Broken Base: One of the biggest regards fans who prefer the moody and melancholy sound of the first three albums and Ghost Stories, or the cheerier musical landscapes from Viva La Vida onwards. The individual albums also get it, as the below entry shows.
Contested Sequel: After X&Y, it's hard to find a Coldplay album that doesn't suffer from this case.
Viva la Vida. While most loved it, there was a sizable minority who detested the "pretentious" direction and wanted a return to the old simple, poppy style.
Mylo Xyloto. Fans have either fallen in love with the new, colorful, poppier direction or lambasted Coldplay for "going mainstream".
Ditto Ghost Stories, as the return to the moodier and sadder sound of the first three albums (or rather the sadness overdose due to the album reflecting Chris Martin's Creator Breakdown) was not universally welcome.
While less divisive than the previous album, A Head Full of Dreams still has this. One camp finds the album a nice remedy to the previous one, while the other side thinks the album is too colorful, even for the standards of the band that made Mylo Xyloto, and tries to overcompensate for the previous album. A third camp goes the extra mile, not having liked either this album or Ghost Stories, and claim Chris Martin has lost his tact for songwriting.
A special mention to BTS, who've been fans of the group for years and expressed interest to collaborate with them. During the early release of Music of the Spheres rumors spread about a supposed collaboration. "Coldtan" received much hype from Coldplay fans and ARMYs. When Coldplay and BTS finally announced their collaborative single "My Universe" a month before the release of Music of the Spheres, Coldplay's tweet announcing it received over 1 million likes less than two days later. When the official music video came out, it amassed almost 3 million views in the first hour.
Epileptic Trees: Chris Martin's character in the "Higher Power" music video is a Ridiculously Human Robot. It explains the lyrics alluding to electricity and the glitching in the music video.
Even Better Sequel: A Rush of Blood to the Head in comparison to its predecessor Parachutes. Chris Martin himself considers it to be a Surprisingly Improved Sequel, as he does not look back very fondly on Parachutes.
"Clocks", "Viva La Vida", "Talk", "Yellow", "The Scientist", and "Charlie Brown" (the latter even before its album was released!).
And "Violet Hill"!
"Life in Technicolor" has one of these, notable for being one of the few epic dulcimer riffs.
"Strawberry Swing" involves a melodic, enchanting guitar tune that complements the lyrics' melancholic yet romantic mood.
"Major Minus" from Mylo Xyloto delivers fierce, memorable riffs from Jonny's guitar over the course of the song, reminding us that we're still listening to Coldplay.
Just when you think "Up&Up" is going to be a slow tune, the guitar solo starts...
Face of the Band: Chris Martin, to the extent that people sometimes call him "Coldplay." And it's easy to see why. A lot of people think Coldplay is a pretty cool guy.
Putting aside the seemingly endless one with Radiohead, the fanbase apparently also has one with Mogwai of all bands after one of their members called Chris Martin a "fuckface".
Comparisons between Coldplay's fictional planet Kaotica and Lady Gaga's fictional planet Chromatica were made quickly, with Lady Gaga fans accusing Coldplay for plagiarizing Lady Gaga due to how similar the names and aesthetics are. Coldplay fans rebutted with the fact Coldplay had worked on the idea before Chromatica released and that the similarities weren't enough to accuse them of plagiarism.
Fanon Discontinuity: The fanon draws its own lines. For fans of their more alt-rock area, they never released anything after A Rush of Blood to the Head. Some add X&Y and Viva la Vida to this list. Others hate their earlier work and claim their first album was Viva la Vida.
Or, for the most basic fan, their only songs are "Yellow", "Clocks", "Viva la Vida", and maybe "A Sky Full of Stars", "Adventure of a Lifetime" and "Hymn for the Weekend".
Growing the Beard: Many critics and general music fans only started to like the band after Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, and in particular the release of the single "Violet Hill". More so with Mylo Xyloto!
Hoo boy, there's actually quite a bit of this for Chris and Jonny. They're often in one another's personal space during shows and interviews, giving each other meaningful looks and kisses on the cheek (and occasionally, on the lips). They've been best friends since their first week of college and have a strong bond as a result of that. They often describe their first meeting/jam session together as being like "falling in love" and "love at first sight...in a musical way".
They even have a portmanteau ship name: Buckin (Buckland + Martin, obv). There are fanvids on Youtube compiling their shippy moments, as well as some fanfics in certain corners of the web.
This Mylo Xyloto-era Ellen interview has some real slashy gems, including Chris joking that Coldplay was formed because guys like him and Jonny weren't doing so well on the dating scene with women *or* men, and Jonny stating that the longest relationship that either he or Chris had ever had was with each other.
Chris has even changed the lyrics during live performances to include Jonny's name - from "Honey you are a rock/upon which I stand" to "JONNY you are a rock/upon which I stand".
The way Chris and Jonny look at each other during the line "You've got, yeah, you've got a higher" in the "Higher Power" official audio video.
There's ho yay feels for the entire band, actually — the guys have said multiple times their relationship is "like a four-way marriage" or "like having four husbands".
Beginning with "Higher Power", the colors used for their 9th era can easily be seen as bisexual lighting. In the official audio video for the song, the circle on Jonny's shirt and the back of Chris' jacket resembles the bisexual flag, down to pink being on top. Couple that with the line "This boy is electric".
It's Short, So It Sucks!: Some fan's reaction to "Parachutes" off of Parachutes, considering the song is only 46 seconds long.
Memetic Mutation: "I used to roll the dice, feel my dick in my enemy's ass..." Explanation A severely sentence-mixed version of the second verse and chorus to "Viva la Vida", usually played along a slideshow of relevant images with the lyrics.
Narm: From a certain perspective, the video for "The Scientist" if viewed forwards. A man crashes a car, which accidentally kills his girlfriend... and then has fun in the forest and goes to bed. In the middle of a sidewalk. Even Chris says it's stupid.
Narm Charm: Some fans feel that Coldplay's sentimentality, earnestness, and optimism is incredibly silly and uncool...and they like it that way.
Nightmare Fuel: The video for "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face" involves a businessman who is slowly disappearing. It first starts with his hands until the end of the video reveals he has disappeared completely leaving behind his suit.
"Adventure of a Lifetime" has commonly been referred to as "Turn Your Magic On" (a line used in the verses and bridge) as well as "Alive Again" (which is the main line of the chorus). The actual title is never said in the song.
"Viva la Vida" doesn't include its title in its lyrics either, or even particularly suit the vibe its title gives, but has several title-esque lines in it, such as "When I Ruled The World".
"The Scientist" also has a Non-Appearing Title, causing some people to think it's called one of the lines most emphasized in the lyrics, such as "Back to the Start", "Nobody Said It Was Easy", "Come Up to Meet You", etc. This was not aided when Evil Activities sampled "The Scientist" in a song and actually did call it "Nobody Said It Was Easy".
The riff in "Talk" (you know the one) is adapted (with permission) from the riff of "Computer Love" by electronic band Kraftwerk.
Chris Martin has admitted that "Fix You" was inspired by the Elbow song "Grace Under Pressure".
Seasonal Rot: As mentioned above, the stretch between Mylo Xyloto to A Head Full of Dreams is one where fans will have complaints on at least one album, if not all three, and gave fuel for the dissers who call Coldplay bland. This ended with Everyday Life, a more experimental album considered to be one of their best.
Signature Song: "Clocks", "Viva La Vida", "Yellow", "The Scientist", "Speed of Sound", "Fix You", "Paradise", "Hymn for the Weekend" and "A Sky Full of Stars".
The drums and main guitar lick of "In My Place" bear a rather striking resemblance to Ride's "Dreams Burn Down".
"Viva la Vida" alone got accused of plagiarizing multiple songs, including "If I Could Fly" by Joe Satriani, "Foreigner Suites" by Cat Stevens, "The Songs I Didn't Write" by Creaky Boards and, of all things, the invisibility music from Super Mario Bros.. That said, most of those songs are already considered to be a take off of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's "Se tu m'ami."
"Sparks" is probably one of the softest songs they've ever done.
"Midnight" and "O" are full-on ambient pieces, with the latter having Chris' kids on lead vocals that are reverberated densely to give off the effect that they're ghosts.
"The Escapist", the ambient, uplifting finale of Viva La Vida.
They Copied It, So It Sucks!: Upon its release, Parachutes was compared unfavorably to Radiohead's The Bends, with "Yellow" in particular being accused of plagiarizing Radiohead's "Lift" (which wasn't included on a proper studio release until 2017, but had become a fan-favorite following live performances of it in the leadup to OK Computer), and non fans were quick to credit their popularity to the Hype Backlash to Radiohead's newer, more experimental sound rather than any merit Coldplay's album allegedly had on its own. The arena rock music they've been creating since then have similarly been called a poor man's U2.
Tough Act to Follow: A Rush of Blood to the Head averted the Sophomore Slump, which probably helped X&Y get a middling reception. And in turn, the success of New Sound AlbumsViva la Vida and Mylo Xyloto hurt the commercial performance and fan reception of the much less crowd-pleasing Ghost Stories.
Vindicated by History: For the longest time, X&Y was the black sheep of their discography, with critics and audiences alike dismissing it as more of the same, but with more U2 arena rock aping into it. In recent years, the reception for the album has warmed increasingly, with some fans even considering it one of Coldplay's best albums.
Zig-Zagged with Ghost Stories. While some still hold it in low par due to it being within the band's believed Audience-Alienating Era that began with Mylo Xyloto and (arguably) ended with Everyday Life, a majority have become to appreciate its heavy ambient soundscape. Some also do give it a pass due to it being written when Chris was having his Creator Breakdown with his divorce.
Vocal Dissonance: Will Champion usually isn't seen singing lead vocals. While his speaking voice is fairly normal, some might consider his singing voice surprisingly high and soft compared to his appearance. Here's a video of him singing "In My Place".
Mylo and Xyloto being the characters in the album's storyline. Still, very strange names.
Win Back the Crowd: Everyday Life is shaping up to be this for some fans, with its return to a more traditional alternative sound and a more ambitious and organic experimentation since Viva La Vida.
◊ Chris is totally checking Jonny out in this pic.
