“Nobody said it was easy / No one ever said it would be so hard.” On the second single from A Rush of Blood to the Head, Martin touches us all on what is perhaps Coldplay’s most touching ballad. There’s the three-note atmospheric guitar riff, the arena-filling straight drum beat, and Martin’s introspective lyrics about your lot in life, expectations and realities aimed at everyone’s jugular: “In my place, in my place / Were lines that I couldn’t change / I was lost, I was lost / Crossed lines I shouldn’t have crossed.” Then, of course, comes the memorable chorus: “Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, how long must you wait for it?” The Rush of Blood to the Head single went on to win Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the 45th Grammy Awards and become a fan favorite and live staple. It’s a hallmark Coldplay song that’s both grand and sweeping and deceptively simple and universally understood. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, notching the band’s first Top 10 hit in the U.S. It was the lead single from their third album, 2005’s X&Y, and was their most successful song to date, debuting at No.
It’s built around another catchy, looping piano riff and its driving drums, waves of guitar and rising synths build to a peak that makes the listener feel like they’re floating at, well, the speed of sound. Like “Clocks” before it, this tune is prime mid-career Coldplay.