Coldplay have been the subject of some controversy amongst more devout music fans ever since their debut album Parachutes garnered them instant success. Despite global success with total album sales of over 55 million records worldwide and universal appeal, the band’s musical style has often been criticized for being unoriginal and derivative of their influences; the most commonly named being Radiohead, U2, and Travis, among some others.

Despite this criticism, the band maintained an unstoppable popularity that only rose with the release of their second album, A Rush of Blood to the Head. While the album maintains the similar mellow, melodic tone that was on Parachutes, the dominant acoustic guitar is replaced by a more prominent use of piano. This helps round out the band’s sound a lot, giving the chords more sustain and generating a melancholic, haunting tone that carries the entire album.

A Rush of Blood to the Head is a gentle album in that regard, full of lovely ballads that are accentuated by Chris Martin’s smooth vocals and perfect-pitch falsetto. The album is full of a solemn energy, sad or mellow songs backed with lovely harmonies. And like all decent pop, the choruses are powerful and catchy. All these skills are best-displayed on the band’s instant classic, “Clocks.”

One persisting fault to this album is the lyrical quality. While on the surface the songs appear to be loaded with creative metaphors (take the line “Trouble that can’t be named, tigers waiting to be tamed/(singing) You are, you are” from the hit song Clocks, for example), upon closer inspection, much of the lyrics seem to be just that—pretty words slapped together with no clear meaning or proper context. If it weren’t for the album’s clearly restrained tone, any listener would have trouble trying to find what emotion is trying to be conveyed with these overly-cryptic lyrics that fail to properly back up the album’s strong emotional feel.

Coldplay may not be a band that breaks any new ground with their radio-ready piano-driven rock ballads, but that isn’t always necessary. Chris Martin and Coldplay’s impeccable ear for melody cannot be denied and help create a warm album full of accessible songs that can be enjoyed by most anyone, to varying degrees. However, the often amateurish lyrics and the re-treaded sounds of A Rush of Blood to the Head may prove to be uninteresting to listeners who have heard it all before. Regardless, as far as contemporary pop goes, Coldplay’s display of beautiful melodies and talented musicianship arguably earns them their throne as modern pop kings, and A Rush of Blood to the Head is certainly a step in the right direction for the band that would come to define Coldplay’s signature sound, leading the band to continuous success and stands as a fine example for today’s alternative rock/pop.