Coldplay: Day 9

Well I got six new songs for you guys today. On August 5, 2002, around eight months after releasing their last song, Coldplay returned with a bang, releasing hit single In My Place, along with the B-sides One I Love, and I Bloom Blaum (what?). As an aside, I realize now that B-side is the term for all those extra songs that are released along with the main singles, like how in my last post I talked about how the singles Trouble and Don't Panic had other songs accompanying their releases. B-side (as opposed to A-side), was the term that referred to the back side of the cassette or record (vinyl), while the A-side contained the headline song or songs, the B-side usually contained songs not necessarily intended to "receive attention". The existence of B-side songs was thus a product of convenience: There's extra space on the physical medium used to record songs so something might as well be put there. In another previous post I talked a bit about my feeling that bands today release songs more carefully and less often than in the past. I wonder if this is another reason for that, artists were literally incentivized to release lower quality music. Today, I guess that's maybe not the case.

So what are the six new songs? Well there's the lead single In My Place, and the B-sides One I Love, and I Bloom Blaum (what?), and then the second single and B-sides, The Scientist, 1.36, and I Ran Away. At the bottom of the post I have the date listed on Spotify for when The Scientist and B-sides came out: August 5, 2002, but that's just wrong. It was actually November 11, 2002. Funnily enough, Spotify is now forcing me out of chronological order completely. Before with the Parachutes-era singles, the date errors didn't mess up any of the actual orderings. But here, it has The Scientist releasing before the actual album A Rush of Blood to the Head. This isn't true. Actually, the full-length album released on August 26, 2002, just a few weeks after releasing the first single. But I'm committed to the Spotify order at this point so here we go.

Nice what a sick album cover. Um, I mean, cool? Well I guess he's like crying or something? or falling apart? I'm not really sure what In My Place is singing about to be honest, 🎵How long must you wait for i-i-i-it / How long must you wait for i-i-i-it🎵, 🎵beaow beaow burner burner beaow beaow burner burner beaow beaow burner burner beaow beaow bur bur der bur der ber🎵 

Seriously though I can see why they chose this one as their lead single. It goes pretty hard and feels like a bold statement of a new era. Instead of the sly, understated patterns of Parachutes, they come at you directly with drums and guitar. I think they knew what they were doing cause this is the music video thumbnail, 

and the video itself has even more closeups of love-stricken Chris Martin mugging into the camera.

I really do like this one though, I think it's my favorite new one yet (as in I never listened to if before this project).

The next two are One I Love and I Bloom Blaum (what?). And okay the jig is up, it's just called I Bloom Blaum, whatever the heck that means (no I will not be looking it up). Neither of these songs were included on the album, but they did revisit One I Love in a live release that we'll get to later, so I guess it wasn't totally forgotten. I Bloom Blaum is just a short guitar song seemingly singing about a woman. Just two minutes long with really simple lyrics. Maybe just some lyrics bouncing around Chris Martin's head he wanted to get into a song, idk. One I Love is honestly okay, it's like a medium-slow rock song, but the refrain 🎵You're the one I love🎵 is catchy. I like this one though because it reminds of two other songs, the first one is that when it begins, I totally think it's going to break out into the guitar of Modern Man by Arcade Fire, which is one of my favorite songs. And then overall the song just reminds me of a song on the MLB 2K11 soundtrack (shout out my brothers, the only people I know who will get this). It's this one: Better Days by The Wolfmen. 🎵Better days, better days, better days, better days, better days, better days, better days🎵. Anyways.

ehh what the?

I guess weird album covers is a recurring theme in this era? They got mans looking like Frankenstein or a goblin or something. No shade to the song itself though because, excuse the gross misuse of this phrase, The Scientist is a certified HOOD CLASSIC. With a cool 2.2 billion streams and 1.2 billion views on Youtube, this is one of their most popular songs of all time. And I'd say it's well deserved. It feels like absolutely classic Coldplay. In fact, I think it could be the most classic Coldplay song of all time (maybe Fix You?). A sad but simple piano ballad with Chris Martin falsetto, heart-on-your-sleeve lyrics, and a catchy catchy melody. This is also the first song we've reached that I have a real history with. I used to have an iPod Shuffle that could hold 1 GB of music, which was like 60 songs (sidenote: I think the iPod Shuffle belonged to my Dad first, and maybe my sister too? Idk if she reads this she can tell me). When I was in Junior High though I would go to the local rec center and run around the indoor track to train for track and cross-country and this was one of the songs on my list (I also had Clocks, which if you don't know is another one of their popular songs from this era). So this was possibly the first Coldplay song I ever knew. Anyways, I haven't listened to it as much in the last like 10 years, but I still really like it. This ranking which I referenced before and will reference again has it as their 4th best of all time.

The two B-sides from this single were 1.36 and I Ran Away. 1.36 (which turns out is named that way because it was originally 1:36 in length and they just thought it was a cool title, lol) is "a teeny-tiny nugget of growling alt-rock Coldplay." It's different than their usual style so maybe worth a listen if you enjoy more heavy guitar type stuff. I get sort of nostalgic when I hear I Ran Away. The guitar line reminds me of childhood for some reason. I might just be making this up in my head at this point, but I swear this one reminds me of another 2K11 song: Please Please Please by Shout Out Louds, mostly the guitar line.

Well that's it for today. Next time is their second full length album, A Rush of Blood to the Head.

P.S. RIP Roy Halladay

edit: he was the MLB 2K11 cover athlete, he passed away in 2017

Songs Listened To:

In My Place, One I Love, I Bloom Blaum - August 5, 2002

The Scientist, 1.36, I Ran Away - August 5, 2002