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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Coldplay were faced with a difficult choice as they set to work on X&Y. They could either follow Radiohead’s lead and use their enormous success and financial security as a springboard to a brave experimental future--or they could play it safe, repeat the tricks used on the 16 million-selling A Rush Of Blood To The Head, and consolidate their position as one of the biggest bands in the world. 
In truth, despite the Tetris-inspired artwork and presence of teaser track "Talk"--which steals its melody line from electro-futurists Kraftwerk’s gorgeous "Computer Love"--X&Y is more the latter than the former. Fans will be delighted by "What If?", a piano elegy that takes flight on strings, and slowly builds towards a Beatles' "A Day In The Life"-style climax, while the likes of "Fix You" and hidden track "'Til Kingdom Come"--originally written for country hero Johnny Cash--proves Martin’s skill for simple, affecting songwriting remains intact. One development, however, comes through the judicious inclusion of some rather pleasant synthesiser work--see "White Shadows", where Martin gently beseeches "Come on love, stay with me" over a gentle Eno-esque keyboard wash. Fair enough: the experimental albums can come later. --Louis Pattison
In truth, despite the Tetris-inspired artwork and presence of teaser track "Talk"--which steals its melody line from electro-futurists Kraftwerk’s gorgeous "Computer Love"--X&Y is more the latter than the former. Fans will be delighted by "What If?", a piano elegy that takes flight on strings, and slowly builds towards a Beatles' "A Day In The Life"-style climax, while the likes of "Fix You" and hidden track "'Til Kingdom Come"--originally written for country hero Johnny Cash--proves Martin’s skill for simple, affecting songwriting remains intact. One development, however, comes through the judicious inclusion of some rather pleasant synthesiser work--see "White Shadows", where Martin gently beseeches "Come on love, stay with me" over a gentle Eno-esque keyboard wash. Fair enough: the experimental albums can come later. --Louis Pattison
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
hauntingly beautiful, surprisingly uplifting,
By A Customer
This review is from: X&Y (Audio CD)
Now I'm a full-time Mum and "don't get out much", I find myself in an '80's void, tending to buy only the albums I missed out on buying in my late teens and twenties. Sad, but true.However, this all changed when I saw the Coldplay set on Live8 a few weeks back. I had of course heard of the band (and sadly knew more about the fact that the lead singer had a baby with Gwyneth Paltrow, and they had named the baby 'Apple'...). I found I was moved by the lyrics, and felt I must buy the album. I am so glad that I did. I'm not very good at all the jargon that goes with album reviews I read in newspapers. This is a beautiful album, and surprisingly uplifting. I play it when relaxing, when the kids are screaming and driving me mad, when I need a lift as well as when I'm slowing down. It's great, buy it. I did!
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shareholders Of The World Unite.,
By
This review is from: X&Y (Audio CD)
Well. Here it is. The CD that will singlehandedly save EMI and save their shareholders from having to sell their second yacht. And? Pressure weighs heavy on young egos. Thankfully the film-star-marriage, the Steven Spielberg father-in-law, fatherhood and sports cars hasn't tempered their abilities. In fact, barring a slight extra sheen on the production, there isn't anything to indicate that Coldplay are now a huge corporation with a multimillion turnover.
To be frank, when they started Coldplay were, like many others, another Great White Indie Hope that had talent lesser than the ambitions of their labels. With time, though, Coldplay have grown into themselves. Whilst not a stone-dead every-song-a-classic that "A Rush Of Blood To The Head" was, "X & Y" is another artful, sensitive, well-spoken package of mild melancholy. Make no mistake, "X & Y" is mildly bland. There's nothing offensive, in fact, there's it's so inoffensive it's almost offensive. Almost. It's a collection of consistent, melodic songs with sometimes little in the way of personality and often much in the way of big gestures. For them then, the widescreen vistas of sincereity. If it were a movie, "X & Y" would be a treatise on the fall out of a relationship directed by Oliver Stone. Subtle subject matter occasionally bludgeoned by big gestures. But when it works, when this unlikely combination meets and the chemistry sparks, then "X & Y" is more than the sum of it's parts by some enormous margin. "Fix You" and "What If" are songs that simultaneously cut to the core of what it is to be alive and wrap the mundane in the poetry of mystery. "Speed of Sound", despite sounding a little like the Police, is the whole album - melancholia, joy, and clean, flat surfaces of hope - in one six minute package. The albums best moment is perhaps it's most surprising. After a short gap, the song that Coldplay wrote for Johnny Cash "Til The Kingdom Come" is ushered in, and were the Man In Black around to sing it, it would be a classic to rival any of his final recordings. As it stands, "Til The Kingdom Come" is a stylistic-departure that opens the abilities of Coldplay to depths they have previously only hinted at. At last Stadium rock has music that deserves to be loved by the millions. "X & Y" is a record that, despite it's occasional bland,smoothedged shortcomings, will do credit to mankind, if only because it proves that you don't have to produce bland, vapid musical pollution to shift 10 million copies.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good album, but not their best,
This review is from: X&Y (Audio CD)
Although X&Y is a solid album, it has suffered from the overanticipation that has accompanied it since long before its release date. The album is filled with melodic tracks such as 'Fix You', but lacks the great anthems that were present in their previous two albums. The upbeat nature of 'Speed of Sound' is a rarity on this record. This is still an album worth owning, but if you are going to buy a Coldplay album for the first time, buy 'Parachutes' or 'A Rush of Blood to the Head' as they contain the variety and anthemic sound slightly lacking here.
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