X&Y is the third album by English Alternative Rock band Coldplay, released in 2005.
The album is noteworthy for having the most Troubled Production of any work in the band's discography. The first sessions initially had Ken Nelson on production, continuing from Parachutes and A Rush of Blood to the Head. However, the band was dissatisfied with the resulting material, leading to them scrapping a lot of it and starting all over again, bringing Danton Supple to the role of producer instead. With the band's necessity to perfect their craft, especially considering the success of their previous album, plus internal conflicts, the exit of manager Phil Harvey and imposed deadlines made by EMI caused further complications for the band.
The album continues the arena rock sound of A Rush of Blood to the Head and introduces electronic elements, featuring an extensive use of synthesizers and multi-layered production. Its lyrics are much more introspective and existential than on previous albums, focusing on vocalist Chris Martin's doubts and fears about the world.
X&Y was a commercial success upon release, becoming one of the highest-selling albums of 2005 and peaking at #1 in more than thirty countries. It also spawned the hits "Speed of Sound" and "Fix You". Critical reception, while positive, was relatively less enthusiastic, with a common opinion being that the album sounded too much like the band's previous album but not as memorable, with the biggest point of contention being the cited similarities between "Speed of Sound" and "Clocks", a hit single from A Rush of Blood to the Head.
Despite the album's success, the band doesn't feel as enthusiastic about it in retrospect, with Martin stating that he feels they didn't achieve their fullest potential with it; they have rarely played any of its songs on subsequent tours apart from "Fix You".
No relation to Pokémon X and Y.
Tracklist:
X- "Square One" (4:47)
- "What If" (4:57)
- "White Shadows" (5:28)
- "Fix You" (4:54)
- "Talk" (5:11)
- "X&Y" (4:34)
Y
- "Speed of Sound" (4:48)
- "A Message" (4:45)
- "Low" (5:32)
- "The Hardest Part" (4:25)
- "Swallowed in the Sea" (3:58)
- "Twisted Logic" (5:01)
- "Til Kingdom Come" (4:10) (hidden track)
See it in a new trope rising, see it break on your horizon
- Album Title Drop: Subverted, although it has a Title Track, the lyrics "X and Y" actually appear in the B-Side "The World Turned Upside Down".
- Alien Sky: Invoked in "Speed of Sound":Look up, I look up at night
Planets are moving at the speed of light - Alliterative Title: "Speed of Sound"
- Death by Music Video: The video for "Talk" ends with the band in their UFO being eaten by a giant robot because one of the members stole its power knob earlier.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The video for "Talk", invoking the style of early sci-fi movies, where the band is traveling in a Flying Saucer and wake up a giant robot. Which then eats their ship, with them in it.
- Eaten Alive: In the music video for "Talk", the band members suffer this fate at the hands of a giant toy robot at the end — though to be fair, one of the band members stole a knob from the robot.
- Green Aesop: "Twisted Logic" complains about how people "drilled and invaded," a reference to Western wars over oil in the middle east, and expresses concern that there will be "computers searching for life on earth" in the future after humans are dead.
- Hidden Track: The album-closing hidden song "Til Kingdom Come" (left off the tracklist, but credited as "+" on the disc and booklet) is uniquely given its own standalone track.
- In the Style of: Chris has retroactively admitted to "Speed of Sound" most directly stemming from listening to a lot of Kate Bush, with the song's drumbeat taking explicit leads from Bush's song "Running Up That Hill".
- Lucky Charms Title: "Til Kingdom Come", while officially left off the track list, is credited as "+" in the X&Y disc label and album booklet.
- Minimalistic Cover Art: X&Y features its album title written in the Baudot code above a blue background.
- Non-Appearing Title: "X&Y", "Twisted Logic".
- One-Word Title: "Low".
- Sampling: "Talk" takes its main riff from Kraftwerk's "Computer Love", reproduced on electric guitar.
- Space Rock: X&Y takes the sound of the previous album and expands it with elements of that make it closer to it. "Square One", "White Shadows", "Talk", "X&Y", "Speed of Sound" and the B-Side "Things I Don't Understand" are arguably straight up examples of space rock.
- Take That!: "Twisted Logic" levels these at George W. Bush over the Iraq War through its lines about people who "drilled and invaded" someone else's land and made unjustified claims over what they had.
- Title Track: "X&Y".
- Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you
