Coldplay - X&Y
Critic Score
Based on 23 reviews
2005 Ratings: #241 / 512
User Score
2005 Rank: #291
Liked by 194 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
Paste
This is not easy listening; on the contrary, it requires a real commitment from the listener. But it’s a commitment that’ll be amply rewarded.
100
Q Magazine
A substantially more visceral and emotionally rewarding experience than both its predecessors.
100
The Observer
It's exceptional, it will sound even better after they've honed it on stage - and the lyrics make some kind of sense.
90
AllMusic

X&Y is hardly a bold step forward but rather a consolidation of Coldplay's strengths, particularly their skill at crafting surging, widescreen epics. But if X&Y highlights their attributes it also brings Coldplay's weaknesses into sharp relief.

90
NME
Confident, bold, ambitious, bunged with singles and impossible to contain, ‘X&Y’ doesn’t reinvent the wheel but it does reinforce Coldplay as the band of their time.
90
DIY
'X&Y;' isn't just another album full of lighter moments and sing-a-longs; it's something very, very special indeed.
83
SPIN
By ratcheting up their guitars and still singing about everyday themes, Coldplay are recasting their nerdy-student Britpop as Important Rock Music without sacrificing the homespun vibe that allowed Martin's fans to believe that he wrote a song for each one of them and called it "Yellow."
80
Uncut
Soft, strong, and very long, Coldplay’s third album finds this remarkable band cruising into their prime, playing to their strengths and at the same time taking, for them, a few considered risks.
75
Entertainment Weekly
The fact that Coldplay are trying anything is, of course, admirable. You can’t help but respect a band that wishes rock were back on the compassionate tip, and doesn’t pander along the way. But as Martin himself sang last time around, nobody said it was easy.
70
PopMatters

While Coldplay does show growth on X & Y, those who expected an album that takes big risks are listening to the wrong band. Amidst all the pressure and expectation, Coldplay have kept a remarkably even keel, releasing yet another album of affable, accessible, introspective guitar rock, with enough inventiveness to avoid sounding overly repetitive.

70
Prefix
People will fall in love to this music, and Coldplay knows it.
60
Slant Magazine

The album retains just enough of the band’s occasional flashes of innovation and spark from its earlier albums to perpetuate the lingering hope that they could someday put all the elements together into a phenomenal package.

60
The Irish Times
Those who loathe Coldplay's middle-management angst will despair - the rest of the world will welcome this big, friendly, over-produced giant of a record, and of course the shareholders will get down on their knees and thank the Lord.
60
Gigwise
Fuck knows, there’s certainly too much piano going on here for anyone outside Elton John’s entourage’s liking and they are certainly more MOR than a painted dashed white line. Yet they’re still not and never will be in the same despisable bedwetting league as Keane and in this genre of likable mainstream indie, that is certainly something to be heralded.
60
God Is in the TV

X & Y is an album of two halves. On one half (essentially almost all of the odd-numbered tracks), you have Coldplay's most sonically daring material yet, not flawless, but genuinely interesting, proving that they have evolved and are becoming a bona fide respectable rock band. On the other half, you have a pointless rehash of the worst aspects of their previous material.

60
NOW Magazine

X & Y is not Coldplay's groundbreaking junior-year masterpiece. It might, however, be a bid for the world's most pleasant album. Chris Martin and co. know what works (basically, Clocks), constructing 12 variations on that theme and taking pains not to shock fans with any disconcerting experimentation.

60
Mojo

X&Y is awash with cliches, non-sequiturs, and cheap existentialism; at times it all becomes nigh on unbearable.

60
The Guardian

People who venture into a record shop only once a year want to know what they're getting: they don't want a nasty surprise when they get their annual purchase home. They should be delighted with X and Y: Coldplay are not in the business of delivering surprises, nasty or otherwise.

60
Rolling Stone

Whereas Rush of Blood was a nervy bid for bigness, X&Y is something less exciting. It’s the serious sound of Martin trying to sing songs that match his stature. It’s the sound of a blown-up band trying not to deflate.

53
Coke Machine Glow

At least 45 of X&Y’s 63 minutes finds Coldplay overdosing on pointless synthesizers in the name of “expanding their sound” while forgetting to write anything reflecting a decent hook.

49
Pitchfork
Bland but never offensive, listenable but not memorable. It may be pointless to hate them, but with this album, they've almost certainly become the easiest band on the planet to be completely indifferent to.
40
Under the Radar
Monochromatic and underwhelming.
40
Tiny Mix Tapes
Not great, a few catchy moments, certainly not god-awful, but just bland enough that after three listens, all life is drained from it, there is nothing new to find. I'd mention some songs, but they are really inconsequential. It's the new Coldplay record for fuck's sake.
ImpalaLT
81

Short Review

Remember that I don’t listen to hidden tracks or bonus tracks.

This album does more of the same that Parachutes and A Rush Of Blood To The Head did, which is totally fine, except it has a touch more filler.

Favorite: Fix You
Least Favorite: Twisted Logic

WhatTheFunk
40

X=Y

Let us try, for a few moments, to imagine a better world. A world without cynicism, prejudice and hype. Well, when you put it that way, it sounds a little boring. Yet in this "ideal" world, Coldplay's music would probably be appreciated for what it is: a naive music that sometimes takes itself a little too seriously, but above all melodic and often inspired songs. Their third album, "X&Y", would be valued for its true value, as a little jewel of pop wonderfully ... read more

Host
90

this is like when yall slept on angles and comedown machine

70

Probably my least favourite out of the first four albums of theirs. Bad? No. Their best? No.

SeanStevens
65

Felt a bit meh about this one

Shades002
81

1. Square One - 7.5/10
2. What If - 8/10
3. White Shadows - 7/10
4. Fix You - 8/10
5. Talk - 8.5/10 ⭐
6. X&Y - 8.5/10 ⭐
7. Speed of Sound - 9/10 ⭐⭐
8. A Message - 7.5/10
9. Low - 7/10
10. The Hardest Part - 8.5/10 ⭐
11. Swallowed in the Sea - 6/10
12. Twisted Logic - 10/10 ⭐⭐⭐
13. Til Kingdom Come - 10/10 ⭐⭐⭐

105/130

8.1/10 (Great 8.0-8.9)

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Track List

1Square One
4:47
85
2What If
4:57
82
3White Shadows
5:28
83
4Fix You
4:54
91
5Talk
5:11
85
6X&Y
4:34
81
7Speed of Sound
4:48
87
8A Message
4:45
77
9Low
5:32
78
10The Hardest Part
4:25
79
11Swallowed In the Sea
3:58
76
12Twisted Logic
4:32
76
13Til Kingdom Come
4:11
Hidden Track
76
Total Length: 1 hour, 2 minutes

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