Credit: Parlophone
A Rush of Blood to the Head, British alternative rock band Coldplay’s emblematic second studio album, was released fifteen years ago on 26th August 2002.
It is considered one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century, having sold almost three million copies only in the UK since its release and featuring some of Coldplay’s most famous tracks to date.
The album contains eleven tracks, with four of them being released as singles to huge success: moody ‘In My Place’, piano-based ‘Clocks’ and ‘The Scientist’, and wonderful ‘God Put a Smile upon Your Face’. However, the other tracks also show Coldplay at their very best, with ‘Politik’, ‘Green Eyes’, title track ‘A Rush of Blood to the Head’ and ‘A Whisper’ also being evergreen favourites.
A Rush of Blood to the Head was the album that cemented who Coldplay were as a band. With a more confident, rocky vibe than their hugely successful yet more acoustic-based debut album Parachutes, they developed on their previous work, confirming that the popularity that gave them their very first headline spot at 2002’s Glastonbury Festival was not quick on its feet. Chris Martin’s unique voice dazzled with its trademark falsettos, while the sterling piano-work and guitar are exactly what made Coldplay the stuff of legend.
The album received huge critical acclaim, gaining Coldplay three Grammys for Best Alternative Album, Best Rock Performance for a Duo or a Group for ‘In My Place’ (both in 2003), with ‘Clocks’ being the Grammy Record of the Year in 2004. A Rush of Blood to the Head was also the Best British Album at 2003’s Brit Awards, as well as NME’s Album of the Year.
For their second album, widely thought as the most difficult one of a band’s career, I’d say Coldplay did pretty well for themselves. Upon release, it was said that ‘it sounds like an album to take on the world, and win’. And win it did.
Listen to ‘In My Place’, the lead single of A Rush of Blood to the Head, below:
