10 Rockers That Went Pop (And Nailed It)

Talking about the rock band days of a group like Coldplay feels like it might as well be centuries ago. In a post Viva La Vida world, Chris Martin has always been about steering the band into new directions towards pop, but the very beginning had them in a weird spot, catching up with the last fading waves of Britpop. Parachutes may have been walking in the shadow of a band like Radiohead, but A Rush of Blood to the Head was where Coldplay really found their identity.

With a bigger budget to work with, every song on this album seems to have a much different soundscape than the next, like opening up with the statement track Politik, which could have easily come off of a keyboard heavy Muse song from around the same time. Outside of the plodding ballads though, there's almost a folksy feel behind this album, like the political edge of the title track or Chris switching over to just a simple acoustic guitar on Green Eyes.

When the album does take off though, there's an almost cinematic edge to the harder cuts, whether that be the bombastic sounds of a song like A Whisper or the brooding atmosphere that they tap into on a song like God Put a Smile Upon Your Face. This would only end up being a sample of the edge that Coldplay had in them, but it's interesting to imagine the alternate reality where we got more albums like these than something off of Music of the Spheres.