucial reason that Coldplay have a broad appeal is that lead
singer/songwriter Chris Martin never tackles any large issues,
preferring to endlessly examine his feelings. Like on Parachutes and
Rush of Blood, all the songs on X&Y are ruminations on Martin's
doubts, fears, hopes, and loves. His words are earnest and vague, so
listeners can identify with the underlying themes in the songs, and his
plain, everyman voice, sighing as sweet as a schoolboy, is
unthreatening and unassuming, so it's all the easier for listeners to
project their own emotions into the song. But for as impeccable as
X&Y is -- and, make no mistake, it's a good record, crisp,
professional, and assured, a sonically satisfying sequel to A Rush of
Blood to the Head -- it does reveal that Martin's solipsism is a
dead-end, diminishing the stature of the band. Where U2 is big in
sound, scope, ambition, and intent, Coldplay is ultimately big music
about small things, and even if X&Y is a strong, accomplished
album, its limited, narcissistic point of view is what prevents the
quartet from inheriting the title of the biggest and most important
band in the world.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine - All Music Guide
As they proved on their stellar, remarkably focused sophomore effort, A
Rush of Blood to the Head, Coldplay weren't about to be spoiled by
success. But in the time since that disc's release, the band -- or,
more to the point, major-domo Chris Martin -- have had to deal with a
potentially more dangerous problem: a little thing called happiness.
While most of the quartet's previous output has dealt with isolation,
rejection, and unattainable love, X&Y was crafted in, for lack of a
better term, the Gwyneth and Apple Years -- a fact that colors many of
the disc's tunes. "The Hardest Part," one of the band's typically
elegiac swoonfests, finds Martin marveling at the wonders of
pregnancy(!) but managing to stop himself before sinking too deeply
into Jim Brickman quicksand. Lovestruck giddiness likewise rears up in
the sparse bonus track "Til Kingdom Come," a gentle, folk-tinged
catalog of his spouse's attributes. X&Y isn't lyrically
one-dimensional, thankfully, and musically, it's far more open-ended
than Coldplay's previous full-lengths. "Square One," for instance,
replaces the traditional slow build with a lurching gait propelled by
Will Champion's tense post-punk drumming. Similarly, "Low," obviously
inspired by the Bowie album of the same name, slinks along with a
decadent and previously unaired lustiness. Most enjoyable of all -- in
part because it shows a nascent sense of humor -- is "Talk," a winking
appropriation of Kraftwerk's "Computer Love" that, in the hands of
Martin and company, becomes a sort of cyborg power ballad. Much like U2
-- a band that's constantly held up as a benchmark for these boys -- at
a similar point in their career, Coldplay exude both power and
self-importance. And much like Bono and crew, it's looking like
Coldplay have the goods to back up the latter for a long time to come.
David Sprague - Barnes & Noble
Although Coldplay was already big before A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD's
2002 release, nothing could have prepared the British band for the
album's Grammy-garnering runaway success. In addition to becoming a
full-blown rock star, frontman Chris Martin remained in the media
spotlight through his marriage to actress Gwyneth Paltrow and the
subsequent birth of the couple's child. What followed for Coldplay was,
reportedly, a difficult and lengthy recording process where the group
tinkered extensively with their signature sound and eventually arrived
back at square one. "Square One" is, in fact, where X&Y, the band's
third album, begins, with a subtle, dreamy keyboard line giving way to
a barrage of razor-sharp guitar riffs and Martin's plaintive vocals. In
keeping with RUSH's overall theme, the songs of X&Y aren't simply
catchy singles so much as engaging and meticulously crafted tracks that
fit seamlessly together. Many of the record's songs clock in around the
five-minute mark, revealing that the quartet feels no obligation to
create short, snappy hits; instead they take their time establishing a
resonant, anthemic atmosphere, most notably on the slowly building "Fix
You." It's clear on X&Y that nothing about Coldplay needed to be
fixed, since this album serves as a potent reminder of the band's
charms and talents.
CDUniverse.com
Coldplay didn't seem destined for bigness. Their 2000 debut,
Parachutes, was full of drizzly but pretty rock ballads that were
almost memorable enough to prevent American listeners from confusing
the band with Travis. Of course, that album also included a huge,
soaring song called "Yellow," which may well be inspiring a drunken
singalong in your local bar as you read this.
"Yellow" was a smash, but what came next was even smashier. In 2002,
Coldplay released A Rush of Blood to the Head, which perfectly captured
the heady feeling of a small band acting big. The band's sad-sack
frontman, Chris Martin, transformed himself with so much swagger and so
many hooks that even 50 Cent had to pay tribute, turning Martin's
ambivalent lyric into a greasy boast: "God gave me style, God gave me
grace." The rest of the band supplied Martin with propulsive rhythms,
giving their newly pushy leader something to pull against, and the
songs were even better; the band had mastered the art of writing
graceful ballads that were both deceptively simple and fiendishly hard
to dislodge from the human brain.
Since then, Martin has become a worldwide rock star, for better and for
worse. He has a wife named Gwyneth and a baby named Apple, who just
turned one, and who probably already knows what "paparazzi" means. On
the other hand, Martin's newfound notoriety has meant more exposure for
his favorite causes, such as fair trade. Compared to all the hubbub
about Chris Martin the celebrity, his band's return to the American pop
charts was a bit of a letdown. Coldplay began the campaign for X&Y
with "Speed of Sound," an appealing but not thrilling song (it sounds a
bit like Rush of Blood's "Clocks" but without the swagger). Whereas
Rush of Blood was a nervy bid for bigness, X&Y is something less
exciting. It's the serious sound of Martin trying to sing songs that
match his stature. It's the sound of a blown-up band trying not to
deflate.
Like the previous one, this album starts in outer space. Last time,
there were those roiling piano chords of "Politik" and an audacious
opening: "Look at Earth from outer space/Everyone must find a place."
This time there's an atmospheric hum, and Martin murmurs, "The future's
for discoverin'/The space in which we're travelin'." Drummer Will
Champion enters with a tense rhythm, Guy Berryman adds one of those
hurtling- forward bass lines, and Jonny Buckland doubles it with a
skinny guitar line -- there's plenty to listen to, but not a lot to
love. Luckily, this album contains its share of lovely ballads that
sound, well, Coldplay-ish: Thanks to Keane and other imitators,
Coldplay's name has become an adjective. One of the best is "Fix You,"
an unabashedly sentimental song where Martin delivers words of
encouragement in a gentle falsetto. "Lights will guide you home/And
ignite your bones/And I will try to fix you," he sings, proving once
more that no band can deliver a stately rock ballad like this one. And
although "Twisted Logic" may be an obvious Radiohead rip-off (with a
title that sounds alarmingly Fred Durst-ish), the members find ways to
build suspense while progressing toward that inevitable crashing climax.
Still, a surprising number of songs here just never take flight, from
"The Hardest Part" (which actually gets less catchy as it goes along)
to "A Message," which might actually be too Coldplay-ish: "My song is
love," Martin announces, and you might find yourself wishing it
weren't. Martin has talked about how hard he worked on this album, and
it shows: Nothing on it sounds easy -- maybe 50 Cent made off with a
little bit of his style and grace. X&Y does find ways to reward
persistent listeners, especially those who make it all the way past the
end to the bonus track, "Till Kingdom Come," which is the most casual
thing on the album (it starts with Martin counting) and maybe the best.
"I don't know which way I'm going/I don't know which way I've come," he
sings, accompanied by little more than an acoustic guitar, and after
what's come before, it's an unexpected delight to hear him sound so
small again.
KELEFA SANNEH - Rolling Stone Posted: Jun, 16 2005
Spin (pp.99-100) - "By
ratcheting up their guitars and still singing about everyday themes,
Coldplay are recasting their nerdy-student Britpop as Important Rock
Music without sacrificing the homespun vibe..."
Grade: B+ Mojo (p.63) - Ranked #37 in Mojo's "The 50 Best Albums Of 2005" - "[N]o contemporary group builds a crescendo more masterfully..."
Uncut (p.98) - 3 stars out of 5 - "Coldplay's third album finds this remarkable band cruising into their prime...X&Y is an exceptional pop record.
You're in control is there anywhere you wanna go?
You're in control is there anything you wanna know?
The future's for discovering
The space in which we're traveling
From the top of the first page
To the end of the last day
From the start in your own way
You just want somebody listening to what you say
It doesn't matter who you are.
Under the surface trying to break through
Deciphering the codes in you
I need a compass,draw me a map
I'm on the top I can't get back
Whoah. Woah.
First line of the first page
To the end of the last place
You were looking
From the start in your own way
You just want somebody listening to what you say
It doesn't matter who you are
It doesn't matter who you are
Oooh.
You just want somebody listening to what you say
You just want somebody listening to what you say
It doesn't matter who you are
It doesn't matter who you are
Is there anybody out there who is lost and hurt and lonely too
Are they bleeding all your colours into one
And if you come undone as if you'd been run through
Some catapult that fired you
You wonder if your chance will ever come
Or if you're stuck in square one.
What If
What if there was no light
Nothing wrong, nothing right.
What if there was no time?
And no reason or rhyme.
What if you should decide
That you don't want me there by your side.
That you don't want me there in your life.
What if I got it wrong, and no poem or song
Could put right what I got wrong
Or make you feel I belong
What if you should decide
That you don't want me there by your side
That you don't want me there in your life.
Oooh, that's right
Let's take a breath and jump over the side
Oooh, that's right
How can you know it if you don't even try
Oooh, that's right
Every step that you take
Could be your biggest mistake
It could bend or it could break
But that's the risk that you take
What if you should decide
That you don't want me there in your life.
That you don't want me there by your side.
Oooh, that's right
Let's take a breath jump over the side
Oooh, that's right
How can you know it when you don't even try
Oooh, that's right
Oooh
Oooh, that's right
Let's take a breath jump over the side
Oooh, that's right
You know that darkness always turns into light
Oooh, that's right
White Shadows
When I was a young boy I tried to listen
And I wanna feel like that
Little white shadows - blink and miss them
Part of a system I am
If you ever feel like something's missing
Things you never understand
Little white shadows sparkle and glisten
Part of a system, a plan
All this noise I'm waking up
All this space I'm taking up
All this sound is breaking up
Wooaaooh
Maybe you'll get what you wanted
Maybe you'll stumble upon it
Everything you ever wanted
In a permanent state
Maybe you'll know when you see it
Maybe if you say it you'll mean it
And when you find it you'll keep it
In a permanent state, a permanent state
When I was a young boy I tried to listen
Don't you wanna feel like that?
You're part of the human race
All of the stars in the outer space
Part of a system, a plan
All this noise I'm waking up
All this space I'm taking up
I cannot hear you're breaking up
Woaaooh.
Maybe you'll get what you wanted
Maybe you'll stumble upon it
Everything you ever wanted
In a permanent state
Maybe you'll know when you see it
Maybe if you say it you'll mean it
And when you find it you'll keep it
In a permanent state, a permanent state
Swim out on the sea of faces
The tide of the human races, oh
An answer now is what I need
See it in the new sun rise and
See it break on your horizon, oh
Come on love stay with me
Fix You
When you try your best but you don't succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse
And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?
Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you
And high up above or down below
When you're too in love to let it go
But if you never try you'll never know
Just what you're worth
Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you
Tears stream, down on your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down your face
And I..
Tears stream, down on your face
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes
Tears stream down your face
And I..
Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you.
Talk
Talk
Oh, brother, I can’t, I can’t get through
I’ve been trying hard to reach you
Cause I don’t know what to do
Oh, brother, I can’t believe it’s true
I’m so scared about the future
And I want to talk to you
Oh, I want to talk to you
You could take a picture of something you see
In the future where will I be
You could climb a ladder up to the sun
Or write a song nobody had sung
Or do something that’s never been done
Are you lost or incomplete
Do you feel like a puzzle
You can’t find your missing piece
Tell me how you feel
Well, I feel like they’re talking in a language I don’t speak
And they’re talking it to me
So you take a picture of something you see
In the future where will I be
You could climb a ladder up to the sun
Or write a song nobody had sung
Or do something that’s never been done
Or do something that’s never been done
So you don’t know where you’re going
And you want to talk
And you feel like you’re going where you’ve been before
You'll tell anyone who’ll listen but you feel ignored
And nothing’s really making any sense at all
Let’s talk, let’s talk
Let’s talk, let’s talk
X & Y
Trying hard to speak and
Fighting with my weak hand
Driven to distraction
It's all part of the plan
When something is broken
and you try to fix it
Trying to repair it anyway you can
I dive in at the deep end
and you become my best friend
I want to love you but I don’t know if I can
I know something is broken
and I’m trying to fix it
Trying to repair it anyway I can
Oooohh, oooohh
Oooohh, oooohh
You and me are floating on a tidal wave… together
You and me are drifting into outer space
and singing
Oooohh, oooohh
You and me are floating on a tidal wave… together
You and me are drifting into outer space
You and me are floating on a tidal wave… together
You and me are drifting into outer space
and singing
Oooohh, oooohh
Oooohh, oooohh
Speed Of Sound
How long before I get in
Before it starts before I begin
How long before you decide or
Before I know what it feels like
Where to, where do I go?
If you never try then you'll never know
How long do I have to climb
Up on the side of this mountain of mine
Look up, I look up at night
Planets are moving at the speed of light,
Climb up, up in the trees
Every chance that you get is a chance you seize
How long am I gonna stand
With my head stuck under the sand
I'll start before I can stop or
Before I see things the right way up
All that noise and all that sound
All those places I got found
And birds go flying at the speed of sound
To show you how it all began
Birds came flying from the underground
If you could see it then you'd understand
Ideas that you'll never find
All the inventors could never design
The buildings that you put up
Japan and China all lit up
The sign that I couldn't read
or a light, that I couldn't see
Some things you have to believe
While others are puzzles, puzzling me
All that noise and all that sound
All those places I got found
And birds go flying at the speed of sound
To show you how it all began
Birds came flying from the underground
If you could see it then you'd understand
Oh, when you see it then you'll understand
All those signs I knew what they meant,
some things you can invent
Some get made and some get sent ooh
And birds go flying at the speed of sound
To show you how it all began
Birds came flying from the underground
If you could see it then you'd understand
Oh, when you see it then you'll understand
A Message
My song is love
Love to the loveless shown
And it goes on
You don't have to be alone
Your heavy heart
Is made of stone
And it's so hard to see you, clearly
You don't have to be on your own
You don't have to be on your own
And I'm not gonna take it back
And I'm not gonna say I don't mean that
You're the target that I'm aiming at
Can i get that message home?
My song is love
My song is love unknown,
But I'm on fire for you, clearly
You don't have to be alone
You don't have to be on your own
And I'm not gonna take it back
And I'm not gonna say I don't mean that
You're the target that I'm aiming at
And I'm nothing on my own
Got to get that message home
And I'm not gonna stand and wait
I'm not gonna leave it until it's much too late
On a platform, I'm gonna stand and say
That I'm nothing on my own
And I love you, please come home
My song is love, is love unknown?
And I've got to get that message home.
Low
You see the world in black and white
No colour or light
You think you'll never get it right
But-you're wrong you might
The sky could fall could fall on me
The parting of the seas
But-you mean more mean more to me
Than any colour I can see
All you ever wanted was love
But you never looked hard enough
It's never gonna give itself up
All you ever wanted to be
Living in perfect symmetry
Nothing is as down or as up as us
You see the world in black and white
No paint to write
You see no meaning to your life
You should try
You should try
And all you ever wanted was love
But you never looked hard enough
It's never gonna give itself up
All you ever wanted to be
Living in perfect symmetry
Nothing is as down or as up
Don't you want to see it come soon
Floating in a big white balloon
Oh, given your own silver spoon
Don't you want to see it come down
There for throwing your arms around
an sayin "you're a moment too soon"
Cause I feel low
Cause i feel low
Oh oh oh oh oh
Yeah I feel low
Oh no
Ohh
Ohh
Cause I feel low
Cause i feel low
Oh oh oh oh oh
Yeah I feel low
Oh no
Ohh
The Hardest Part
And the hardest part
Was letting go not taking part
Was the hardest part
And the strangest thing
Was waiting for that bell to ring
It was the strangest start
I can feel it go down
Bittersweet I could taste in my mouth
Silver lining the clouds
And I
I wish that I could work it out
And the hardest part
Was letting go not taking part
You really broke my heart
And I tried to sing
But I couldn't think of anything
And that was the hardest part
I can feel it go down
You left the sweetest taste in my mouth
You're a silver lining the clouds
Oh, and I
Oh, and I
I wonder what its all about [x2]
Everything I know is wrong
Everything I do it just comes undone
And everything is torn apart
Oh and thats the hardest part
Thats the hardest part
Yeah, thats the hardest part
Thats the hardest part
Swallowed In The Sea
Swallowed By The Sea
You cut me down a tree
And brought it back to me
And that's what made me see
Where I was going wrong
You put me on a shelf
And kept me for yourself
I can only blame myself
You can only blame me
And I could write a song
A hundred miles long
Well, that's where I belong
And you belong with me
And I could write it down
Or spread it all around
Get lost and then get found
Or swallowed in the sea
You put me on a line
And hung me out to dry
And darling that's when I
Decided to go to see you
You cut me down to size
And opened up my eyes
Made me realize
What I could not see
And I could write a book
The one they'll say that shook
The world, and then it took
It took it back from me
And I could write it down
Or spread it all around
Get lost and then get found
And you'll come back to me
Not swallowed in the sea
Ooh...
And I could write a song
A hundred miles long
Well, that's where I belong
And you belong with me
The streets you're walking on
A thousand houses long
Well, that's where I belong
And you belong with me
Oh what good is it to live
With nothing left to give
Forget but not forgive
Not loving all you see
Are the streets you're walking on
A thousand houses long
Well that's where I belong
And you belong with me
Not swallowed in the sea
You belong with me
Not swallowed in the sea
Yeah, you belong with me
Not swallowed in the sea
Twisted Logic
Sunlight opened up my eyes
To see for the first time it opened them up
And tonight rivers will run dry
Not for the first time rivers will run
Hundreds of years in the future
There could be computers looking for life on Earth
Don't fight for the wrong side
Say what you feel like
Say how you feel
You go backwards but then you go forwards again
You go backwards but then you go
Created then drilled and invaded
If somebody made it someone will mess it up
And you are not wrong to
Ask who does this belong to
It belongs to all of us
You go backwards but then you go forwards again
You go backwards but then you go forwards
You go backwards but then you go forwards again
You go backwards but then you go forwards
Till Kingdom Come
Kingdom Come
Still my heart and hold my tongue
I feel my time
My time has come
Let me in
Unlock the door
I never felt this way before
And the wheels just keep on turning
The drummer begins to drum
I don’t know which way I’m going
I don’t know which way I’ve come
Hold my head inside your hands
I need someone who understands
I need someone, someone who hears
For you I’ve waited all these years
For you I’d wait till kingdom come
Until my day, my day is done
And say you'll come and set me free
Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me
In your tears and in your blood
In your fire and in your flood
I hear you laugh, I heard you sing
I wouldn’t change a single thing
And the wheels just keep on turning
The drummers begin to drum
I don’t know which way I’m going
I don’t know what I’ve become
For you I’d wait till kingdom come
Until my days, my days are done
And say you'll come and set me free
Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me
Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me
Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me