Better Than The Bends

After the success of Parachutes Coldplay found themselves in a difficult position. Their fellow Radiohead-a-likes Travis had disappointed all and sundry with the by all reports fairly laid back (as befits a group of new millionaires) 'The Invisible Band'. With A Rush Of Blood To The Head, Coldplay have surpassed their first album and find themselves being talked about in the music press in the same way as U2 or *gasp* Radiohead. As Travis take the fairly postmodern step *cough* of doing a whole song about singing and Muse stake their claim on 14yo Slipknot fans (presumably because that they're the one demographic that might never have heard of Radiohead) Coldplay has turned out to be the only one of the three truly looking to be a great hulking behemoth of a band. The despotic control of lead singer Chris Martin along with the guitar work of Jon Buckland have hurled this band into the stratosphere.

Chris Martin's voice has always been by far the best thing about Coldplay, and throughout AROBTTH (it's too long even like that) Martin uses it to full effect. It seems on most songs there is a handy bridge with a spectacularly beautiful vocal. I'm sure Martin knows exactly what he's doing here and it would be easy to be kinda miffed with him if the tactic wasn't so successful. It's rare to find a song that you won't be angry at when it gets stuck in your head, but there are a number of vocal hooks on AROBTTH that are exactly like that. For an example of what I'm talking about, the 8th song, Warning Sign, goes along fairly calmly and collectedly for a while but suddenly Martin breaks into the chorus of
'but the truth is/I miss you'
over and over again and nothing about the song is ever the same again. Suddenly images of girls with brown eyes and windswept hair (or whatever it is that you like) are shooting through your mind and you want to hug Chris Martin for being so very talented. Actually, pretty much the whole of the newest single The Scientist is like that... for me anyway. Different themes and emotions permeate the album and although it's still mostly about girls, there's rock and pianos and understated aggression all done with grace and flair.

There are a few problems with AROBTTH, but they're so piddling I have to list them in point form.
1. None of the tracks really stands out (since they're all quite special) so when you get the urge to hear one song, you'll feel compelled to listen to all the others out of respect.
2. The instrumentation and arrangements are all pretty standard (with the exception of Clocks, which has a hypnotic beat but still sounds nice)
3. The first song is Politik, and its big stomping intro is totally not what you want to be hearing when you want to hear AROBTTH. But maybe that's just me.
4. Chris Martin's lyrics are often too sugary and if your gf hears this album she will get ideas you do not want her to get about how romantic guys can be. Damn that Chris Martin.

So there you go, Coldplay return, do a career-defining set at the Glastonbury festival and plunder the Q best album of the year award. One might worry that Coldplay have peaked, but there is enough in this album to suggest that they're most certainly still on the up and up.