Coldplay

Released: June 6, 2005

Songwriter: Chris Martin Will Champion Jonny Buckland Guy Berryman

Producer: Guy Berryman Will Champion Chris Martin Jonny Buckland Ken Nelson

[Verse 1]
When I was a young boy I tried to listen
And I wanna feel like that
Little white shadows
Blink and miss them
Part of a system, I am

[Verse 2]
If you ever feel like something's missing
Things you'll never understand
Little white shadows
Sparkle and glisten
Part of a system, a plan

[Bridge]
All this noise, I'm waking up
All this space, I'm taking up
All this sound is breaking up
Ohhhhhhhh

[Hook]
Maybe you'll get what you wanted
Maybe you'll stumble upon it
Everything you ever wanted
In a permanent state
Maybe you'll know when you see it
Maybe if you say it, you'll mean it
And when you find it you'll keep it
In a permanent state, a permanent state

[Verse 3]
When I was a young boy I tried to listen
Don't you wanna feel like that?
You're part of the human race
All of the stars and the outer space
Part of the system, a plan

[Bridge]
All this noise, I'm waking up
All this space I'm taking up
I cannot hear, you're breaking up
Whooaaaaaaa

[Hook]
Maybe you'll get what you wanted
Maybe you'll stumble upon it
Everything you ever wanted
In a permanent state
Maybe you'll know when you see it
Maybe if you say it, you'll mean it
And when you find it you'll keep it
In a permanent state, a permanent state

[Outro]
Swim out on a sea of faces
Tide of the human races
Oh, an answer now is what I need...
See it in a new sun rising
See it break on your horizon
Oh, come on love, stay with me...

Coldplay is a British rock band, formed in 1997 by University College London classmates Chris Martin (vocals, guitar, piano), Jonny Buckland (guitar) and Guy Berryman (bass), along with drummer Will Champion. The band’s name comes from Tim Crompton, a student who was in the same university as the members (University College London) at the time.

Once they issued their debut, Parachutes in 2000, many saw them as a Radiohead knock-off. No doubt, Coldplay’s sound —elegant, melodic, vaguely spacey and very dramatic — bore plenty of similarity to mid-1990s Radiohead. But the group’s hooks, sharpened by frontman Chris Martin’s ability to pull heartstrings, and the their willingness to evolve their sound, gave Coldplay staying power. The greatest examples are second album A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002), which was generally considered to be musically and lyrically more mature and sophisticated, and less obviously the product of one particular influence, and the fourth one Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008), where producer Brian Eno influenced the band to broaden their sound and led to various sonic landscapes. Both won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album and spawned sucessful singles such as “Clocks”, “Viva la Vida”, “In My Place”, “Violet Hill” and “The Scientist”.

As a result, the band became one of the most commercially successful acts of the new millennium, with over 80 million albums sold – even if along with the acclaim came a vocal opposition, due to the supposedly derivative nature, the overtly emotional lyrics, and the fact they’re good-mannered English boys instead of wild rockstars. As a result, Coldplay are thought as either a punchline showing all that’s wrong with 21st century rock, or a really good if overplayed band with songs tailor made for stadium performances.

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