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Performing "Christmas Lights" at the BBC Top of the Pops Christmas Special 2010 Right now, I'm in a little bit of a lull for Coldplay music. In between 2008 and 2011, they didn't release very much, just some singles and a live album. Some of those singles were connected to the album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, and some were connected to their next album, Mylo Xyloto (pronounced "Zylohtoh") which would eventually release on October 24, 2011. Before we get to Album #5 though, I'm gonna jump around to a few different places in between those years. On December 1, 2010, Coldplay released their greatest Christmas song: Christmas Lights. Christmas Lights is a piano ballad about a guy who goes out walking after a fight with his partner and sees the Christmas lights out on the streets. It includes some classically nonsensical Coldplay lines like, "Up above candles on air flicker / Oh, they flicker and they flow // And I'm up here holding o...

So having said all that I've said about Coldplay (see Day 17a), this album in particular is one of the few that most people agree is pretty good. Personally, some of my favorite Coldplay tracks are on this album, although there are also a few that I had never heard before starting this project. Above all, this album is known for its centerpiece single, Viva La Vida. This song is truly iconic. The soaring, bouncing strings that begin the song just instantly take you away to a world of kings and saints from the first moment. Viva La Vida has to be one of the most recognizable and loved songs of the 21st century. On Spotify, it has accumulated 3.1 billion streams, making it the 34th most streamed song of all time (the only Coldplay song higher is Yellow, with 3.5 billion streams). It won Song of the Year at the 2009 Grammy's as well, making it the last of 7 Grammy's they ever won. If you recall, Song of the Year is awarded to the artists specifically, highlighting the songwrit...