The Best 9 Songs from Coldplay
n their early days, Coldplay used to be compared to Radiohead simply because of the slight similarity borne by their sound. Both acts generally have slow beats to their music and the lyrics of their songs are poetic and reflective. They also can be both depressing to listen to. But this is where the similarity ends. Compared to Radiohead, Coldplay is more upbeat and their delivery is somewhat softer.
Coldplay is an acquired taste. Their music is enjoyable to some and unpalatable to others. Some even find them downright annoying. What cannot be denied, however, is that through the quality of their music, the band’s social activism and their refusal to compromise their artistry by allowing their songs to be used by commercial groups, Coldplay has rightfully won its place in music history.
What do we consider to be the best songs that Coldplay came up with? Here is our list of nine.
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9. “Green Eyes” (A Rush of Blood to the Head, 2002)
A Rush of Blood to the Head, the sophomore album of Coldplay, is often argued to be one of the best compilation that the band has recorded so far. One of the prettiest songs in the album is “Green Eyes.” It is a love song delivered with the stirrings of traditional folk and country styles, reminiscent of Johnny Cash and maybe Gordon Lightfoot. The melody is simple and the lyrics straightforward, but the entire song is just trembling with longing and passion. It can haunt you as it plays through your head.
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8. “Speed of Sound” (X&Y, 2005)
“The Speed of Sound,” melodically speaking, is very pleasant to listen to. It is heavy on the piano and heavy on the synth, but it will definitely leave you with a lightness of feeling after listening to it. The lyrics of the song are another matter. You either love it or hate it, but rare would be the person who ever gets what it really means. It is so vague and metaphoric.
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7. “Trouble” (Parachutes, 2000)
“Trouble” can leave you in two minds when you listen to it. Either you hate it for going over the top in its sentimentality, or you love it for the depth and passion the song makes you feel in the pit of your gut. Or you can simply be bored to death with it. The beauty of the song, however, lies in the simplicity of the melody, with the rhythm more heavy on side of the piano and the drums than the guitar. If you do not care about the lyrics of the song, you will find yourself lulling peacefully to the instrumentals.
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6. “Fix You” (X&Y, 2005)
The song “Fix You” is an attempt by Coldplay to produce an inspirational and anthemic song. The lyrics revolve around the message “Lights will guide you home/And ignite your bones/And I will try to fix you.” The song was reported to be inspired by the London bombing incident in July 2005, but when he was asked about it, Chris Martin said he wrote the song as a pick-me-up for his wife, the actress Gwyneth Paltrow.
“Fix You” can surprise you when you listen to it. It has a church-orchestra feel to it that goes quiet and slow at the first part, so slow that it can sound boring if you are just listening to the song casually. Then it starts to soar with all the sounds from the organ, the piano, the drums and the guitars all coming in.
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5. “The Scientist” (A Rush of Blood to the Head, 2002)
Again, like many of Coldplay’s songs, the melody of “The Scientist” is simple, a blending of piano and light drums and light guitar strumming. But this simplicity is more deceiving than what you may think as it tends to underscore the drama of the lyrics more than ever.
And what are the lyrics of “The Scientist” about? You can read it in a number of ways, but it is most probably about a man deploring the loss of his love and his reflection of what he had done to make her go away. The song connects to you somehow and Chris Martin’s falsetto unfailingly brings up the image of someone crying to himself in the middle of the night.
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4. “Violet Hill” (Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, 2008)
“If you love me, won’t you let me know?” is the central question around which the song “Violet Hill is built. Chris Martin’s persona asks the woman he loves to be more honest about her feelings because he does not “want to be a soldier who the captain of some sinking ship would stow far below.”
But this song is not just a simple love story. It is a protest against war, especially a war that no one really wants and where the soldiers are just forced to fight it for the sake of their leader’s twisted principles. “Violet Hill” is faster and angrier than many of Coldplay’s songs.
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3. “Clocks” (A Rush of Blood to the Head, 2002)
It is hard to describe “Clocks” in terms of melody. The piano riffs are simple and sparse when heard alone, but when the guitars and the drums join in, the overall sound becomes quite rich. It is quick in tempo, as if to underline the urgency conveyed in the song, but the slow parts seem to remind you of the irony of the lyrics where the persona of the singer is stuck in a place where he knows he must leave but does not have the desire to go.
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2. “Yellow” (Parachutes, 2000)
As it is with most of the songs in Coldplay’s debut album, “Yellow” has simple lyrics and simple melodies, but with the simplicity only underscoring the depth of the harmony of the song. What makes “Yellow” so loveable is that it is a straightforward song – the message is not confounded by metaphor. A man sings of whom he loves and how he would do anything for that person he loves.
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1. “In My Place” (A Rush of Blood to the Head, 2002)
If you listen to this song and you are in either a sentimental or nostalgic mood, you may find yourself crying to this song. It is not that “In My Place” is depressing to listen to; it is more like the simplicity of the melody and of the lyrics seem to underline the passion and the despair conveyed by the song.
You can read through the lyrics anyway you please. You can be metaphorical about it and say that the song is about being lost in a society that harbors loneliness. Or you can take it down to a less complicated level and say that it is the story of a man singing his despair for a woman he loves but does not love him back.