The New Classics #50: A Rush Of Blood To The Head, Coldplay

Title: A Rush Of Blood To The Head
Artist: Coldplay
Year: 2002
Label: Parlophone

While they'll never win the affections of the hip, collegiate intelligentsia, Coldplay have spent the past ten years winning over virtually everyone else. Few rock bands in recent memory have enjoyed the unparalleled, international success of this London-based quartet. Their penchant for sweeping, emotional anthems has struck a very familiar chord with the listening public, the same one U2 have tapped into for decades. Yet, before A Rush Of Blood To The Head, Coldplay didn't seem to have the potential to blossom into such a world-conquering force. Their 2000 debut, Parachutes, was charming but also painfully quaint and, as one critic put it, "possessing more sap that Mrs. Butterworth." The lilting ballad "Yellow" had earned them a few respectful nods, but they certainly didn't seem like a band with any real shelf life.

Rush Of Blood catapulted Coldplay into the upper echelon. Written and recorded in the weeks following the events of 9/11, frontman Chris Martin spoke at great length about how he wanted his songs to start reaching wider audiences. Those lingering comparisons to Radiohead were still haunting the band and Coldplay were ready to assert their own identity upon the world. The lead single "In My Place" certainly did that, with it's ringing guitars and cascading cymbal crashes. Even now, you have to be unusually cynical not to get all caught up in the song's whooshing melody and guitar hook. "The Scientist" went even farther, matching plodding piano chords with some truly shameless lovelorn lyrics. The sound heard upon its release was the rustle of millions of emotional, over-earnest guitarists adding it to their repertoires.

Of course, there was "Clocks," with its inescapable, rolling piano line. Despite being the third single off the album, "Clocks" remains Rush Of Blood's most famous calling card, despite lyrics that verge on nonsense ("come out, all things unsaid/shoot an apple off my head"). Yet, the single that sounds the best all these years later is the off-kilter "God Put A Smile Upon Your Face," a twisting ballad powered by a discordant acoustic guitar lick. It's a song that reveals just how strange Coldplay's songwriting can be when you peel back Martin's piano clomping and wispy lyrics. Best heard on the driving "A Whisper" and the soaring "Politik," Coldplay's ability to inject their usual sugary balladry with unexpected edge and grit is a characteristic that has gone woefully ignored by most reviewers.

A Rush Of Blood To The Head breaks little musical ground, but it's special because Coldplay crafted eleven exemplary pieces of populist alternative rock. While Radiohead's The Bends certainly established the blueprint for Coldplay's entire career, Rush Of Blood was the album where they mastered that exacting balance of melody, emotion and grandeur. Sure, virtually every song is about finding lost love, but the world needs well-crafted cliches every now and then. The album's legacy is a glowing one, since its been embraced by both the public and the ever-wary music press. Like it or not, A Rush Of Blood To The Head will be one of the defining albums of this era of music.

Next up on The New Classics: LCD Soundsystem, LCD Soundsystem