Tag Archives: coldplay

#1296: Coldplay – Strawberry Swing

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It goes to show how much of a successful period 2008/09 was for Coldplay. Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends had been released in June 2008. In September 2009, they were still releasing singles from the album. A whole other EP of cutting-room-floor material was released in between, and another single was released from that alone. Mind you, this September ’09 release would be the last single. This final offering I’m referring to is ‘Strawberry Swing’, the penultimate song on the record. It didn’t do very well in the UK charts. Probably because it got to the point where people were thinking there was just too much Coldplay exposure. ‘Viva la Vida’, the song, at the time, was everywhere. But the band were still churning that promotion out because they could. And the promotional cycle was capped off with a stunning, definitely time-consuming music video to boot.

When I got the album as a Christmas gift in 2008, a statement I make judging by the emailed list I sent my cousin in my old Hotmail/Outlook account, it was mainly because I wanted to have the ability to listen to ‘Violet Hill’ whenever I felt like it without going onto YouTube or waiting for the video on TV. I still think that’s one of the coolest songs Coldplay have ever done. I was thirteen, but still didn’t have that mental capacity to listen through entire albums and take the music in just yet. So I listened through Viva… once, picked out my favourites of ‘Violet Hill’ and the second title track, ripped it into the old iTunes library and let the album sit in there. It was until years later in 2013, when I was hungover and lying in bed after a heavy night out in my first year of uni, that I revisited the album and realised how great the whole package was. I’m one who thinks it’s still the best thing they’ve ever done. And hearing Strawberry Swing, with its production that makes it sound like it’s floating on air, made that hangover that little more bearable, but also made appreciate how good the song itself was.

I’ve come to think of the song as being one about the power of love in the face of adversity or conformity. It’s a bit of a hyperbolic way of saying it, but it’s the only way I could think of. You got the first verse where Chris Martin sings about a couple sitting on a strawberry swing, enamoured with each other while everyone else is for fighting. A reference to war, no doubt. Martin then ponders why we should follow the social norms when there’s an option to “curve away” and do things differently for a change. And then after a minor key change for the instrumental break, Martin then comes in for the coda ending with the closing lines, “Well, the sky could be blue / I don’t mind / Without you, it’s a waste of time”. Such a simple lyric, but it’s a beautiful sentiment. Enough to bring a tear to the eye at a right moment. Honestly, if the album ended on that note, I wouldn’t be mad. ‘Death and All His Friends’, the song, does a good job of an album closer anyway. ‘Violet Hill’ ends on a sad note. ‘Strawberry Swing’ brings that note right up with its optimistic viewpoint, filling the LP’s second-last slot with a moment of glory, when usually that place on an album is reserved for the black sheep of the collection.

#1259: Coldplay – Speed of Sound

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Hey there, everyone. Guess who’s turned 30? This guy right here. Incredible stuff. It really creeps up on you, honestly. I’m gonna hope this next decade brings nothing but happiness and good fortune. The 20s were fine. Thirties are the new 20s. That’s what they say, right? Anyway, thanks for reading. This has gone on for a good 12 years now, and it’ll be a while until it finishes. But we’re getting there every two days at a time. And we continue with Coldplay’s ‘Speed of Sound’, released 20 years ago, the big first single to announce their comeback in anticipation to what was the band’s upcoming third album X&Y. I’ve come to think of that particular record as their ‘biggest band in the world’ statement. It’s not my favourite. And funnily enough, the band don’t look too fondly on that era either. What can you do?

And I kind of remember ‘Speed of Sound’ being the new song. If I recall correctly, its music video made its premiere in the UK on Channel 4. I didn’t care all that much for Coldplay then. Green Day was more my thing in 2005. And the premiere was at a really late time too. So, I figured I wasn’t missing out on anything much if I went to bed instead. I more remember the discussion around the song that was happening at the time. Mostly that it sounded too similar to ‘Clocks’, which I didn’t get initially. Speeding up ‘Speed of Sound’ (hardy-har-har) makes the similarity a little clearer. Then, to rub more salt in the wound, this track by what was supposedly the biggest band in the world made it to number two in the singles chart, beaten by the annoying, novelty ringtone era kingpin Crazy Frog with (its?) cover of ‘Axel F’. And at a time when it felt like Coldplay hate was at its highest, some people took great pleasure in that happening.

Fast-forward some years later, and I ended up asking for X&Y as a gift for one of those yearly occasions. Mainly because I just wanted access to the singles from it. I listened through it I think the one time, and it felt like it went on for ages. But before then I don’t think I’d properly listened to ‘Speed of Sound’ and given it full attention. It was through the full album listen where I sort of realised the song wasn’t half bad. A song about feeling insignificant and needing a sense of direction in this big, overwhelming world that still has so many questions left unanswered as to its origins. Not a bad topic. “All those places I got found” is a phrase that’s never sounded right to me, but that’s a little nitpick I have. But I really enjoy the way Chris Martin sings the whole thing, even though he apparently can’t stand it now. There’s an actual groovy bassline that you don’t find in a lot of Coldplay songs that begins at the “Look up, I look up at night” verse. And everything’s all tied together by the far out synths and reverbed guitar work that aid in giving the song this spacey atmosphere. One of these days I’ll maybe listen to X&Y again. ‘Least I know this one will always be in there.

#1165: Coldplay – The Scientist

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I was sort of around when this song first came around. Aware of the things going on around me and all that goodness. Coldplay’s ‘The Scientist’ was a single from the band’s A Rush of Blood to the Head album, just over 20 years ago in 2002. That would mean I was seven at the time. I have a very, very vivid memory when it comes to this track. I remember being in the playground of my primary school and singing the song out loud. Not to anyone in particular, just for my own entertainment’s sake. Must have seen the video somewhere at some point and the melody got stuck in that young head of mine. It was time to go back inside for lessons, and as I was in the line going inside, singing “Noobody saaid it was eeaaasyyyyyy”, this other kid holding the door letting everyone through overheard me and spontaneously started singing along. Looked me dead in the eyes and everything. We became good friends throughout those primary school years. Haven’t seen him since I left, though. Just the way things go.

So, yeah, I’ve liked ‘The Scientist’ for the longest time. Even before I realised that the song had the title and wasn’t called ‘Going Back to the Start’ or any other lyrics that appears in the track. The song’s one that everyone knows exists somehow. Even if you haven’t really listened to it in full, you would have heard it somewhere or at least think you did. I’m sure, like a lot of other casual music listeners at the time, the music video for the track is what really brought round the song’s attention. The plot of the thing is backwards. Chris Martin had to learn how to sing the lyric backwards in order to get the desired effect, which apparently took a month to do. As we see, above, Martin starts off on a randomly placed mattress and wanders through the streets and other miscellaneous places, all on his lonesome. Then he gets into a car, with a lady lying next to it, and the viewers witnesses why he’s been by himself up to that point. Martin and the lady were involved in a car accident, and the latter flew through the windshield because she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. For a song all about ‘going back to the start’, the video does very well to fulfill Martin’s wish.

All this time, I’ve never thought about what the song means. But without even having to look the lyrics up, it’s easy to understand that it’s possibly about a relationship ending, the regret that can come along with that situation and wanting to go back to the time when it all started and everything was coming up roses. Musically, ‘The Scientist’ is generally a really easy one to get into. Even if you’re not really paying attention to it, I think Chris Martin’s melody throughout does enough to have you singing along to it without realising. It’s very easy to remember, almost got a lullaby-like quality to it. Martin sings it really well. But I’d like to give a nod to those subtle string bends by Jonny Buckland in the guitar during the song’s outro too. There’s a slight intensity to that whole part which sweetly dissolves in the song’s last chord. It’s one of Coldplay’s most popular songs, and for very good reasons. It’s the last from A Rush of Blood to the Head you’ll see on hear, though. The singles are favourite songs on it.

#1088: Coldplay – Rainy Day

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Carrying on this theme of rain on here, and ending it too, comes Coldplay’s song ‘Rainy Day’. I’d assume it’s one that a lot of people don’t know about except those who are really into the group. I’ve got to admit that I was around the time of Viva la Vida‘s release. I’m sure that every time I’ve written about a song from that era of the band, I’ve gone on to mention that it’s my favourite out of everything the band’s ever done. That album actually got me excited for what they would do next. Excited for a new Coldplay album, never thought it would happen to me. Then ‘Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall’ arrived with Mylo Xyloto and they lost me. They dove headfirst into pop territory with that album and have dropped deeper into it ever since. Not the direction I was hoping for, I tell you.

Anyway, I’m digressing, sorry, sorry. ‘Rainy Day’ didn’t actually appear on Viva la Vida, but was released on the Prospekt’s March EP that was released a few months after. This EP was a collection of some tracks that were recorded during the sessions for Viva and were close to being included, but either weren’t finished or just didn’t fit. Even with the status of being a collection of leftovers, Prospekt reinforces this experimental route that Coldplay seemed to be taking during the making of the LP. ‘Rainy Day’ is based on a loop that establishes itself in its opening moments and plays throughout the track. The band play over the top with a notable bass line from Guy Berryman and a delicate guitar lick by Jonny Buckland. I want to say there’s more emphasis on the lyrical imagery rather than the meaning of the words. Chris Martin sings about the scenery and strange things happening when it suddenly begins to rain one day. At a couple of points during the track, these short little breaks of plucked strings and piano runs appear, each of them preceding the most glorious choruses in all of Coldplay’s discography, lifted to the heavens by a backdrop of sensational violins.

Before being included as a section within the song, those breaks and violin instrumentation behind the choruses were originally intended to act as the ending to an instrumental named ‘School’. The composition plays a key part in the making of the album it appears, because its opening was taken to form the first section of ‘Death and All His Friends’, the song, that closes out Viva la Vida. Makes me wonder if they had the two songs first and made the instrumental after, after seeing how well the two pieces fit together, or if the two songs came from that one instrumental. Whichever way you look at it, everything seemed to work out very well. It’s all good music in the end.

#780: Coldplay – Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love

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A trick that Coldplay utilised on their 2008 album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends was merging two completely different songs together to make one long track. Two of them, ‘Chinese Sleep Chant’ and ‘The Escapist’, were hidden as they weren’t shown on the tracklist. For whatever reason though, the band decided to show that ‘Reign of Love’ was a song that was meant to be shown to all; it enters the frame as the long fade out of ‘Lovers in Japan’ is still happening. The two songs were then placed together, slap bang in the middle of the album.

‘Lovers in Japan’ is the upbeat, optimistic, us against the world type track. The sort of theme that’s been a constant in the band’s discography from about X&Y onwards. Chris Martin sings to lovers, runners, and soldiers telling them to carry on doing their thing in this crazy world we’re living in. Then he turns it round into a first person narrative in the second verse, telling his baby that they’re going to run away from all of their troubles with dreams of getting to Japan. Chris Martin’s lead vocal is probably one of his best performances, containing great melodies throughout. The track also possesses one of Coldplay’s best choruses. That’s just my opinion, though. ‘Reign of Love’ is the comedown. A beautiful, piano-led track with these twinkling loops and a subtle bass that lay the comforting backdrop to Martin’s restrained vocal. Looking briefly at the lyrics, I think the track captures a narrator who has fallen in love so hard that they’re like a prisoner in its grasp. I’ve gotta say I’ve never paid too much to what the lyrics are because the matching of the melody with the production is 10/10.

‘Lovers’ was released as a single in late 2008, a few weeks before the Prospekt’s March EP came out. In this format, it was unveiled with a new mix known as the ‘Osaka Sun Mix’ and this was what was also used in its music video (below). For a long time, that the version of the song I listened to. Upon rediscovering ‘Reign of Love’ it had to go. There are some minor differences between the ‘Osaka Sun Mix’ of ‘Lovers’ and its original album version. I’ll let you listen and find them out.