The Escapist

"The Escapist"
General information
Artist	Coldplay
Released	12 June 2008
Recorded	2007–2008
Genre	Ambient
Length	2:46 6:18 (with "Death and All His Friends")
Labels
Songwriter(s)	Guy Berryman Jonny Buckland Will Champion Chris Martin Jon Hopkins
Producer(s)	Markus Dravs Brian Eno Jon Hopkins Rik Simpson
Album	Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends track listing
"Strawberry Swing"
"The Escapist"

"The Escapist" is a song by Coldplay from their fourth studio album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008). It is the tenth and final track on the album, sharing its position with the lead song, "Death and All His Friends". The song is the second of two hidden tracks on the album, the other being "Chinese Sleep Chant".

Background and recording

Coldplay worked on some songs of Viva la Vida with English musician and producer Jon Hopkins, who was introduced to the band by the album's main producer, Brian Eno. Throughout the recording period with the band, Hopkins was also periodically creating his own solo material; his original song "Light Through the Veins" was adapted by him and the band to serve as the introduction for the album's first track, "Life in Technicolor", as well as the backing for "The Escapist". In an interview, Chris Martin said the song was originally composed for the 2008 drama thriller film The Escapist, with the band agreeing Hopkins piece was the right choice to start and finish the new record.

In the same interview, Will Champion explained, “[Hopkins] played us this song one day that he'd written and we've instantly felt it was just incredible and we didn't have any vocals on it, and it was about nine or ten minutes long, but we listened to it over and over again, it was wonderful. And then one night, Chris wrote a vocal part on it and asked Jon if we could to kind of appropriate it, and he was very kind and said yes, but then, the film company had approached us, they wanted to use a new song for a film called The Escapist, and just it features right at the very end of it, at a very opportune moment.” He also added: “It's unlike anything we've ever had in our record before, but by virtue of the fact that it wasn't acctualy written by us all in 99% of it wasn't, which I think it's a good think, starting from somewhere else will always end you up in a different place.”

The track was originally known as "Song for the Escapist" in the early stages of the album production. The band had also expressed interest in redesign and list the song on the CD and on the new CD artwork, although this idea did not make through in the final printings and releases of the album.

Composition

"The Escapist" is a hidden track attached to "Death and All His Friends", seguing the song as soon as it ends, being in fact the closing act for the album. The same happens with other tracks on the album, such as "Reign of Love" right after "Lovers in Japan" and "Chinese Sleep Chant" after "Yes", although only the latter is considered to be a hidden track, since it is not listed on the album's 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 features a “church organ floating into a transcendental ambient instrumental” whilst “a plaintive Chris Martin sings of escape.” A section of "The Escapist" samples "Light Through the Veins" by Jon Hopkins, as does the record's first track "Life in Technicolor", making the album cyclical.

Lyrics

[Verse]
And in the end
We lie awake
And we dream of making our escape
And in the end
We lie awake
And we dream of making our escape
Oooh...

Audio

Coldplay - The escapist

Critical reception

In a ranking of the band's entire discography, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the release of Parachutes (2000), NME praised its lyrics and melody, saying it "has a fizzy energy to it, an emotional end-credits atmosphere where words are kept short and sweet, and the layers of keys and strings hum in harmony. The strength of the melody comes from the fact that Jon Hopkins lends a portion of his own nine-minute instrumental ‘Light Through the Veins’. But the words change everything: “And in the end / We lie awake / And we dream / Of making our escape.” It's all that's said, and it's all there needs to be – a million different possible stories and worlds open up in under two minutes."