I was very much a fan of Coldplay in their early days, and was straight down the record shop whenever they released an album, but around 2009 I felt that they were getting just a bit too commercial for me, and so my attentions shifted to other, edgier new bands, and I didn't really pay much attention to them anymore. The last album of theirs that I bought was 'Viva La Vida', and I didn't get any of their singles from that period onwards either, which means that I missed out on a number of surprisingly good songs tucked away on b-sides. This collection rectifies that by gathering together all those rare tracks from 2003 to 2014, and it serves as a companion-piece to their earlier post 'If You Never Try, Then You'll Never Know'. I think the songs on 'If You Never Try....' just have edge over the ones on here, but there is still some good stuff on this set, so I'm sure that fans of the band will find something to enjoy.
Track listing
01 Murder (b-side of 'God Put A Smile Upon Your Face' 2003)02 The World Turned Upside Down (b-side of 'Fix You' 2005)03 Sleeping Sun (b-side of 'Talk' 2005)04 Gravity (Coldplay version of the song written for Embrace 2005)05 Things I Don't Understand (b-side of 'Speed Of Sound' 2005)06 Proof (b-side of 'Speed Of Sound' 2005)07 Death Will Never Conquer (b-side of 'Viva La Vida' 2008)08 A Spell A Rebel Yell (b-side of NME freebie single of 'Violet Hill' 2008)09 Lost (b-side of 'Violet Hill' 2008)10 The Goldrush (b-side of 'Life In Technicolor II' 2009)11 Moving To Mars (b-side to 'Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall' EP 2011)12 All Your Friends (from 'A Sky Full Of Stars' EP 2014)13 Ghost Story (from 'A Sky Full Of Stars' EP 2014)14 O (Reprise) (from 'A Sky Full Of Stars' EP 2014)
When Coldplay's debut album 'Parachutes' came out in 2000 it passed me by, and they didn't really come to my attention until their second one was released, and 'Yellow', from the first one, started getting some belated airplay. I loved 'A Rush Of Blood To The Head', and so quickly bought 'Parachutes', and then waited for the next one to arrive. After a couple of years with no sign of a new album I started looking around to see if there were any unreleased tracks that would tide me over, and I was surprised to find that before 'Parachutes' the band had released three E.P.s, and so I quickly tracked them down and found that, although the style was a little different to 'A Rush Of Blood...', I actually thought the songs themselves were very impressive. That prompted me to keep looking, and before long I had enough unreleased material to burn to a CD, with well over an hour's worth of music on it. Once again, it's sat on a shelf for sixteen years, so it's time to dig it out and share it. To be honest I've gone off the band a bit since 'Viva La Vida', so I don't know if any of this has ever been officially released on a compilation, but even if it has this is still a great summary of the first four years of the band's existence.
Track listing
01 Brothers & Sisters (from the 'Safety' E.P. 1998)02 Bigger Stronger (from the 'Safety' E.P. 1998)03 No More Keeping My Feet On The Ground (from the 'Safety' E.P. 1998)04 Such A Rush (from the 'Blue Room' E.P. 1999)05 Easy To Please (from the 'Brothers & Sisters' EP 1999)06 See You Soon (from the 'Blue Room' E.P. 1999)07 Only Superstition (from the 'Brothers & Sisters' EP 1999)08 Careful Where You Stand (b-side of 'Shiver' 2000)09 For You (b-side of 'Shiver' 2000)10 Help Is Round The Corner (b-side of 'Yellow' 2000)11 Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Jo Whiley BBC Session 2001)12 One I Love (b-side of 'In My Place' 2002)13 I Bloom Blaum (b-side of 'In My Place' 2002)14 1.36 (b-side of 'The Scientist' 2002)15 I Ran Away (b-side of 'The Scientist' 2002)16 Crest Of Waves (b-side of 'Clocks' 2002)17 Animals (b-side of 'Clocks' 2002)
If you're wondering about the odd title, it's because the picture that I found for the back cover of the CD had this quote from 'Fix You' written under the band's name, and I thought that it was enigmatic enough to use it.
