David Nolan

It one of their best albums despite still remaining underrated and unappreciated. It is their first album where they experimented and adopted a new electronic rock style while retaining the true somberness and emotional style that has catapulted the band to international stardom. At times, some of the songs may not link up fluently in terms of the overall continuity of the album, but this doesn't detract from the individual quality of tracks such as Square one, What If, X&Y that are slow poignant electro fuelled ballads that exude emotion blended in a new synthesised style. The biggest single from the album to garner huge success is their more traditional romantic, rock ballad Fix You that to this day still remains one of their greatest songs. However, the album still contains other really high quality songs such as to other big hits Talk and Speed of sound that have a more upbeat tone to them while showcasing Coldplay's ability to create fast pace rock songs while incorporating effective synthsisation which this album will always be known for. So, although this album won't match the unique and iconic quality of the first two albums, I think it is an important part of their evolution.