Coldplay

Item: A Rush of Blood to the Head
Author: Vik Bansal

A Rush of Blood to the Head

(2002)

Reviewed by Vik Bansal

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Label Capitol RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth2002

alternative rock britpop piano rock

These days, when a British band shifts seven-figure quantities of albums in the US, it is such a rare event that it warrants further analysis. A few years ago, with Sixteen Stone and Razorblade Suitcase, Bush proved that the Brits could rock like its Seattle counterparts. Meanwhile, with What's The Story... and Be Here Now, Oasis demonstrated the sad fact that millions of people are susceptible to buying reconstituted, reprocessed rock just as long as it is accompanied by a huge dose of hype and an even larger dose of bad behavior. Coldplay, on the other hand, do not possess any of these characteristics. Their music displays little influence of Americana; their debut album Parachutes floated in on a breeze of complimentary reviews but nothing more; and as for "rock star" antics, well the scope for such things could be adequately imagined when singer Chris Martin revealed in an interview that he is a teetotaler. In fact, it seems that it is the very lack of these traits that helped to endear Parachutes to five million people worldwide since in many ways Coldplay fulfills the nice, well-spoken and "awfully" polite English stereotype that has long been championed in Hollywood films. Of course, the fact that Parachutes was chock-full of mournful yet hook-laden songs, which were brought to life in Chris Martin's yearning, mature-before-its-time voice, might also have had something to do with it.

Given the above it is unsurprising to learn that with the entirely inappropriately titled A Rush of Blood To the Head, Coldplay have decided not to tinker too much with their successful musical formula. While this is not necessarily a problem in itself, unfortunately this time around the quality control is not as stringent as it should have been. On the positive side, "Politik" kicks things off in fine style, building from an aggressive (by Coldplay's meek standards) intro, through a mesmeric vocal and into a spacious finale where Chris Martin bemoans the current state of the world with a plea to "Give me love over this." It leads into recent single, "In My Place," a track which could well have been lifted off Parachutes, and which summarizes all the good qualities of Coldplay: gentle, lilting guitar lines wrapped around plaintive vocals and finished off with a killer chorus. While the next track, "God Put a Smile On Your Face," is also more than adequately honed, it is around this point that the uniformity of tempo and mood amongst most of Coldplay's songs begins to become an issue. In fact, by the time the merely average numbers, "The Scientist" and "Clocks," have ticked past, it is downright grating. From here to the end of the album it is a bit of a musical minefield, with every jewel ("Daylight," "Warning Sign") seemingly followed by a hiccup ("Green Eyes", whose cod country feel and schmaltzy lyrics are not fit for public consumption).

It is de rigueur in Coldplay reviews for the music critic to compare them to Radiohead, another British band who have successfully passed the taste test on both sides of the Atlantic. Such comparisons are fallacious: Coldplay share neither the rock tendencies of Radiohead's earlier works nor the off-kilter experimentalism of their latter albums. What Coldplay does share with Radiohead, however, is that they are a band whose music does the talking for them, where neither machismo nor vulgarity are required in order to make their point. Thus, although the lights of A Rush of Blood To the Head may only shine intermittently, it is still worthy of your support.

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