Coldplay
A Rush of Blood to the Head

Distributed by
Parlophone/EMI

• Year: 2002
• Rating: 10/10
• Cat. No: 7243 54050428

Track listing:

1. Politik
2. In My Place
3. God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
4. The Scientist
5. Clocks
6. Daylight
7. Green Eyes
8. Warning Sign
9. A Whisper
10. A Rush Of Blood To The Head
11. Amsterdam

Well, this isn't quite the way it was supposed to be. Coldplay rose to multi-platinum, multi-Brits prominence on the strength of two songs. Namely, Yellow and Trouble. Yet surely few ever imagined what they might be capable of when they emerged, barely out of Uni, in 2000.

Blessed with nagging melodies and a post-Radiohead vulnerability bordering on morbid melancholia (Creation boss Alan McGhee famously described them as "bedwetter's music"), both Yellow and Trouble were fine alternative pop-rock singles, while Don't Panic was good enough to lend itself favourably to a floorfilling trance makeover by Logo, but on the rest of their debut album Parachutes the lack of variety could prove suffocating and one wondered at the longevity of such a restrictive palette.

A Rush Of Blood To The Head completely blows away any doubts or misgivings about Coldplay's potential. It marks a meteoric rise, in artistic terms, from mere pretenders to the real thing. In fact, this album puts them among the most important bands of the early 21st Century. Curiously, they achieve all this by rekindling the spirit of mid-80s stadium rock just before it went all Live Aid on us.

Setting aside the typically oldschool Coldplay of In My Place, with its lovely guitar motif and plaintive vocals, A Rush Of Blood... takes its cue from an unlikely source - Echo & The Bunnymen. The resemblence is twofold; Chris Martin's vocals have taken on an unmistakably McCulloch-like timbre, while musically the band have discovered the thrill of economical, rhythmic rock laced with washes of synthesizers and often underpinned by cascading piano licks.

The spirit of golden-era Bunnymen is evoked on God Put A Smile On Your Face, Clocks, Warning Sign and opener Politik, a statement of intent if ever there was one, ringing the changes with its strident, unfussy use of a 4/4 beat and mantra-esque lyrical refrain.

Old habits die hard, however, and the Radiohead influences still creep in. Daylight is virtually Pyramid Song as sung by Ian McCulloch, only faster (remember the original was set to a funereal tempo) with marginally different words, while The Scientist takes the sombre piano-and-vocal approach that Thom Yorke made his own in the latter half of the 90s, only this time Martin and co. outstrip all the competition with a supremely gorgeous instant classic. Coldplay will pull off an almighty trick should they ever surpass it in the future.

Make no mistake, A Rush Of Blood To The Head is comprehensive proof that Coldplay have truly arrived in the big time. Watch them fly.

Review copyright © Liam Carey, 2002.