Coldplay
A Rush Of Blood To The Head

THE REVIEW

This album, even after 10 years, still shows a rapid evolution of Chris Martin and company in just two years. The same happened, for example, to Blur between "Leisure" and "Modern Life Is Rubbish", but they remained physically almost the same. Instead, Chris and his bandmates have changed from all points of view (physical, music, etc.).

"Parachutes" and "A Rush of Blood to the Head" are two very different albums: "Parachutes", though it carries a strongly autumnal flavor, is calm and placid, while this one is restless. There is a taste of autumn, but sometimes we also touch a cold winter (the wind that opens and closes "Amsterdam").

And in both, however, there is the class of knowing how to write beautiful songs. "A Rush" is a masterpiece of four men who in the space of two years have become adults.

There are few cases in world music of artists who quickly write songs destined to remain over time. Certainly not Blur, who take four to five years to start leaving something like "Girls And Boys", "Parklife", "The Universal" (and then "Song 2", "Tender", etc.), and Oasis, who leave from their early period just "Wonderwall", and "Live Forever" (and little else, after 2002).

Coldplay leave behind "Trouble" (from "Parachutes"), "The Scientist" and "Clocks" as masterpieces to be preserved as part of both national (British) and international music heritage. An album that to this day enjoys (or seems to enjoy) a crucial importance which subsequent productions do not seem to enjoy.

In that late summer of 2002, the video for "In My Place" was released, a song that sparked my interest in the group, so much so that I bought the September issue of "Tutto" where there was an article about Coldplay and a photo of the four with Martin biting a sunflower.

I was in a period of "existential transition": I had unexpectedly had a beautiful summer in Calabria with Oasis's "Stop Crying Your Heart Out" (as the soundtrack) (which had spent the whole summer at the top of the charts! - read what is written about it in my review of "Heathen Chemistry") and by virtue of this enthusiasm I hoped that in fifth grade I would be able to have a year of better existence than the one that preceded it (I won't go into details).

The spark that ignited my love for Coldplay, leaving behind a Blur-Oasis combo that had dominated the previous (school) year, and the purchase of the album was "The Scientist": a song that even today, after ten years, is indescribable in its beauty, that adjectives fall short. The piano intro, Martin's singing, the progression of other instruments and the drums in the second verse of the piece: all this creates a track of suffering and inner unrest up to a slightly calmer finale. But I won't say more because "The Scientist" must be discovered on one's own and enjoyed every single second.

And alongside this track, the futuristic "Clocks" is another jewel of the entire Coldplay production with that rhythm and in that music that generates great agitation. A song that Marinetti (and perhaps a surrealist as well) would approve in large letters (or a mental video where wall clocks are drawn climbing upwards while the hands move continuously, like in a cartoon). Two spine-chilling songs.

But the rest? More meat on the fire:

"Politik" seems to have come spontaneously to Martin after the events of September 11, 2001, it's a plea for understanding a world that can no longer be comprehended, and another jewel, though it doesn't hold up to "The Scientist" and "Clocks".

"Amsterdam" is a "frozen" piece (the "wind", remember?) that seems calm until a piano interlude announces a long and unleashed series of drums and guitar (in Coldplay style) and then the track closes magically calm as it began.

(Two less precious jewels, the first of which I attached the lyrics at school in March 2003, on the days of the Iraq war, along with "La ballata dell'eroe" by De André, and recently included in a kind of "peace collection", an mp3 for friends from Sant'Egidio ("Gli altri siamo noi", review) containing songs about peace, protest, morality, etc.).

Up to here, the noble pieces of meat. But other cuts are no less:

"Green Eyes" is a pleasant 3/4 (dedicated to Martin's wife, Gwyneth Paltrow?); "God Put A Smile Upon Your Face" is another pleasant and interesting track, but it has a video I do not love (but I did like the one for "The Scientist" back in the day); "Daylight" is another not bad track, but there's no need to dwell on it; "Warning Sign" is very evocative (listen to believe) while the title track, though beautiful, doesn't hit me as much. You see, I judge a song based on the heart's feelings: if a song hits my heart sooner or later and fixes there, I speak well of it. But, if it doesn't do this (even if well made), my judgment will be limited to its aesthetics.

I apologize if some readers might be running out of patience at this point, but I need to add one more thing: even though the nostalgia I sometimes feel these days is not as strong as my feelings back then, I still get chills when I think back to the "winter" of the (my) soul of 2002-2003 guided by this album (after the false and joyful gaiety of the previous year with Blur and Oasis) and the fact that I was holding a girl named Elisa during a class trip to Krakow (in Poland) in 2003. I wish I were still there listening to them.