Chinese Sleep Chant

"Chinese Sleep Chant"
General information
Recorded	2007–2008
Genre	Shoegaze Alternative rock
Length	3:02 7:06 (with "Yes")
Labels
Producer(s)	Markus Dravs Brian Eno Rik Simpson
Album	Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends track listing
"Lovers in Japan" / "Reign of Love"
"Chinese Sleep Chant"
"Viva la Vida"

"Chinese Sleep Chant" is a song by Coldplay from their fourth studio album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends. It is the sixth track on the album, sharing its position with lead song, "Yes".

The song is the first of two hidden tracks on the album, the other being "The Escapist".

Background and recording

In an interview, Will Champion discussed the techniques used in the song to fit into the overall context of the album: "It is Chris singing on "Chinese Sleep Chant", but it's drenched in vocal effects and kind of backwards and all kinds of weirds and all kind of wonderful vocal treatments. That was something that Brian [Eno] was keen on, is trying to make the voice sound different because Chris has a very recognizable and beautiful voice, but it's always the treatment of it and our records has always been fairly similar, and the idea of having some different slightly more characterful treatments of his voice was something that we really wanted to do, especially because a lot of the songs are written about a character, so they have an identity of their own which is I think it's really important. It's not a stripped down version of a full song, anything like that. That's exactly how it was from its inception movie."

About the different vocal registers on both "Chinese Sleep Chant" and "Yes", Will explained to MTV what the band was trying to achieve: "One of the main things we tried to focus on with this record is changing vocal identities, because Chris has a very recognizable voice. Just the idea that you can totally change the sound of a song and the sound of a band, just by treating the vocals a different way. So in a song like "Yes", Chris is singing in a lot lower register, and then in "Chinese Sleep Chant", it's drowned in reverb, and he's trapped behind all these guitars."

About its lyrics, Chris told Q magazine: "The lyrics aren't Latin, no! I will say this, if you take away all the guitars, what you're left with is quite ordinary. But Jonny will always make things less ordinary. Without him we'd be fucked. It's true!" In an interview for tabloid newspaper The Sun, Chris also said the song was first called "Chinese Sleepshot", adding: "It's another attempt at a ringtone. The Eastern bit."

Composition

"Chinese Sleep Chant" is a hidden track attached to "Yes", following the song as soon as it ends. The same happens with other tracks on the album, such as "Reign of Love" right after "Lovers in Japan" and "The Escapist" after "Death and All His Friends", although only the latter is considered a hidden track, since it's not listed on the album sleeve. About the double songs, the band discussed the reason for including two songs on the same track, explaining that they hoped to add more value to the whole recording, in response to the decline of music sales. They also expressed the desire to keep the album concise with a total of ten tracks.

The song was described as "a self-conscious parody of shoegaze" with My Bloody Valentine influences. Critics also noted the "wall of sound, heavily processed guitar-swirl and falsetto vocals through reverb." Describing the composition, Serpick from Rolling Stone says: "Opening with a jagged guitar riff, the song quickly settles into a propulsive dance-track loop with low-mixed, angelic vocals." Q magazine also highlighted its "juggernaut guitars [...] along with utterly incomprehensible lyrics."

In a ranking of the band's entire discography, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the release of Parachutes, NME described it as a "driving number powered by crunching guitar riffs, thumping Will Champion drums and, amidst the swirling sonic boom, heavenly falsetto vocals."

Chris plays the rhythm guitar while Guy Berryman provides backing vocals for the song.

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
Fall asleep
Fall asleep
Sleep satisfied
Sleep satisfied
Fall asleep
Fall asleep
Sleep satisfied
Sleep satisfied

[Chorus]
Sleep
Sleep
Sleep
Sleep
Sleep
Sleep satisfied
Sleep satisfied

[Verse 2: Chris Martin & Guy Berryman]
Fall asleep (If you find it very hard to sleep)
Fall asleep (If you find it very hard to sleep, deep)
Sleep crucify
Sleep crucify
Fall asleep (If you find it very hard to sleep)
Fall asleep (If you find it very hard to sleep, deep)
Sleep satisfied
Sleep satisfied

[Chorus]
Sleep
Sleep
Sleep
Sleep
Sleep
Sleep satisfied
Sleep satisfied

Audio

Coldplay - Chinese Sleep Chant (HQ audio)

Trivia

• Prior the time of Viva la Vida release, rumours spread that the song was written and composed with the band members under hypnosis. Although the band did write a song right after a hypnotherapy session, it was never revealed whether it was "Chinese Sleep Chant" or any other track, released or unreleased.

• In an interview, Chris defined the song as Brian Eno's favourite, as well as Guy's favourite and Will's least favourite from the album.