Artist: Coldplay      
Album: X&Y
Label: Capitol
Tracks: 13
Length: 62:35
Review by: John Durkee

Coldplay has been called many things in their career. They’ve been named the next Radiohead. They’ve been praised as the next-big-thing. They’ve even been reduced to being stated simply as Brit Pop, but X&Y is a departure from these labels. It has more of a U2 influence than Radiohead, they ARE the big thing and it’s far from boring and doesn’t sound like a typical Brit Pop band.

When I heard X&Y’s first single, “Speed of Sound,” I had thought it was a remixed version of “Clocks.”  Thankfully, X&Y does not sound like a re-mixed version of A Rush of Blood to the Head. “Speed…” is one of the standout songs on the album, but is surpassed by others like “Talk” with its great guitar riff and the ballad “What If.”

X&Y mostly consists of songs with a similar format: a softer and almost ballad-like verse melodically driven by Chris Martin’s vocals followed by a sonically expressive and louder chorus with a soaring guitar line and a steady drumbeat and bass line. Most of the album is in a mid-tempo pace with some ballads thrown in. Perhaps the weakest part of the album is X&Y’s almost religious following to this formula. By using a formula for greatness too much the album blends together and leads to redundancy, much like many bands today. Although this only happens towards the end of the album during X&Y’s weaker tracks, but it regains momentum in “Swallowed In The Sea,” and closes well with “Twisted Logic” and the bonus track “Til Kingdom Come,” that has a similar tone of that of Paul Simon or Bob Dylan (though with Christ Martin’s signature vocals).

X&Y is simply enjoyable and has a nice mellow feel. It may not appear on too many best of 2005 lists, but one could certainly pick worse albums for such a list. X&Y is by no means a poor album, but stands out as one of the better releases of this summer.