If A Rush of Blood to the Head was a school report it would say- Working well but needs to branch out and experiment more. Martin and Co. have produced a vintage album with instant classics such as Clocks and The Scientist on it. This album is brilliant proof that you do not need to care whether people think your cool or not to produce a galumphing leviathan of an album. Every song on this album could be listened to at least ten times and you would not get bored. It has commercialised and made popular the genre of soft rock. This London band somehow makes ordinary songs extra-ordinary and you want to listen to them over and over again.
The first song on the album is Politik. A psychedelic, sad mix of soft rock and a ballad. This song is what Coldplay are about in a bittersweet kind of way, after a while it slightly boring but picks up towards the end with a thumping, anthemic chorus. Many of Coldplay’s haters say they are samey, this is not true, some songs are boring in parts but Coldplay’s songs are never akin to each other. Next on the track is In My Place, Martin’s eerie vocals above soft, sad piano chords, however, like most Coldplay hits it has a minor, heart-rending verse and a soaring, major chorus.
The next track is God Put A Smile Upon Your Face, an ironic song, “Now when you work it out I'm worse than you/ Yeah when you work it out, I want it too” with thumping bass lines and pounding drums. Coldplay have rigor-mortis genre-wise, this song proves that, they need to branch out on their next album. However whether you love them or hate them (there is no sitting on the fence with this band) there is no doubt they can write a brilliant song as The Scientist proves. This is the best song on the track, classic Martin vocals, beautiful repeating guitar parts and harmonies. This quartet manage to make piano, strings, bass, guitar and drums sound different on every track which never ceases to amaze. Nonetheless this is un-deniably a comfort zone album.
Clocks is next, it follows the same groove The Scientist has. Clocks again is vintage Coldplay, a sad yet happy, angry yet placid mix all blended together with some dubbed strings which makes a tasty milkshake of musical fusion…
The thing I like about this album is that there are no filler tracks, which clog up the album space, it is a tight compact album. The next track is Daylight, this track reminds me greatly of ASDA’s 40p Swiss Roll, absolutely fantastic but not sure why… Green Eyes is next on the album, a mysterious, Dylan-esque, understated corker of a Coldplay song. The eighth song on the album is Warning Sign. Not as renowned as songs such as Clocks or The Scientist, this track deserves to be, its Oasis-esque melodies and harmonies made me want to listen to it more than once.
The Whisper surprised me. It broke the mould and genre-busted Coldplay’s other songs with a The Jam like intro and verse but like all Martin and Co. songs it picked up to finish with great choruses. The title song A Rush Of Blood To The Head was a very average song on the outset compared with the rest of the others, but like a TV in a bin it had an under-stated dignity and quality to it if you listened hard enough. The London quartet seem to need any effects or digital sounds, it makes their album raw, and have timeless quality which is proven with the next song, Amsterdam. This song is Beatles like with Jeff Buckley-esque lyrics, “Stuck on the end of this ball and chain/ And I’m on my way back down again.”
Overall this album is great but Coldplay need to branch out more, however Coldplay are like the X-Factor, you know its average but you keep coming back to them. A 5 star album which is a statement to all their haters. Coldplay will protect the world against the tide of auto-tuned rubbish that classes as music these days and you need to allow yourself to have a Rush Of Blood To The Head.
