Disc #47: Coldplay (A Rush of Blood to the Head)

Artist: Coldplay
Album: A Rush of Blood to the Head
Released by Parlophone in 2002

Welcome back to the Jones Experiments as we continue reviewing Coldplay with their second release, "A Rush of Blood to the Head". If you're just tuning in, I'm working my way through listening to my entire CD collection, and reviewing each disc as I go. If you want to read what I had to say about Coldplay's first release, "Parachutes", click here.

When this album was released, my friends and I were so excited. I don't remember being this excited for an album to be released at any other time (except maybe for when John Mayer's "Continuum" came out in 2006). I explicitly remember the first time I heard the first single from the album, "In My Place", on the radio. We were picking corn in Tillsonburg, Ontario, and I think I made everyone stop working so I could hear the tune properly. I loved it at once and couldn't wait for the album to be released.

The day that it came out, someone was going to town for lunch and it seemed like everyone handed out cash for a copy of the disc. She may have come back with 6 albums, and we couldn't get to the car fast enough at the end of the day to give it a listen together.

Upon hearing the first few bars of "Politik", I didn't really know what to think. This album certainly is heavier, more electric, and a littler darker than the first, so I think that it caught me off guard at first. Of all their releases to date, I would say that this one took me the longest to warm up to. That being said, it is phenomenal.

You take all the elements from "Parachutes" that made that album great, then you just let it mature a little bit, add some more electric guitar, and you have yourself a dynamite sophomore album. When "Clocks" was released as a single, I felt like I was hearing it everywhere I went; television, radio, movies, advertisements... you name it. The album is just packed with hits like that.

The one thing that has always bothered me a little bit about "Parachutes", how short it is, was redeemed on this disc. It has one more track than its predecessor, and the songs themselves play out a little longer.

At the end of it all, I think that I am still a little more emotionally attached to their first album, but that doesn't change the fact that I would listen to this disc pretty much any time. Thus, I have no problem at all handing out a score of:

9

Join me next time as the experiment continues with Disc #48: Coldplay (The Scientist [single]).