Blame it all upon A Rush Of Blood To The Head.

Chris Martin lead vocals, piano, keyboards, guitar
Jonny Buckland guitar, harmonica, back-up vocals
Will Champion drums/percussion, piano, back-up vocals, guitar
Guy Berryman bass guitar, synthesizer, harmonica, back-up vocals

Alright, I admit it. I was a Coldplay hater.

I could not help but listen to Speed of Sound off of the bands latest album, X&Y, and hear fingernails on a chalkboard. Sure, it was catchy, but if there's one thing I have learned in listening to music all of my life, it's that catchy songs are good for about 20 listens. After that, they stick in your head and ruin your daily life until your parents have to talk you out of admitting yourself to the psychiatric ward.

As I have now learned, basing your opinion of a band off of one song, and worse yet a song on popular radio, leads to a definite biased and often wrong opinion of the band and it's musical talent. A Rush Of Blood To The Head (Rush...) is an amazing album, and as of now, I would consider it to be in my short list of favorite albums ever. Nice change of heart, eh?

Politik opens the album with the pounding, complex piano chords of Chris Martin and the pulsing beat of Will Champion on drums. Written days after the attacks of September 11th, the song issues a passionate message of peace in the midst of the world's turbulence at the time (Just open up your eyes/ and give me love over this). The pounding beat calms and allows for a soft ending, symbolizing the peace the band hopes the world will feel following the terror of 9/11. The second track features the first single from the album, a radio friendly, very deliberately paced In My Place. Generally, radio-friendly means combatting the bands true sound to appeal to the public, but in Coldplay's case, the looping guitar line and crashing cymbals of In My Place fit into the album superbly, providing listeners with another track similar in nature to the remainder of the CD.

God Put A Smile Upon Your Face, aside from having a really long title, is another piece driven by the pace of Champion on drums. Chris' vocals are unstrained and simple, yet the spooky guitar solos and persistent drum and bass parts keep the song from boring the listener. Following the upbeat third track, The Scientist introduces the album's first ballad. My favorite song on the album and one of my favorites of all time, the piano part features a transition between four chords, with the higher chords played on the down beat and the lower on the up beat. For a startling change, the lyrics of The Scientist are truly powerful, and the song boasts an impressive music video as well, in which Martin begins on a mattress on the sidewalk and the actions that led him to this point rewind to show what led to his demise. An amazing song, and the best on a great album.\

Running in circles,
Chasing our tails,
Coming back as we are.
Nobody said it was easy/
It's such a shame for us to part.
Nobody said it was easy.
No one ever said it would be so hard.
I'm going back to the start.

Next is the track that you have heard unless you have been living under a rock for the past five years, Clocks. Fast paced due to that dastardly witty descending piano part, the song makes me dream of green lasers and Chris Martin, neither of which makes me feel all that comfortable. Daylight is another energetic track with complex guitar and drum parts to support Martin's swooning vocals. At times the synthesizer mimicks the vocals, and then I start to have Speed of Sound deja vu, causing me to hit the next button on my iPod immediately because that haunts me in my sleep.

Green Eyes is a simple, stripped acoustic performance showcasing Martin's pipes and very British accent simultaneously. The track eventually picks up pace with some simple drumbeats, but for the most part, the song serves to show-off Chris' amazing voice. The next track brings Coldplay as close to being a rock band as it gets on Rush... with Warning Sign, providing listeners with a similar combination of catchy guitar riff, driving drumbeat, and swooning vocals. The synthesizers play an even greater roll in this song than in most others on the album, allowing Guy Berryman to flaunt his dual importance to the band (bass guitar and synthesizer).

Admittedly, A Whisper took me some time to get used to, but it did definitely grow on me. I have a tendency to decide within the first 20 seconds if I will like a song or not, and the beginning of this track did not appeal to me. However, upon further listening, it is an impressive arrangement that definitely warrants listening, although it still is not as strong as it's surroundings on Rush.... The title track paints a picture of purchasing a metaphorical house just to burn it down, among multiple other seemingly pointless actions. The lyrics are strong, as are the instrumentals, and the progressive ability of the band is never more apparent that in this track. Yet another great song.

The final track, Amsterdam, starts with a piano part by Chris Martin, followed by a verse of himself and the piano, in similar fashion to the stripped introduction to Green Eyes. The lyrics are very passionate and meaningful, and Martin's singing is yet again right on, providing his greatest effort on the album aside from possibly the aforementioned Green Eyes. In my opinion, this final song is the most well developed on the album, for each verse brings on another piece of the band until the ending, where the final lines slow down, bringing with them a powerful message to close out the entire album.

You can say what you mean,
But it won't change a sin.
I'm sick of the secrets.
Stood on the edge, tied to a noose,
But you came along and you cut me loose.
You came along and you cut me loose.

All in all, A Rush Of Blood To The Head greatly swayed my opinion of Coldplay. I went from considering them a radio-mongering, money hungry band like so many others in the industry today to instead seeing a deeper, more passionate side of the members. They really do believe in what they play and perform, and this album is a very inspirational effort and a must-have for any music lover's collection.

1. Politik- (5:18) ****1/2
2. In My Place- (3:48) ****
3. God Put A Smile Upon Your Face- (4:57) ***
4. The Scientist- (5:09) *****
5. Clocks- (5:07) ****1/2
6. Daylight- (5:27) ****
7. Green Eyes- (3:43) *****
8. Warning Sign- (5:31) ****
9. A Whisper- (3:58) ***
10. A Rush of Blood to the Head- (5:51) ****1/2
11. Amsterdam- (5:19) *****