Coldplay’s XY

Every now and then a certain album comes along where I actually believe it was written for me personally. We’ve all experienced it at least once (I hope) — when certain lines just fit your life so well, listening to them repetitively is actually a way of healing, a stinging salt-water flush for your heart…

It’s been a while since this has happened, probably not since Patty Griffin’s 1,000 Kisses, but the latest occurance is the XY album by Coldplay. I hadn’t gotten into them much before, I liked what I heard on the radio but never bought their albums or anything. For whatever reason I started listening to this one and after a few plays, I’m finding myself unable to listen to anything else.

For documentary purposes, I’ve put together all the lines I’m obsessed with…

“You’re in control
is there anywhere you wanna go
You’re in control
is there anything you wanna know
The future’s for discovering
the space in which you travel in

From the top of your first page
to the end of the last page
From the start in your own way
you just want
somebody listening to what you say…

Is there anybody out there who
is lost and hurt and lonely too?
They’re bleeding all the colors into one
and a few come undone
as if you’ve been run through
some catapult who fired you
You wonder if your chance will ever come
or if you’re stuck in square one.”

- Square One

“If you ever feel like something’s missing
Things you’ll never understand
Little white shadows that blink in the distance
Part of a system plan

All this noise, I’m waking up
All the space I’m taking up
I cannot hear, you’re breaking up

Maybe you’ll get what you wanted
Maybe you’ll stumble upon it
Everything you ever wanted
In a permanent state.

Maybe you’ll know when you see it
Maybe if you say it you’ll mean it
And when you find it you keep it
In a permanent state

We’re part of the human race
All of the stars and the outer space
We’re part of the system plan

I swear I’m only seeing faces
tired of the human races
Oh, answer now is what I need…”

- White Shadows

“When you try your best but you don’t succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired but you can’t sleep
Stuck in reverse

When the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can’t replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones…”

- Fix You

“You can take a picture of something you see
In the future where will I be?
You can climb a ladder up to the sun
Or write a song nobody has sung
Or do something that’s never been done

Are you lost or incomplete?
Do you feel like a puzzle, you can’t find your missing piece?
Tell me how do you feel
Well I feel like they’re talking in a language I don’t speak
And they’re talking it to me…”

- Talk

“How long am I gonna stand
With my head stuck under the stand
I start before I can stop or
Before I see things the right way up

All that noise and all that sound
All those places I have found
And earth’s gone flying at the speed of sound
To show you how it all began
Birds came flying from the underground
If you could see it then you’d understand..”

- Speed of Sound

“And the hardest part
Was letting go, not taking part
That was the hardest part

And the strangest thing
Was waiting for that bell to ring
It was the strangest start

I could feel it go down
Bittersweet, I could taste in my mouth
Silver lining the cloud
Oh and I wish that I could work it out…”

- Hardest Part

“The wheels just keep on turning
The drummers begin to drum
I don’t know which way I’m going
I don’t know which way I’ve come.”

- Til Kingdom Come