X&Y is the third studio album by British rock band Coldplay, released on 6 June 2005 by Parlophone in the United Kingdom, and a day later by Capitol Records in the United States. The album was largely produced by the band and British record producer Danton Supple, and features electronic music and space rock influences due to the extensive use of keyboards and synthesisers than its predecessor, A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002).
Development of the album was often troubled and urgent; the original producer, British record producer Ken Nelson, was intended to produce much of the record, however, many songs written during their sessions together were ditched due to the band's dissatisfaction with them. Furthermore, the band had to deal with the brief departure of their fifth member, manager and creative director Phil Harvey, after the end of the A Rush of Blood to the Head Tour and throughout the recording process of X&Y.
X&Y was released after a considerable amount of global anticipation. Overall reaction to the album was generally positive. Furthermore, it was a significant commercial success, reaching the number-one position in the charts of 32 countries around the world, including the United Kingdom (where it had the third biggest sales week in history at the time) and the United States (where it became Coldplay's first album to top the Billboard 200 chart). With 8.3 million copies sold worldwide, X&Y was the best-selling album of 2005, accumulating over 13 million units as of December 2012.
Four singles supported the album: "Speed of Sound", "Fix You", "Talk", and "The Hardest Part", whilst "What If" and "White Shadows" were released as promotional singles in selected countries. "Speed of Sound" was nominated for Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 48th Grammy Awards, and "Talk" was nominated for the latter at the 49th Grammy Awards. X&Y also earned a nod for Best Rock Album at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, marking the band's first nomination in the category. The album's cover art — designed by graphic design duo Tappin Gofton — combines colours and blocks to represent the title in Baudot code, an early character encoding for telegraphy.
Track listing[]
All tracks written by Coldplay (Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion, and Chris Martin) except "Talk", which features Ralf Hütter, Karl Bartos, and Emil Schult as co-writers due to an interpolation from Kraftwerk's 1981 synth-pop song "Computer Love". All tracks produced by Danton Supple and Coldplay, with exception of "White Shadows", "Fix You", "Twisted Logic", and "'Til Kingdom Come", produced by Ken Nelson and Coldplay.
On the back cover, the tracklist is separated into two parts: X and Y. Tracks 1-6 are labeled as "X1" through "X6" on the back cover. However, tracks 7-12 are labeled "Y1" through "Y6". The album's last song is represented in the standard early pressings as "+" and as "Y7" on Japanese pressings, whilst the Japanese bonus track is labeled as "+".
X[]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Square One" | 4:47 |
| 2. | "What If" | 4:57 |
| 3. | "White Shadows" | 5:28 |
| 4. | "Fix You" | 4:55 |
| 5. | "Talk" | 8:36 |
| 6. | "X&Y" | 4:34 |
Y[]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 7. | "Speed of Sound" | 4:49 |
| 8. | "A Message" | 4:45 |
| 9. | "Low" | 5:32 |
| 10. | "The Hardest Part" | 4:25 |
| 11. | "Swallowed in the Sea" | 3:59 |
| 12. | "Twisted Logic" | 4:31 |
| 13. | "'Til Kingdom Come" | 4:10 |
Y (Bonus track)[]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 14. | "How You See the World" (only available on the Japanese first pressing) | 4:04 |