Coldplay
Coldplay is a musician.
Coldplay formed in London in 1997 and have kept the same four people ever since, which for a band at this altitude is the genuine anomaly: Chris Martin on vocals and piano, Jonny Buckland on guitar, Guy Berryman on bass, Will Champion on drums, with manager Phil Harvey credited as a full member.
The trajectory is unusually legible. Parachutes and A Rush of Blood to the Head are small, wet, guitar-and-piano records where reverb does most of the emotional work and Martin sings as though the microphone is close. From X&Y onward the songs are written for stadiums, and that is a craft decision rather than a failure of nerve. The melodies get simpler, the choruses land on one syllable, the words get less specific so that a stadium can mean whatever it likes by them. Viva la Vida is where that approach worked best, and Mylo Xyloto is where the colour and the confetti took over.
Their reputation has always rested on the live show, and the later material is built for that room rather than for headphones, which is the fairest way to judge it. Ghost Stories is the quiet outlier, Everyday Life the sprawling one made by a band with nothing left to prove. Whether the trade they made was worth it is the only real argument about them, and it is a fair argument in both directions.
Music (14)
- A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002)
- Parachutes (2000)
- Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008)
- X&Y (2005)
- Mylo Xyloto (2011)
- A Head Full of Dreams (2015)
- Ghost Stories (2014)
- Everyday Life (2019)
- Music of the Spheres (2021)
- Moon Music (2024)
- LeftRightLeftRightLeft (2009)
- Live 2012 (2012)
- Live 2003 (2003)
- A Rush of B-Sides to Your Head (2003)
Where to start with Coldplay
Begin with A Rush of Blood to the Head. It is the record where the early songwriting and the ambition are in balance, and almost everything people either love or resent about the band is already audible on it.
Go backwards to Parachutes for the smaller, sadder version, then forward to Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, which is the most interesting thing they made after they got enormous. X&Y is the transitional record and the least loved for good reason. Mylo Xyloto is the full stadium-pop commitment. Ghost Stories is the quiet one, and better than its reputation. Everyday Life is the strangest and most rewarding late album. If you want the case for them, though, put on the live album LeftRightLeftRightLeft, because the arrangements only fully explain themselves in front of a crowd.