I completely understand all of the criticisms of X&Y, but it honestly for me may be the quintessential Coldplay album. It is peak Coldplay. Coldplay at their Coldplayiest before they started to take their music in different directions. Before they became somewhat self-deprecating and embarrassed about being the biggest band on the planet and instead just fully embraced it. I'm not invalidating what they did afterwards, because some of their best music was still ahead of them, but based on what I've read about them saying, the next album seemed almost like a conscious decision to deconstruct the music they had been making, whereas X&Y seemed to me like the logical conclusion and the peak of the type of music they were making on Parachutes and honed on Rush. I will say that I don't think the second half is as strong as the first and that some of the b-sides should have replaced some of the album tracks. Viva La Vida from a creative standpoint and as a cohesive album is probably the best thing they have ever done. As a work of art it is absolutely staggering and yet hugely enjoyable. I will never understand Life In Technicolor ii not being the actual opener though. I also don't understand the hate for Lost!. It is not their greatest song ever, and it is not my favorite song on the album, but I don't think it is the weakest track on there either and it is enjoyable from a musical standpoint and has a really cool groove. Some of the lyrics may be a little silly or inane but I mean we are talking about Chris Martin / Coldplay here. Mylo Xyloto is probably the album by them that I enjoy the most and listen to the most. The highs are just so high and just so damn enjoyable. I don't like a handful of the songs on the album though. Rush is an absolute beast of an album, and I only just listened to Parachutes all the way through for the first time earlier this week. I can't really rank their albums in the typical way, but on any given day I could see picking any one of their first four albums as their best. Mylo Xyloto and Ghost Stories for me are a slight step down although both are still phenomenal albums. Everyday Life is too new to place with the others quite yet but it is an incredible and very cohesive album. A Head Full of Dreams is a bad album. It is their weakest collection of songs made even worse by absolutely abysmal production. Better production could have improved it a lot but it probably still would have been their weakest album. The only song from the actual album that I can say stacks up against their best material would be Everglow. Up&Up should have been an amazing song but the production absolutely ruins it. The Hypnotized EP has a couple of absolutely stellar tracks on it.
Coldplay are one of my top 5 bands, I love everything. Parachutes is good! Just the one I revisit the least.
I much prefer "Life in Technicolor" opening the album over "II". it's a perfect little soundscape that lets you vibe out before the album takes you on a wild journey. (also not huge on the melodies of the other version)
honestly, it’s my favorite of theirs and it isn’t particularly close, though i have to admit parachutes is “better”
WTF X&Y is the best Coldplay album by far, and it's probably a Top 5 album of music history. Masterpiece.
Ghost Stories Parachutes Mylo Xyloto Viva La Vida A Head Full of Dreams X&Y A Rush of Blood Everyday Life
I really love X&Y. It was the second album I ever bought myself and I played the shit out of it. It furthered my love for drumming and I attribute my love for synths starting there. That said, I wouldn't go that far lol.
I always get bored midway through X&Y. There is something about it that just isn't fully clicking with me. I'd rather listen to the bsides as well.
Square One What If White Shadows Fix You Talk X&Y Speed of Sound A Message The Hardest Part Swallowed in the Sea all phenomenal songs, plus: Things I Don't Understand Gravity Proof Sleeping Sun all fantastic songs and good enough to have made the album. The World Turned Upside Down is a slight step down in quality from the other b-sides in my opinion but is still a really good song. Even the album tracks that I'm not crazy about are all still good songs, I just think they are about on par with World Turned Upside Down and this is already a very long album made up almost entirely of very long songs. I tune out by the end if I try listening to the actual album as released.
X&Y is like 15 minutes too long, and in the same breath, it's insane that none of those 15 minutes are "Gravity"
Ok tonight I listened to X&Y from start to finish for the first time in like 10 years. Yeah I was wrong, it's a pretty great album. Just a tad bit too long.
Yeah. I prefer the Embrace version to be honest. X&Y just had too many good ideas. They really needed to rein themselves in a bit with that one. The Head Full of Dreams documentary gives some good insight in to the writing and recording of it.