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X&Y

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Untitled

X&Y is the third album by English rock band Coldplay, released in the United Kingdom on 6 June 2005 and in North America on June 7. Preceded by the successful single "Speed of Sound", which peaked at #2 in the UK and #8 in the U.S., the album debuted at the top of the UK album chart, moving 464,471 units in its first week, a success which put X&Y second in overall first week sales. The album became Coldplay's first U.S. chart-topper, selling 737,000 units in its first week of release, as well as spending three weeks at number one. X&Y was the #1 best-selling album worldwide in 2005; it shifted 8.3 million units during the year.

X&Y is influenced by European electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk, as well as 1970s electronica from the likes of David Bowie and Brian Eno. Coldplay received permission from Kraftwerk to use the main riff from "Computer Love" for the track "Talk", while Eno played backing synthesizer on the track "Low". The album's final track, "'Til Kingdom Come", was originally written by the band to be recorded by Johnny Cash, but Cash died before he could record the song.

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Album details

According to lead singer Chris Martin, the title X&Y is based on the ups and downs of his everyday life. Martin says "My whole day is a mixture of optimism and pessimism in its most extreme forms. And that’s what X&Y is to me. It’s two sides. I like the fact they’re very strong letters, very clear."[1] Prior to the release, Zero Theory was one of the many widely rumoured titles to the album.[2]

The album's cryptic cover art was designed by Tappin Gofton (aka Mark Tappin and Simon Gofton), who created the cover for The Chemical Brothers' latest release, Push the Button. The blocks are the Baudot code-encoding (ITA2, a 5-bit alphanumeric encoding used by telegraphs) of the title of the album, X&Y (although due to an error in the coding process, the cover code actually translates as "X96"); the colours are just for aesthetics and have no specific meaning (though Chris Martin sometimes wears coloured tape on his hands while on stage, as a reference to the album). The CD booklet contains the ITA2-encoded alphabet, presented with the X&Y colour motif. The final page of the booklet contains the slogan "Make Trade Fair", using the same encoded alphabet.

Critical reaction

The album's reviews were very warm upon release, but certain critics, specifically from Rolling Stone, Mojo, The New York Times and Pitchfork Media, consider it below par similar to the Oasis album "Be Here Now".

Track listing

All songs written by Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion, Chris Martin, except where noted.

  1. "Square One" – 4:47
  2. "What If" – 4:57
  3. "White Shadows" – 5:28
  4. "Fix You" – 4:55
  5. "Talk" (Berryman, Buckland, Champion, Martin, Ralf Hütter, Karl Bartos, Emil Schult) – 5:11
  6. "X&Y" – 4:34
  7. "Speed of Sound" – 4:48
  8. "A Message" – 4:45
  9. "Low" – 5:32
  10. "The Hardest Part" – 4:25
  11. "Swallowed in the Sea" – 3:59
  12. "Twisted Logic" – 5:01 (actual song ends at 4:26, followed by silence until 5:01)
  13. "'Til Kingdom Come" – 4:10
  14. "How You See the World" (Japanese bonus track) – 4:04

Trivia

  • The album's lead single, "Speed of Sound", was beaten to the top spot on the UK Singles Chart by the novelty song "Axel F" by the Crazy Frog.
  • The album is dedicated to "BWP", which stands for Bruce W. Paltrow, the late father of actress Gwyneth Paltrow, the wife of singer Chris Martin.
  • X&Y's success in its first week put it second behind only Oasis' Be Here Now, which moved 695,761 units in its 1997 release.
  • The final track is a hidden track, however its existence was hinted at. The song listing on the back cover omits the song, however both the booklet and the CD label refer to an item called "+" after track 12's name. The track's name is Til Kingdom Come. It was originally planned for Johnny Cash to sing it with Chris Martin. Martin recorded his part, but Cash died before he was able to record his.[3]
  • All three of the track listing locations refer to the names of the tracks, but instead of the conventional numbering system, the first six tracks are named X1 to X6, and the second set Y1 to Y6 - a reference to the name of the album.
  • A special version of the album was released in Holland, it featured a different album cover and a bonus disc with six unreleased songs; Things I Don't Understand, Proof, The World Turned Upside Down, Pour Me (Live At The Hollywood Bowl), Sleeping Sun and Gravity.

Release details

Country Date Label Format Catalog number
Japan 1 June 2005 Toshiba-EMI CD TOCP 66370
Taiwan 3 June 2005 Toshiba-EMI CD 094631128028
United Kingdom 6 June 2005 Parlophone 2LP 4747861
CD 4747862
United States 7 June 2005 Capitol CD CDP 7243 4 74786 2 8

Awards

Year Award Category
2005 Q Awards Album of the Year
2006 BRIT Awards Best British Album
2006 Juno Awards International Album of the Year *

* tied with Black Eyed Peas' Monkey Business

Charts

Peak position

Chart (2004/2005/2006) Peak
position
Australia Album Chart 1
Austria Albums Chart 1
Belgium Albums Chart 1
Canada Album Chart 1
Finland Album Chart 1
France Album Chart 1
Germany Album Chart 1
Ireland Album Chart 1
Italian Album Chart 1
Malaysian Album Chart 1
Netherlands Album Chart 1
New Zealand Album Chart 1
Norway Album Chart 1
Sweden Album Chart 1
Switzeland Album Chart 1
U.K. Albums Chart 1
U.S. Billboard 200 1
World Album Chart 1
Japan Album Chart 6

Certifications

Chart Certification Sales
World 5x Platinum 10,000,000
United States 3x Platinum 3,500,000
United Kingdom 8x Platinum 2,345,126
Canada 4x Platinum 400,000
Germany 2x Platinum 400,000
France Platinum 335,400
Australia 4x Platinum 280,000
Spain 2x Platinum 160,000
Japan Gold 150,000
Belgium 2x Platinum 100,000
Ireland 8x Platinum 120,000
Argentina 2x Platinum 80,000
Mexico Platinum 100,000
Netherlands Platinum 80,000
Switzerland 2x Platinum 80,000
New Zealand 4x Platinum 60,000
Sweden Platinum 60,000
Brazil Gold 50,000
Austria Platinum 40,000
Finland Platinum 30,000

Note: for all the certification definations see: Certifications

Notes

  1. ^ http://nme.com/news/111874.htm
  2. ^ http://xfm.co.uk/Article.asp?id=67190
  3. ^ http://music.yahoo.com/read/interview/25476511


Preceded by Billboard 200 Number 1 Album
25 June 2005 – 15 July 2005 		Succeeded by
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