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

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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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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.

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.

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.

great album and very powerful , i love all of there music , i think they are simply great .. this cd/album is as powerful and rich as all the others they have made .. ive got there new one on pre-order .. ive had my coldplay cd/albums for a long long while now and ive only just reviewed them ..

thank u coldplay .

see u ..

Look, I won't waste your time with a big lengthy review - I'll ge to the point. BUY THIS! You will fall in love with every track though not necessarily straight away, most are "growers" and you may find that a year after you bought it a song you hated in the beginning has really grown on you and you love it. Don't let the whiny naysayers put you off - this is AWESOME. It's all in the title, really:)