I ran away

I don't have a good one....i know two versions but in each you can still hear the vocals bleeding through. Let me find them...

WHAT ????!!! :D Yes, I know ! I also love the part when after the bridge the distorted guitar and drums come in again. As for the buildup, if you listen to the instrumental you can hear that it is mostly a string section added that is responsible for the buildup. The atmosphere created by this song is just wonderful.

The World Turned Upside Down ? (I am a puzzle you're the missing piece....this metaphor also appears in Talk and Sleeping Sun)

Fix You ?

Green Eyes ?

Proof ?

Christmas Lights

It's because this album fell short of people's expectations and turned out not to be a, err, musical revelation of any kind.

*lost faith in humanity*

Christmas Lights

Glad that this riddle made people discover a new (old) Coldplay gem :)

I'd be more interested to hear the scrapped songs for X&Y...judging by the B-sides and the leaked alternate version of Talk even the worst of those tracks probably is better than the average Newplay track

Honestly, I wouldn't have thought so many Coldplayers here haven't heard it yet ! :D

Yessss ! Finally ! Your turn ! The alternate version of Talk begins with the line "Under the great North Star/Try to work yout where you are". What we perceive as the North Star is gonna be a different star in approx. 8000 years, and then a different one again approx. 4000 years after that. This is what I meant with the clue that in approx. 8000 years "he would have to look in a different place". Talk was guessed earlier but I deliberately asked the reasoning to make sure it was not this that was meant, and since this sentence only appears in the alternate version I didn't let it count. Thanks all for guessing ! :) @iamsue - You can listen to it here. There is also a download available in the Coldplaying multimedia section.

Sorry to say, but no... My final clue: I just checked and the answer to what, related to stars, changes in 8000 years is easy to be googled ! Why don't you just try that :)

What do you mean by "much stuff online lately" ?

no.... Here is another clue: The thing that changes is mentioned in the very first line of a Coldplay song.

I thought the chords were the same, but as I said I don't give a damn about it and I love both songs. I was not the one who said SOS and Clocks are similar, I'm actually tired of hearing that all the time.

"Tell me it's eeeeeasy, if it's not then liiiiiiiiieeee, oh liiiiiiiieeee to me" :P Right, I said that...but I really thought it was going to be !

Now I remember. You mean the Powers Of Ten video ? Thats a nice one but has nothing to do with the riddle....

But then, nobody said it was easy :D

not XMTS

This concept so far is closest to solving the riddle !

Didn't know you were a professional artist. Thought it only was your hobby :D

Whether or not a band plays arenas during their second album tour is a metric for popularity, not quality. None of the mentioned bands imho come close to (at least early) Coldplay in quality, imho.