X&Y

1	Square One 4:47
2	What If 4:57
3	White Shadows 5:28
4	Fix You 4:54
5	Talk 5:11
6	X&Y 4:34
7	Speed of Sound 4:48
8	A Message 4:45
9	Low 5:32
10	The Hardest Part 4:25
11	Swallowed in the Sea 3:58
12	Twisted Logic 5:01
13	Til Kingdom Come Hidden Track 4:10

Barnes & Noble

As they proved on their stellar, remarkably focused sophomore effort, A Rush of Blood to the Head, Coldplay weren't about to be spoiled by success. But in the time since that disc's release, the band -- or, more to the point, major-domo Chris Martin -- have had to deal with a potentially more dangerous problem: a little thing called happiness. While most of the quartet's previous output has dealt with isolation, rejection, and unattainable love, X&Y was crafted in, for lack of a better term, the Gwyneth and Apple Years -- a fact that colors many of the disc's tunes. "The Hardest Part," one of the band's typically elegiac swoonfests, finds Martin marveling at the wonders of pregnancy(!) but managing to stop himself before sinking too deeply into Jim Brickman quicksand. Lovestruck giddiness likewise rears up in the sparse bonus track "Til Kingdom Come," a gentle, folk-tinged catalog of his spouse's attributes. X&Y isn't lyrically one-dimensional, thankfully, and musically, it's far more open-ended than Coldplay's previous full-lengths. "Square One," for instance, replaces the traditional slow build with a lurching gait propelled by Will Champion's tense post-punk drumming. Similarly, "Low," obviously inspired by the Bowie album of the same name, slinks along with a decadent and previously unaired lustiness. Most enjoyable of all -- in part because it shows a nascent sense of humor -- is "Talk," a winking appropriation of Kraftwerk's "Computer Love" that, in the hands of Martin and company, becomes a sort of cyborg power ballad. Much like U2 -- a band that's constantly held up as a benchmark for these boys -- at a similar point in their career, Coldplay exude both power and self-importance. And much like Bono and crew, it's looking like Coldplay have the goods to back up the latter for a long time to come. David Sprague

All Music Guide

After Radiohead stubbornly refused to accept the mantle of "world's biggest and most important rock band" by releasing the willfully strange rocktronica fusion Kid A in 2000, Coldplay stepped up to the plate with their debut, Parachutes. Tasteful, earnest, introspective, anthemic, and grounded in guitars, the British quartet was everything Radiohead weren't but what the public wanted them to be, and benefited from the Oxford quintet's decision to abandon rock stardom for arcane art rock. Parachutes became a transatlantic hit and 2002's sequel, A Rush of Blood to the Head, consolidated their success by being bigger and better than Parachutes, positioning Coldplay to not be just the new Radiohead, but the new U2: a band that belongs to the world but fans believe that the music is for them alone. To that end, Coldplay's third album, X&Y -- slightly delayed so it follows Rush of Blood by nearly three years, but that's no longer than the time separating OK Computer and Kid A, or The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree -- is designed to be the record that elevates Coldplay to the major leagues, where they are at once the biggest and most important band in the world. It's deliberate and sleek, cinematic and pristine, hip enough to sample Kraftwerk and blend in fashionable retro-'80s post-punk allusions without altering the band's core. Indeed, X&Y is hardly a bold step forward, but rather a consolidation of Coldplay's strengths, particularly their skill at crafting surging, widescreen epics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine