A Rush Of Blood To the Head - 10th Anniversary - August 26, 2012

[RazorEye]

At this point in time, Coldplay were an cult band. Living off the mild success of their debut studio album, 2000's Parachutes, they gained alot of attention as being the next big rock act. As the media shone the spotlight on major releases such as U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind, Radiohead's Amnesiac, and Muse's legendary Origin of Symmetry, Coldplay didn't seem like a big contender in the game of thrones, but then again they weren't really aiming for that to begin with. The band's hopes relied on them recording their second studio album for Parlophone, and they did so in a relatively quiet fashion, setting a release date for the follow-up to the acoustically centered Parachutes for August 26, 2002.

10 Years, 3 Studio Albums, 24 Singles and millions of records sold later, A Rush of Blood to the Head, Coldplay's legendary second studio album, has been cited as one of the greatest albums of the decade. It's legacy is one that not many albums of the past 10 years has achieved. Amongst Coldplayers, this album is practically a religion, and amongst alternative rock fans like myself, one that should never be left unheard.

Since it's release in 2002, it has won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album (2003), Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "In My Place" (2003) and for Record of the Year for "Clocks" (2004). It earned them Best British Album of the Year athe the BRIT Awards (2003) and was selected as Q's album of the year for 2002. So far, it has reached #1 in 10 countries and #1 on the European chart, also reaching a peak of #5 on the Billboard 200. It has been certified 9x Platinum in the UK, 4x Platinum in the US and 7x Platinum in Australia, with accumulative sales of 2.7 million units in the UK and over 15 million worldwide. It currently has a score of 80 on Metacritic and a user score of 8.6. A Rush of Blood to the Head has also been chosen as Billboard's Critic's Choice for 2002, and was nominated for the BRIT Award for Album of 30 Years at the 2010 awards. It placed #21 on Rolling Stone's Top 100 albums of the 2000s and #466 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums.

Join me in celebrating the 10th anniversary of one of the greatest albums of our time.

This is A Rush of Blood to the Head

In My Place - 5 August 2002

The Scientist - 4 November 2002

Clocks - 10 December 2002

God Put a Smile upon Your Face - 14 July 2003

Warning Sign

Politik

Daylight (Live 2003)

[Coeurli]

Amazing! And nicely done
And I'll be here August 26th! Yeaah!!!!


Oh how I love this album
Every single song. AROBTTH defines Coldplay's sound. A milestone in their career. It's intense, powerful, beautiful without getting too cheesy, and one of their strongest albums lyrically.

Politik is one of the most epic songs ever, imo. The piano part is one of the most beautiful piece of music ever, AND it adds drama to daily life situations, like running to catch a bus for instance

In my place is not only amazing, it's now also the Buckin moment of their gigs It is so awesome that even a Bad Lip Reading version of this song IS awesome I love the Live 8 performance of this song, with the amazing: "And I like it, I like it, I like it, laaalalala everyboodyyy, rockin all over the wooorld, rockin all over the wooorld"

God Put A Smile Upon Your Face, their "longest title ever" as Chris said, is not a song that I instantly fell in love with, I gotta admit, but it quickly grew on me and I now LOVE it The recent live version is badass. And this song proves again Coldplay's awesomeness. A simple "honey, honey" is enough to make thousands of fangirls faint. True story.

The Scientist....oh The Scientist
A beautiful ballad that makes the crowd cry in concerts, I heard. One of the first Coldplay songs I've ever heard and loved. A piano melody and lines such as "NOOOBODY SAAID IT WAS EAAAASSYYYYYYY" that anyone would recognize. And, finally, one of Coldplay's best videos, with the amazing idea of the story told in backwards.

Clocks, is, for me, as well as Politik, one hell of an epic song. A hard-hitting, powerful song that represents the album well. And the live videos do not contradict that. If I ever get bored of it, I listen to another version, as there are so many of them , and it gets me every time. An acoustic version, a live concert version, any of them. Jonny's riff, Will's drums, Chris' voice...
It's taken a more personal meaning to me recently, as I actually heard it LOUD in my mind at a moment where I was to decide whether I'd take an opportunity or not. Well, I took it & I was right to do so. Thank you Coldplay.

Daylight is a song I didn't like very much at first, for some reason But watching their performance at the TOTP, I believe, well my reaction was: oooohhmyyyyyyy Fangirl mode switched on As some other crazy fangirls pointed out in the Chris' thread, that song is HAWT. And it's Chris' fault. Anyway, Daylight is another intense song from an intense album.

Green Eyes was written partly for an "American friend" of Chris, and partly for Jonny I had fell in love with this song 2 years ago already, I think, before even becoming a fan of the band. I saw a cute video on Youtube, of a man dancing in his living room, to this song, while his wife was on the computer. 2 minutes later she joins him & they dance together and they're having fun. Lovely
They performed it yesterday for the first time in a while, as I believe they had stopped after/at the end of the Viva tour. I read it was because Chris got tired of being asked: "OMG IS THIS SONG FOR GWYNETH ?!"
Anyway, such a lovely ballad.

Warning Sign is another amazing burstin-into-tears song. I love it but not as much as many of the fans here The recent live version is amazing, though. My eyes were filled with tears when I first heard it.

A Whisper is probably the least popular song on this album, meaning the least known. In an interview from 2008, Chris said he loved that song. I don't listen to it a lot, but I think it rocks. Guitar and drums kick ass once again.

A Rush Of Blood To The Head has some of the greatest lyrics of Coldplay's entire catalogue. Again, not a love-at-first-listen love for me, but it quickly grew on me as I absolutely love it now. One of Coldplay's hidden treasures.

And, finally, Amsterdam is one of the most hauntingly beautiful Coldplay songs ever. An intense, powerful song, and its Live 2003 version is for me the best version. Touching lyrics, beautiful piano melody and a voice that always makes me wonder in what context this song was written, as Chris seems to mean every single word with all his heart.

So, to resume, AROBTTH is for me an intense and powerful album that shows what Coldplay can do. Kudos to Coldplay as it was only the second album of an incredible career.

THANK YOU COLDPLAY

Oh, and let's not forget a video that gave us an insight of Coldplay's unique recording process and how AROBTTH could have sounded like

Spoiler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDZKN4ftzns

OMG, sorry for the long post

__________________

A dazzled Coldplay fan. Also known as R Célly, or Nikola's PR.

COLDPLAY: "Four very attractive young men playing the sexiest music ever created that will melt both your heart and your brain at the same time."
"We're a punk band, you know that" - CM

Stade de France, Paris, 2.09.2012
The night I had eye-sex twice with The Martin

[Phoebeo]

A Rush of Blood To The Head is damn beautiful/amazing. For some reason I didn't used to give much for that album, but I seem to grow more to it with age.
¨

My review:

Politik - One of the most powerful songs I know. It's beyond amazing. One day I wish to hear this song live. And give me love over, love over, love over this.

In my place - Great live song. I have now seen Coldplay twice, and it's amazing to hear live.

God Put a smile upon your face - again, - Such a powerful song, and I love the video. This was one of theese songs that just made me love Coldplay, and made me stay when not-so-good-songs annoyed me.


The Scientist - A very beautiful song. The guitar part near the end is awesome.

Clocks - My favorite Coldplay song. I didn't used to give much for it, but I felt in love with it, when I heard the live version on LRLRL. According to Itunes, this song have been played more than 300 times.

Daylight - Amazing live song, and very inspiring. I used to paint a lot while listening to this.

Green eyes - GE is just beautiful. I can't help it but envy this American Friend, and Jonny, just a tiny bit. It's so powerful, and one of my all time favorite songs.

Warning Sign - Beautiful song. Unlike most of the album it have never been a favorite for me, but it's still gives me the shivers.

A Whisper - Night turns to day
And I still have these questions
Bridges will break
Should I go forwards or backwards
Night turns to day
And I still get no answers
Just a whisper, whisper, whisper, whisper. I have always liked the lyrics for this one, and I love how it's easy to relate to.

A rush of blood to the head - I don't even have words for how much I adore this song. It's lyrically and musically one of the best songs I know. This song makes me proud of being a Coldplay fan. I wish more people knew it.
So Im gonna buy a gun and start a war
If you can tell me something worth fighting for


Amsterdam - Such a powerful song. Like AROBTTH, I think it's one of Coldplay's best songs, and I wish that more people knew it, and could hear that Coldplay does amazing songs with amazing lyrics.
Stuck on the end of this ball and chain
And I'm on my way back down again
Stood on a bridge, tied to the noose
Sick to the stomach
You can say what you mean
but it won't change a thing
I'm sick of the secrets
Stood on the edge
tied to the noose
She came along and she cut me loose
You came along and you cut me loose
You came along and you cut me loose

[macky]

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE this album

[Lena Berryman]

My favorite album It has great songs (like every Coldplay album), but it has an interesting large variety, which inspires me a lot. My (two) favorite songs of Coldplay are on it (GPASUYF & Politik). But in general, it's a great mix! Their music helps me in any situation! I love it and I love Coldplay! So, thank you for everything

[Black Dog]

Like every good album, this one ties in with your personal life and creates great memories. It's one that reminds you of lots of past things every time you listen.

[coldplaymom]

Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head (Live 2003) - YouTube

[Phoebeo]

^

And

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-mFwMQTDuM

[Cheese Nip 2]

Wow ten years! What a great album. Even with all the praise it's gotten already I think in the future people are gonna look back on it and realize it's even better than they originally thought!

[LdySpace]

Happy Anniversary to my favorite album as well!!!

[Pink]

Perfect album.

Here's a favorite of mine, possibly because I vividly remember hearing it live over the radio. I wasn't a crazy fan at the time. In fact, I was an emotionally raw young mom, trying to deal with a very difficult infant. Then this came on the radio and stopped me in my tracks. I called my husband and told him he couldn't come home without stopping to buy me the album.

Coldplay-The Scientist (Acoustic) - YouTube

[PrincessofChina]

I wish I had a nice way of stating how much I appreciate this album.. it's my favorite, and it probably will always be. Absolutely love it.

[TecHniCoLoR_MX]

Woke up to this song this morning. Rush of Blood is an amazing album. 10 years of awesomeness and counting...and still going. I have realized you have to have a taste for the song Daylight, it's good, but never grabbed my attention like other songs.

Coldplay - A Whisper - YouTube

[MasoKnight]

As an album, I think VLV still tops AROBTTH for me, but Coldplay have never been on a writing streak like they were during the AROBTTH era. That album + its b-sides + live additions. Incredible.

[onewordepic]

This is without a doubt the best Coldplay Album out there, so personal, so emotional, so downright heartbreaking. This album haunts you for years, 10 years isnt enough to get this album out of my head.