"Us Against the World" is a song by Coldplay from their fifth studio album, Mylo Xyloto (2011). It is the fifth track on the album.
Background and composition[]
In an exclusive track by track interview for Music Week, Chris Martin said "Us Against the World" is a story about the album's main characters, Mylo and Fly, stating: "The whole thing is supposed to be a kind of story so they all fit together and that is the two characters from the previous two songs ("Paradise" and "Charlie Brown") when they meet each other. It's about meeting someone you love and feeling powerful, when you meet someone and suddenly everything feels alright again."[1]
The song was described as a "love song"[2] and as an "acoustic ballad overlain with Jonny Buckland's delicate electric guitar work".[3][4]
Live in Leipzig[]
On 26 October 2018, Coldplay released a live version of the song played on Leipzig, Germany, along with two other live version songs, "Stayin' Alive" (Live at Glastonbury), with guest appearence of Barry Gibb, from Bee Gees, and "Don't Panic" (Live in Paris). Its live version includes a new verse (So fly on that silverbird / Oh, fly home to me / I've been around the whole wide world / It's only you I see / So fly on that silverbird / Oh, fly home to me / It's us against the whole wide world / It's always you and me),[5] which was added on during the A Head Full of Dreams Tour with some variations in each concert.
Lyrics[]
[Verse 1]
Oh, morning come bursting the clouds, amen
Lift off this blindfold, let me see again
Bring back the water, let your ships roll in
In my heart, she left a hole
The tightrope that I'm walking just sways and ties
The devil as he's talking with those angel's eyes
And I just want to be there when the lightning strikes
And the saints go marching in
[Chorus]
And sing
Slow it down
Through chaos as it swirls
It's us against the world
[Verse 2]
Like a river to a raindrop, I lost a friend
My drunken hazard Daniel in a lion's den
And tonight, I know it all has to begin again
So whatever you do, don't let go
And if we could float away
Fly up to the surface and just start again
And lift off before trouble just erodes us in the rain
Just erodes us in the rain
Just erodes us and see roses in the rain, saying
[Chorus]
Slow it down
Slow it down
Through chaos as it swirls
It's us against the world
[Outro]
Through chaos as it swirls
It's us against the world
Official audio[]
Us Against the World
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 the song, writing: "Martin strips everything back here, giving intimacy and calm back to his fans with a mellow love song. But what really makes this worth caring for is the second verse, when harmonies from Champion turn the entire song from pleasant crooning into something altogether more melancholy, something more heartbreaking. And the line “lift off before trouble just erodes us in the rain” really does have a magical, somehow slippery quality to it."[6]
Trivia[]
- In an Instagram livestream on 16 March 2019, for the Together at Home campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic, Chris revealed the band never quite finished the song, stating they did now and the reworked version will be released at some point.[7]
References[]
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20110925001542/http://www.musicweek.com/story.asp?sectioncode=2&storycode=1046690&c=2
- ↑ https://www.nme.com/features/every-coldplay-song-ranked-in-order-of-greatness-2704676
- ↑ https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/465606/coldplays-mylo-xyloto-track-by-track-review
- ↑ http://www.mtv.co.uk/coldplay/news/coldplay-mylo-xyloto-track-by-track-review
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/1837948699787624/posts/-so-fly-on-that-silverbird-and-fly-home-to-me-ive-been-around-the-whole-wide-wor/2102823196633505/
- ↑ https://www.nme.com/features/every-coldplay-song-ranked-in-order-of-greatness-2704676
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZZwj-kU5Gg