10 Reasons Coldplay Should Be More Respected Than They Are

3. They're Ambitious

I mean not on the scale of These New Puritans, but in terms of stadium-rock bands, Coldplay strive to evolve and push themselves. It's the need to push themselves that has seen the band open with unheard songs twice in Glasto-headlining performances. It's what made 'A Rush of Blood...' so more grown-up from 'Parachutes', and what made 'Viva La Vida...' so fresh from 'X&Y'. It's the fact that Mylo Xyloto featured three short interludes, a Sigur Ros sample and a sparse piano track that was written in a day. You could say that ambition is as respected in music as actual quality; The Beatles or David Bowie probably wouldn't have earned half the plaudits they did without wanting to move forward, and it's kind of a given these days that your next album has to be different from your last. Coldplay genuinely try to be innovative and fresh in a genre that's so famously out of ideas, and whether their music hits the mark or not, surely that's a good thing?