Album of the Day

The multi-platinum success of A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD upped the ante for Coldplay, and the British quartet spent more than a year in the studio recording their follow-up, X&Y. Actually they recorded and rerecorded it; initial sessions with longtime producer Ken Nelson fell by the wayside as the band workshopped dozens of new songs, pulling in Danton Supple (who mixed their preceding album) to add final polish to the 13 tracks here. With such originals as “Speed Of Sound,” “Fix You” and “The Hardest Part,” Coldplay show they can still deliver sweeping anthems, while the dense production and some nifty experimental touches (like the repurposing of a Kraftwerk riff in “Talk”) show the band is unwilling to rest on its laurels. X&Y sat atop both the U.S. and U.K. charts on this day in 2005, and if success has become commonplace for Chris Martin and company, this remains an album of uncommon quality.