Who exactly are coldplay now? Four men who know exactly how to write the perfect pop song? Or do they do the Superbowl kitschonkel with a slope to greasy pathos that explode the color pots every two years?
The answer is in the middle: The British around Chris Martin cannot look back on a consistently strong overall work, but it can be seen on some very good albums.
CLASS
A rush of Blood to the Head (2002)
If Chris Martin searches for strength in politics, for heart, for control, this should not only be seen as a comment on 9/11, but also on his own claim: this album strives for size. Most of the songs last over five minutes, but small -scale is just as important, the production is much more elaborated than on the debut. With “The Scientist”, “Clocks” and “In My Place”, three songs decisively defined the pop music of the following years. They also showed the difference to similar bands of time such as Travis or Starailor: Grandezza drips from these songs, which is more reminiscent of U2.
Five and a half stars
Viva La Vida Or Death & All His Friends (2008)
Brian Eno as a producer. Eugène Delacrois as an artwork idea. A tour on which the band was suitable for the band. Heaven, they looked like Rondo-Venziano members beaten by hooligans. But that’s not the point. For the first time, Coldplay held a hundred percent on an album. Immersions Moments of Euphoria affect tender hugs. The title track springs on strings, in “Yes” Martin sings with a low voice from the “High Hopes”. One of these albums on which you can find new corners in which you can live.
Six stars
Mylo xyloto (2011)
This album pours and sounds and clinked; Nothing never happens, and there is also a story. Please read this yourself, you have something to do with a planet on which it is fought against sound and picture, which probably explains the exploding colors on the cover. If you push this nonsense aside, this album is an indulgent pop in the best sense. Above all, the large-scale “Charlie Brown” and the “Princess of China” dance track are strong: first official feature on an album, and then Rihanna, then the most important singer in the world.
Five stars
Ghost Stories (2014)
“I think of you. I haven’t slept.” Here we hear a man, in late 30, who is graming the big questions. The band clocks friendly to this, ambience structures are more important than on the previous albums. Jon Hopkins is back, but also Avicii. Unfortunately, it spreads uncomfortably: “A Sky Full of Stars” is a car scooter, mobile phone advertising, Holiparty, but not a song. Please scratch the plate with a rusty nail, which otherwise has many big moments to listen to the tired of “Oceans”, in “Magic”, the best Coldplay single, or in the ambient arc “Fly On”.
Four and a half stars
AVERAGE
Parachutes (2000)
So good, so solidly: apart from “Yellow”, which made it to a veritable indie discoite, rules the sensitivity on the debut of Coldplay. This is pleasant, sometimes even great. How to hear the creaking of the guitar in a small title track! As in “High Speed” different levels overlap! And how “Sparks” seems to look for the right chords. And still: This album trained on Nick Drake and on the other on the Britpopperm EMBRACE looks a little to be wool -blanket 25 years later to stand further above.
Four stars
X & Y (2005)
The opener already indicates that things are going a little differently on the third album: “Square One” not only tells of the “Space, in which we travel in”, but is initially on crystalline synth areas. These stadium rock guitars, which are rapidly wide. The entire album is a self -confident declaration of war. The choruses have become even more direct, the arrangements smoother. At the same time, it looks strangely generic over long distances, which is also due to the texts: they want to tackle it very big, but scratch the poetry album.
Three and a half stars
Everyday life (2019)
The good news: After the sticky A Head Full of Dreams, Coldplay has caught up again. Instead of fun, there is all kinds of serious about personal and social problems: “Orphans” acts with the fate of Syrian warps, addresses “Trouble in Town” social injustice, racism and the feeling of alienation in a polarized world. Musically, the classic, somewhat downened cold player pop is broken up by Arab and African influences, which manifest themselves in samples or guest contributions from Fela, Femi and Mati Kuti and Stromae.
Four stars
Committee
A Head Full of Dreams (2015)
Coldplay look back at all the funny colors in your kaleidoscope. Even more, “Kaleidoscope” is even a song title on this album. It’s nice that Chris Martin is so good. But Stargate does not succeed in deriving him and the Norwegian team of production from this euphoria only reasonably interesting music. Beyoncé sings along a few times, on the final “Up & Up” Noel Gallagher plays the guitar, at least say that the Liner Notes is not heard. In short: this album is simply bored. You can’t even really be annoyed about it.
Two and a half stars
Music of the Spheres (2021)
In a way, the successor to Mylo Xyloto. Here, too, the plot is located in space, some songs have special characters as the title. Max Martin, the super producer from Sweden, gave the musical director. A combination that feels bloodless: both sounds and lyrics look like any set off pieces, instead of feelings, it is poses that you think you perceive. The most beautiful song is that with the feature guest who leaves you with mere reading: “Let somebody go” with Selena Gomez at least briefly caresses the soul.
Two and a half stars
Outskirts
Coldplay likes to do good. And they don’t do this in quiet closet, but like to do the public. The number of your charity songs, appearances and contributions is impressively high. This cannot be reviewed in a classic sense, but we want to point out some: there is the “One Love” benefit concert, which is reminiscent of the victims of the terrorist attack in Manchester on May 22, 2017. Here Chris Martin, together with Ariana Grande, sang the Oasis classic “Don’t look back in Anger” and accompanied Liam Gallagher on the guitar for “Live Forever”, both can be found on YouTube and is quite touching.
Ten years of before they also mixed in an all-star charity concert: However, the “Bittersweet Symphony” played together with Richard Ashcroft is only mediocre. If you look at actual publications beyond the albums, the following works should be emphasized: The debut single “Brothers & Sisters” appeared in 1999 at Fierce Panda, then one of the most important indie label in the UK. It is interesting to see that you can see how Coldplay could sound if they had remained an alternative band with a kore-analog production. Another song from the early days gave away Coldplay in 2004 to their friends Embrace: The piano ballad “Gravity” is also heard from them, well hidden as a B page on the single “Talk”.
A sensible addition to Viva La Vida is the “Prospect’s March” EP. What sounds at first glance after Schnöder remnant recycling actually delivers some highlights: “Life in Technicolor II” takes up the instrumental of the same name, but turns it into a hymnic rock track that is a bit reminiscent of Arcade Fire, which is also a valid reference point for the following “Glass of Water”. There is also a version of “Lost” with Jay-Z.
An outlier is undoubtedly “Global Citizen – EP 1”: Under the pseudonym Los Unidades, Coldplay Pharell Williams, David Guetta and Stargate invited to the studio. How does that sound? Well, accordingly close to the dance and with a few matching global beats.
Last but not least, an indication of how others look at the band: The Pet Shop Boys covered “Viva La Vida” in a network with their own hit “Domino Dancing”.