A Rush of Blood to the Head

not bad lol

It's fine. I absolutely detest 'Clocks' though. Something about that song has always made me feel uneasy.

Achievement: I no longer think Coldplay is probably boring because other people say Coldplay is boring - I now think Coldplay is boring because I've finally listened to a Coldplay record, and it was boring.

It's like they took a bunch of songs and ran them through a filter to make them 50% less interesting. Maybe they don't want to upset anyone, which is nice? I prefer upsetting music.

2/5 since I'm saving 1 for something absolutely excruciating.

2 stars ugh it’s fine i guess i just find coldplay so incessantly bland boring and annoying i don’t get why they’re so popular it’s all the same piano and guitar chords with nonsense lyrics it’s so inoffensive i have nothing else to say

A Rush of Blood to the Head feels like the last truly great Coldplay album — and at its best, it’s genuinely brilliant. It’s packed with strong songs and era-defining hits, and it captures the band at a point where ambition, emotion, and melody were perfectly aligned.

I’ve never been shy about giving Coldplay a hard time. I’ve often found them a bit middle-class, music-school polished, and occasionally bland. But tastes evolve. After seeing them live recently — and perhaps mellowing a little myself — I’ve come to appreciate what they do well far more than I used to.

Yes, they can veer into cheesy territory, but on this album it mostly works. The production is superb, the songwriting confident, and the run of singles is excellent. It’s full of big, catchy pop songs that still feel emotionally grounded rather than overblown.

That said, the album does drag in places. The back half isn’t as strong, and tracks like Whisper and the title track feel flat and overly earnest. Trimmed slightly, this could have been a tighter and even more impactful record.

Favourite tracks: Politik, In My Place, The Scientist, and Clocks — all outstanding pop songs.
Least favourite tracks: Whisper and A Rush of Blood to the Head feel dull and expendable.
Album artwork: A cool, understated cover that suits the mood of the record perfectly.

Coldplay gets an unfair rap because they kind of got stuck in a bit of a rut, but at their peak - and this album is their peak - they were an unstoppable force. Banger after banger after banger, this album doesn't have a weak moment. Is it going back in my normal rotation? No. But will I listen the shit out of any of these songs should they start playing somewhere? You're goddamn right I will.

Music that makes 17 year olds nostalgic and world weary. One of arts signal achievements is to let you feel your feelings - Coldplay are cringe because they're so good it it. Pure pop that absorbed all the moves of britpop and 90s indie to meld into anthemic, overwhelming, over produced versions of the same tried and true chord progressions with huge hooks, big dumb chorus lines belting out tried and true lines: I love you, I miss you, you're good...it's so embarrassing how well it works, but suspending that feeling, succumbing, and letting it work... it does

Man, I guess I've been sleeping on Coldplay. I pretty much only knew them from their radio hits, and my general impression was a lot of boring fluff. There's a little bit of that here on the popular stuff like The Scientist and Clocks, even if they're still solid.

But you got stuff like Green Eyes with its bouncy country vibes are great. Definitely a little derivative of early Radiohead, but that's not a bad thing.

Overall, great record.

3.5 Sadly overplayed for years.

Pretty good album. The Scientist and Clocks is on here

The only great Coldplay album. Probably the only good Coldplay album, too.

Oooooooooo

Full disclouse: I have a lot of time for this album because I got really into it when I was about 14/15 years old. It was one of the first full albums I got hooked on as a young lad, so it's probably safe to say it had a role in shaping my love of music (which I'm sure will sound ridiculous to the sizable contingent of music lovers that despise Coldplay with a burning passion).

Back in the day, Coldplay were basically the exact opposite of a 'Singles Band' in my eyes. Their big hits from this album (In My Place, The Scientist) are the most trite and uninteresting tracks here, while the songs that seem to have been quietly forgotten by history in the wake of Coldplay becoming Public Enemy #1 among 'serious' music enthusiasts have some really great moments, like the climax in Got Put a Smile Upon Your Face, and the intro through to the opening verse in Warning Sign (Which I think is probably the best song they ever made).

This album was probably Coldplay's best attempt at making use of Chris Martin's (admittedly rather limited) vocals as an instrument to compliment the other parts of their songs, rather than just as a somewhat pleasant voice
to belt out banal lyrics over bombastic compositions, which is the formula they eventually settled on for more widespread appeal.

I think if I was trying to be more "objective," I'd probably drop a star from my review because there are some pretty weak tracks on this record, but I'm willing to admit I'm letting nostalgia cloud my judgement here.

Favourite tracks: Warning Sign, God Put a Smile Upon Your Face, Amsterdam

Classic Coldplay album, love it

Schifo

Це гарний альбом з безліччю хітів, перші 5 пісень настільки високого рівня, що тримати цю планку далі важкувато й альбом очікувано просідає під кінець.

Загалом - все ще люблю. Знаю що люди хейтять колдплей, але я цей хейт ніколи не розумів.

I find this a very vanilla album!

A few pretty solid tracks, the rest of the album was nice too but didn’t stand out as much to me.

There's something about Coldplay's combination of mass appeal and melodrama that both made them a shorthand for sad songs in the 2000s, and makes them a target for easy bullying now. Coldplay is a punchline as often as they are a serious recommendation at this point, and 15 years or so of *very* mediocre music as of now isn't doing them any favors. But I must assume this empire was built on something, so I'm trying to go into A Rush Of Blood To The Head with an open mind. A lot of people really like this album, and this appears to be one of Coldplay's consensus best: there has to be *something* here. And I will say that we kick off with a pleasant surprise. Politik counterbalances Coldplay's aforementioned signature melodrama with some great tension, and the result is a pretty tasteful, enjoyable song. Although, unfortunately, In My Place sounds exactly like I expected, and much of the album follows suite. To mention the other positives, A Whisper is another song that gets the tension right. And The Scientist as well as the title track here dial Coldplay's sound in, and deliver some more intimate, earnest sounding music that I think really works. However, everything else suffers from being "sad" music that is for the widest audience possible. The emotional meat feels insubstantial, and impersonal, and everything is pasted over with, and I want to emphasize this one more time, oh *so* much syrupy melodrama, delivered through huge arrangements and overdone vocals. The result just usually sounds hollow to me. I actually think Clocks is one of the worst tracks here. Here's an exercise if you want to participate. Put on the beginning of Clocks while watching drone shots of any University. You will be *instantly* transported mentally into an advertisement. I get Coldplay on a few songs here, but so much of this is exactly what I expected. If this is just about Coldplay's best, I'd hate to hear their worst.

This felt like a step up compared to the first one which was awfully dull. Instrumentation is more interesting and dynamic in places, the singles (including the biggest ballad - The Scientist) work a lot more for me than those on the debut as well. I still can't shake my dislike of Chris Martin's vocals but I appreciate they work a bit better here, would prefer more charisma (Robert Smith, Siouxie Soux, someone who has more angst rather than sorrow) would be great on a track like A Whisper. It's a decent 3 I think!