10 years of Coldplay album releases - Coldplaying.com.
The highly rated sixth studio album from Coldplay, "Ghost Stories" is about to be released! We will take a look at the hype that surrounded each album release within the last ten years, taking a trip down memory lane and talking about events before each album's release and the tracks which were heard while waiting in anticipation for the album, some unexpectedly appeared, others leaking and some which felt like a lifetime before they arrived!
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X&Y
Its the year 2005 and upon on the back of the their second and most successful album, A Rush of Blood to the Head, Coldplay return to release the most hyped album of recent times, their third studio album.
Here is an interesting tracklist below that was spread around the net prior to knowing the third album would be called X&Y with a few correct guesses on the track names but the album name proved to be far off! (Looks more like a Linkin Park or Muse album in name!) During the early stages "Square One" was rumoured as the first single off LP3 from multiple sources.
The album was soon to be confirmed as X&Y with the release date in North America scheduled for June 7th. Speed of Sound was to be the first single, due for release on May 23rd and this was a time when singles were given their first play on Radio a few months in advance to being released, hype and radio airplay was key to a successful single in the early to mid noughties before the download era started to take hold of the charts. Speed of Sound was given its first play on the Steve Lamacq show on BBC Radio 1 in the evening of April 18th with many fans likening the first single off X&Y to the Grammy winning Clocks.
In the UK, Speed of Sound was an airplay smash hit, played constantly on radio stations and music channels but when release came, it was denied number 1 by the Crazy Frog, a mobile phone ringtone which went viral at that time. Chris Martin and the band were cursing their luck but saw the funny side of multiple occasions when Chris belted out "Crazy Frog, where are you now?" during live performances of Speed of Sound. Their rise in the US was evident when Speed of Sound reached #8 on the billboard singles charts becoming the first British Band since The Beatles to reach the top 10.
X&Y was then leaked onto the internet early hours of May 31st 2005, just over a week until the North American release date.
Heard songs off X&Y before album release or leak : Speed of Sound
The live leak they performed for MTV a couple of days before the release really captures the spirit of X&Y with thunderous performances of What If and Fix You.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3QFihUhJm0
Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends
Following the success that was X&Y which was number one in 22 countries, Coldplay returned in the Spring of 2008 with their follow up, Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends. Chris Martin's aim was for the band to "get better, not bigger" for their 4th studio album and Chris with his usual sense of humour added,
The band brought in famous producer and artist Brian Eno who worked wonders with U2 to produce Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends. He promoted more creativity from the band and to expand their sound with was evident with the title track, Viva La Vida. Chris Martin, as stated in a recent BBC Radio 1 interview , Eno kicked him out of the band during that period for a weeks to increase the confidence in the rest of the band.
Before the album was announced, 42 was rumoured to be the first single off LP4 and was given a lot of hype given the description of a rocky sound a Jonny Buckland's solo within the track. This was proved to be untrue and after the album announcement, Coldplay confirmed the first airing of the new single, Violet Hill. The track was given a first play, like Speed of Sound was, by BBC Radio 1 on Monday 28th April with Coldplay giving away the track for free the next day in a surprise move which saw over 600,000 downloads of the song within 24 hours of release! Even more impressive was the fact Violet Hill reached number eight in the UK singles chart that week through paid downloads of the track!
On one morning, a video of Coldplay in the studio with Brian Eno, performing Life in Techicolor, Yes and Chinese Sleep Chant was found by a fan on the official Coldplay website. The videos were promptly taken down as it spread across the web. You can watch the leaked (at the time) recording of Life in Technicolor below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ6mUSJFSRw
Viva La Vida also appeared one morning on our multimedia forums with Coldplayers such as myself been the lucky ones online at the time to hear the future hit in full before anyone else. The breathtaking title track was released as an 'instant grat' track for downloading the album which was quite a new release strategy at the time.
The album was leaked a week before the release in the UK, which was June 12th.
Tracks off 'VLVODAAHF' heard before leak and release : Violet Hill, Viva La Vida, Life in Technicolor, Yes, Lovers in Japan (Acoustic), Death and All His Friends (a slightly longer and different version) and Chinese Sleep Chant
Mylo Xyloto
Fast forward just under three years and we were getting ready for the colourful Mylo Xyloto era. Read the expert below from NME on the meaning on the album and the infamousCar Kids which was predicted to be an album track or b-side before based on clues off the famous Graffiti artwork that formed the core of the Mylo Xyloto era.
The album title was not released until 12th August 2011. It started off with the sudden announcement from Will Champion on the official Coldplay website of Every Teardrop is a Waterfall, the first single off their fifth album, being available to download on Friday 3rd June 2011 to when the Youtube audio video was posted revealing the track to the world for the first time. It received mixed reactions at first from fans as it was synthesizer heavy, especially the first minute of the track which stood in favour for other fans. Major Minus and the very popular Moving to Mars (which was expected to be on the album) were released as part of the Every Teardrop is a Waterfall EP. Every Teardrop is a Waterfall became a moderate hit in a chart which has seen a rapid shift in style from when Viva La Vida hit number 1 in 2008 towards a more dubstep and dance oriented chart which was even more heavily influenced by reality shows such as The Xfactor.
On the same day as the 1st single release, Coldplay performed in Germany with a completely revamped setlist where many new songs from the forthcoming fifth LP at the time were given their first play. Unfortunantly, this was not broadcasted, so we did not much to go on other than a few low quality Youtube videos and below was one of them and perhaps the most intriguing of the night, Princess of China, the only live version recorded with just Chris, no Rihanna! There was a very long wait between hearing this and the official album version that featured Rihanna.
Coldplayers were about to see some of the new songs played at the following gig the next day at Rock AM Ring festival in Germany which was broadcasted live across the world which included Charlie Brown (formerly known as Cartoon Heart), Hurts Like Heaven, Major Minus, Us Against the World and they were met with great response from stoked fans.
Paradise, the eventual second single which was decided to be the follow up to Every Teardrop is a Waterfall by the band in favour of Charlie Brown, which was the fan favourite at the time. Coldplay and their management thought Paradise represented the feel of the album and what it was about more than Charlie Brown which still an integral part of their live performances and went on to be their third single off Mylo Xyloto. In hindsight, this was a good move as Paradise went on to enjoy much more success than Charlie Brown as a single and became Coldplay's 2nd UK number 1 single!
Mylo Xyloto leaked online on the 17th October, seven days before its official release on the 24th October.
Tracks off Mylo Xyoloto heard before leak and release : Every track, apart from the last songs on the album : UFO, Princess of China, Up in Flame, Don't Let It Break Your Heart and Up with the Birds
Ghost Stories
Now on our journey through time travel, Coldplay style, we arrive back near the present to when rumours of Magic as Coldplay's first single from their upcoming sixth album were strong as it was appearing in release schedules across various music forums. The general feeling within the Coldplaying community was that we should expect an album towards the end of the year but nothing near that time.
Suddenly, out of nowhere came the music video for new song, Midnight, directed by Mary Wigmore which was the perfect buzz track that had everyone across the music world talking with new found interest from neutral music lovers who really liked Coldplay's new sound on the Jon Hopkins produced and inspired track while there were others who did not like or understand the atmospheric value of Midnight. The ambient fifth track from Ghost Stories gave us a perfect insight into the feel of the new era just like Every Teardrop is a Waterfall did for Mylo Xyloto with all the colourful tones.
Just over a week later, the official first single off Ghost Stories, Magic was unleashed to us! The laid back track with R&B influences was met with very positive reviews in our polls with a large number of perfect 10's and the majority over 8/10!
For the first live performance of the year, Coldplay chose the iTunes festival as the perfect stage to mark their triumphant return to the global music stage!, revealing two unheard tracks in Always in My Head, the beautiful opener and the haunting Another's Arms. Magic with Guy Berryman's inspired jam line at the start and Midnight, where Guy played the laser harp were given their live debuts during the fantastic return show that was reminiscent of the Rock Am Park performance months before the release of Mylo Xyloto in terms of new material and the hype.
It was revealed during the album announcement at the start of March that the US retailer, 'Target' would offer the deluxe version of Ghost Stories which includes three extra tracks which can be seen below. O (Reprise) has been used at the start and end of Coldplay's live shows for this era while there is a lack of information regarding All Your Friends and Ghost Story.
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On Friday 21st March, the unthinkable happened for many lucky Coldplay fans as the band performed the whole album in full during a secret show in Los Angeles! which was revealed to be for a TV special airing from May 18th in North America!. Us Coldplayers had to rely on the reviews posted on our forums and on reddit for the details which resulted in A Sky Full of Stars been the most hyped Coldplay song ever because of the blockbuster reviews it was receiving!
April soon appeared and Coldplay had released the official music video for Magic to which a sway of positive votes followed. The Magic video featured Chris Martin playing two roles in the silent movie inspired video as good and evil along with famous actress, Ziyi Zhang starring alongside Chris. News of an intimate Ghost Stories tour in six venues across the world came to the fore, starting with Germany and finishing with London on 1st July.
On Wednesday 23rd April, it appeared to be a day of rest in a busy week for Coldplay which saw the release of Midnight along with the official remix single to go with it and a whole range of live performances scheduled. Coldplay, as they like to do, gave us a string of surprises which started with the first airing of Oceans (the band also played Magic) in the BBC Radio 1 live lounge (UK) followed by announcements they will be playing the big weekend festival in Glasgow for Radio 1 on the 24-25th May!. As if that wasn't enough on a single day, a preview was released for an exclusive Chris Martin interview on Radio 1 with Zane Lowe for the following Monday and we took a sneak peak at the official trailer for the Ghost Stories TV special!. You can watch the sublime performance of Oceans below :
The hype for A Sky Full of Stars reached its limit after Coldplay had dazzled many amazed German Coldplay fans with their live performance in Cologne for the first date of the Ghost Stories tour and Chris requested the performance of the future hit not to be recorded. The energetic 2nd single was soon released on the following Tuesday, a day after the most emotional and revealing Chris Martin interview we have ever seen, conducted by Zane Lowe (to which you can watch the full interview below).
A snippet to give us a first taster of A Sky Full of Stars was played during that interview along with large parts of Always in my Head, Oceans and a snippet of O (Fly on), the final track on the standard edition album, which received raving reviews on our forums. A Sky Full of Stars appeared the following morning to smash iTunes charts all over the world in over 70 countries! in the form of single track downloads and a large amount of pre-orders on iTunes for Ghost Stories. The fun and energetic 2nd single was given a mixed reaction at first with some fans not liking the Avicii produced song while others loved the upbeat and dance vibe it gave. As our current poll suggests, it has grown to be a hit with most Coldplayers already!
To cap off the pre-release era of Ghost Stories, Coldplay performed a marvelous show to ecstatic fans at the Beacon Theater in New York on 5th May. During the encore, Chris, just like in Germany with A Sky Full of Stars, asked fans not to record the song they were about to play which was the epic heartbreak anthem, True Love and Coldplay fans, as great as they are, respected the decision as a majority, only the odd low quality recording surfaced online which was circulated to a small number of people, privately. On Sunday 11th May, Another's Arms leaked online in public after weeks of Indonesian fans being able to download track, after iTunes accidentally made the haunting song available for a very short time.
The first full availability of Ghost Stories was unexpectedly not through a leak but the official streaming on iTunes which was available on May 12th, directly a week before the North American and UK release and features a stunning visual video.
Tracks off Ghost Stories heard before streaming and release : Always in My Head, Magic, Midnight, Another's Arms, Oceans and A Sky Full of Stars. "O" through a tiny snippet only.
Tell us your favourite pre album release era on the Coldplaying messageboards now!
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