Tracklist: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
A Rush of Hits to the Charts – 7,3/10
After the promising yet unpolished debut album Parachutes, Coldplay returned two years later with a brand new album that would mark their big breakthrough. With at least four big hits they conquered the hearts of many fans of pop music. Nowadays no one can think of a Coldplay without “Clocks” or “The Scientist”. A Rush of Blood to the Head became an instant classic album and opened the world for the band, which still only had their record deal for three years. Where most similar bands like Snow Patrol or OneRepublic are battling for a place in the charts but still don’t manage to become immensely popular, Coldplay manage to release only two albums and already become one of the most popular bands in the world. Are they overrated? Partly. But there actually is a very good reason for this album to have been such a breakthrough for them. Let me guide you through the album to give you a good idea of it.
Hits. Every band that chooses to write pop music needs them. Hits are supposed to be catchy songs and preferably very beautiful as well. Originality is not required, said with a quick glimpse at today’s charts. Our beloved Coldplay, however, plays the game differently. Because they have a sound that’s more unique than most of their fellow popbands, they can do more than just have a temporal hit. Their music remains standing even eight years after it was brought out. With Chris Martins unique voice and use of falsetto and with the cohesion of the band they are the only group that sounds like this. While some believe this album was the last of the ‘old’ Coldplay albums, I believe there is no such thing as ‘old’ Coldplay and this was just the album that accessed them to what they would release in later years. This album is for example already a lot different from Parachutes in sound and in songwriting. We are no longer bored by silent songs but face true energetic songs like the smashing “Politik” and the simplistic “Clocks” and there is rhythm guitar like only Coldplay do it on “God Put a Smile upon Your Face”. This album is variation throughout, with a few weak spots here and there, which I’ll fully describe in detail. The main downside is still the compactness of the songs and the lack of truly stunning instrumental parts, but apparently Coldplay is too much pop to even consider solos or anything of the kind.
Where Parachutes had a bit of a mellow, atmospheric opening song, ARoBttH goes straight to the point with the smashing opener “Politik”. Half a minute later the powerful intro falls silent into the verse, but returns once more at the chorus, thus leaving a bombastic impression to the listener. The song has a bit of a political character in lyrics, a little obvious seeing the title, and this is also the first Coldplay album to support the Make Trade Fair campaign. We continue the album with a row of hits. “In My Place” reminds heavily of U2 with its Edgy lead guitars in the main theme. It’s a slow-paced catchy track with great vocals. “God Put a Smile upon Your Face” sounds very unique with its odd plucking rhythm guitars and has a bit of a marching feel to it, mostly due to the monotonous rhythm of the drums. “The Scientist” is a beautiful ballad, starting solely with pianos and eventually becoming a full band song. Chris Martin really makes this song live with his melodies, but in the supposed interplay he starts singing ‘ooh’ with his falsetto voice a little too much, which is a shame since that should’ve been a guitar solo instead. The song was just crying for one. Last of the singles is “Clocks”, a fast-paced piano driven song with quite heavy drums for pop music. The main theme consists of three unoriginal chords that are somehow catchy in the ear, thus creating the bands biggest hit to date. Frankly, I don’t really like the song. It’s cheap, unoriginal and blunt.
Now we’re past all the hits we enter the album side. “Daylight” is an atmospheric song with a great slide guitar main theme and a really cool bass line underneath. With Martin singing ‘slowly breaking through the daylight’ at the end this is a truly awesome song but unfortunately without a solo. “Green Eyes” is a good song, but a bit of a weird one. It’s swinging, acoustic and thus totally doesn’t fit on the album. Is it a leftover from the Parachutes recordings? Martin’s vocals sound quite fragile here too. We have another gentle song with “Warning Sign”, which is quite enjoyable, but nothing more. It doesn’t stand out or anything and is actually quite a bore at times. A song of b-side quality is found in “A Whisper”, which wants to sound like a rocker, but Coldplay can’t make rock music. So what did they do? A guitar with very light distortion plays one chord all the time in the main theme and another in the verses. Meanwhile the vocals just randomly say ‘whisper, whisper’. Then the chorus is not much good either. What did Coldplay try to do here? I don’t know, but the message didn’t come across. When we finally crawl out of this depression we are surprised with two epics. The title track is a powerful song that builds up its volume steadily. “Amsterdam” also builds up the power gradually, but this one tends to be more piano-driven, while “A Rush of Blood...” is more guitar-driven. This is a very satisfying way to close the album.
In short, A Rush of Blood to the Head mostly stands because of its singles. The normal album songs are good at best, but terrible at worst, with the exception of the two songs near the end. The main downside is the compactness of the songs and the lack of really interesting instrumental parts such as improvisations or solos. The sound has become a lot more commercial, yet still very unique. This album is truly a must-have if you even know Coldplay, but for me the fun starts on later releases.
Strongest tracks: “The Scientist”, “A Rush of Blood to the Head” and “Amsterdam”.
Weakest tracks: “Clocks”, “Warning Sign” and “A Whisper”.
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