The dreaded second-album jitters — or the “sophomore jinx”, as it is affectionately referred to in music circles — have assaulted their latest victim.
Going by the name of Coldplay, the United Kingdom’s favourite band for the better part of the last two years have just released A Rush of Blood to the Head and with it comes a wave of mixed reviews. Their debut, Parachutes, topped the charts and catapulted the band to international popularity.
Today, however, polite conversation among purveyors of popular music centres on the fact that they are not entirely sure how to tackle an album as brilliant as it is not what their record company had hoped for. Loaded with catchy, best-selling singles this album is not. Apart from In My Place, there is not a Yellow or a Trouble to be found anywhere among the songs on offer. Instead fans are treated to hefty doses of paranoia, schizophrenia and the occasional bout of self-importance.
If this were any other band the fat lady would, without doubt, have sung her last. Thankfully for Coldplay, their fans still see them as misunderstood by the mainstream and for that reason alone they prevail. The result is a mix of pessimistic mayhem perfectly pitched to become the album everyone refers to as the one they love to hate.
Talking from Boulder, Colorado, guitarist Jonny Buckland shed some light on just what made them do it.
Most bands can’t listen to the albums they make, for many reasons. When it came to recording the new album, was there a need for the music to be fun, even after 1 000 performances?
“Luckily for us we always enjoy playing live. We don’t play every track we’ve ever recorded though, but yes, it’s important that we get as big a kick out of the songs as the audience does.”
Going with your gut can be one thing when deciding which songs work and which don’t when the longevity of your career rests on the decisions made in the studio. Who, besides the players, is roped in to play devil’s advocate?
“There are a few people. A few close friends get the ominous talk to tell us what sucks or not, so they have to be really good mates [laughs]. But at the same time there is a certain amount of hoping that what we enjoy, our audience will too. We’re not so unusual that what we enjoy, no one else will.”
With more stolen hotel linen and frequent flyer miles than your average diplomat, Coldplay have enjoyed great success and even better opportunities than most. But what truly stands out as a defining moment in the career of Coldplay thus far?
“Meeting people like Ian McCullough [Echo and the Bunnymen], Oasis and U2 has been pretty cool and is a thing that I clearly wouldn’t have been able to do if I were just a punter.”
What single thing has changed for the band when looking at the industry you eek an existence from?
“Now that we’ve done a lot of gigs and stuff, I get less enjoyment from going to see people live. There’s less of a big thrill about it and it used to be a massive event to me. Now it’s more a case of, are they good or not? You are also aware of a lot more than say the average fan would be. Silly things like whether the lighting guy is in time or whether the sound man is any good, whereas in the past I would have just enjoyed hearing a band I like play songs. So the business of what we do has tainted the whole experience some.”
What has it been like taking your music to new and often foreign lands?
“It’s no different to playing at home really. Obviously when you can’t speak the language it’s slightly embarrassing, because pretty much everyone in the audience can speak English. So we do feel a little inadequate at times.”
Your debut could not be faulted, so what then did Coldplay drop or add to the mix in order to elevate the music to new heights?
“We really wanted to push ourselves and record something different. We also didn’t want to be contrived about it. In a sense we just wrote the songs, listened to different stuff and the songs that came out sounded different. We also wanted to arrange them differently because we were treading new ground.”
A Rush of Blood to the Head is now available in record stores