X&Y, Coldplay’s third album, is turning 20 years old this year.
Released on June 6, 2005, X&Y was a huge commercial success for Coldplay, who skyrocketed to fame in 2002 following the release of their second album Rush of Blood to the Head. As a result of its success, people around the world waited in anticipation for X&Y, which quickly became the best-selling album of 2005.
In celebration of X&Y’s 20th anniversary, let’s look back on my two favourite songs from the album.
“Square One”
The choice to open the album with “Square One” clearly displays the crucial kind of influence Chris Martin wanted X&Y to have on the world of music.
Punctuated by warped and phasing synth, the track relies on a futuristic, celestial sonic atmosphere as its backbone. The experimental melodic foundation of “Square One” glimmers, twinkles and rings and while outer space is technically silent, the song’s intro sounds quite like NASA’s sonification of the Milky Way.
By the time the track reaches its first chorus, it has skyrocketed its listener into previously unknown territory, a new and distant galaxy exploding into existence in a magical array of multi-coloured magnificence. As “Square One” continues to unravel, a gritty bass line aptly intertwines with a racing, raucous guitar refrain, eliciting some kind of magical transmutation that sends the song spiralling into absolute consummate chaos. Just when you’ve decided that the only place the track could be headed is complete cataclysm, the unadulterated melodic disorder that characterizes “Square One” falls off completely, replaced by the twinkling, starry synth that brought the song to life four minutes earlier. The journey is over and you are back at square one.
“Fix You”
“Fix You,” the album’s fourth track, is another unbelievable anthem. While vastly different from “Square One,” the musical choices made on “Fix You” solidify the overarching sonic story that Coldplay was trying to tell with X&Y.
The track opens with a rich, full-bodied organ line that establishes an echoing, ecclesiastical atmosphere. This initial line is soon paired with a second, brighter harmonium, which establishes a new and seraphic kind of polyphony. While sonically, “Fix You” has nowhere to go but up, the two organ lines introduced in the first minute never falter, maintaining their waltz in breathtaking harmony for the rest of the track.
By the end of the first chorus, a delicate, dancing piano stave hints at what is to come: complete and utter melodic pandemonium. The addition of an electric guitar line and a series of rapid and clattering sixteenth notes played on the crash cymbal creates an almost anxiety-inducing mania that quickly explodes into musical mayhem. As Martin’s warm baritone harmonizes with itself in overlapping choral euphony, “Fix You” reaches new heights, allowing X&Y to take its place as one of the best albums to come out of the early 2000s.
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While Coldplay admits that their opinion of the record has soured over time due to the turbulent dynamic that surrounded its production, I believe that X&Y is some of their best work. Other tracks from the album such as “Talk,” “Speed of Sound” and “Til Kingdom Come” also prove this album’s musical worth, solidifying just how impressive X&Y was in 2005 and how important it will continue to be in 2025.