Maps of Music

A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002)

Where the lyrics of A Rush of Blood to the Head take you, and where it was really made.

The band started recording in London, but the sessions moved to Liverpool, the city where they had made their debut album, and the record was finished there.

Key places

London sessions begin (2002)

Recording site Mayfair Studios — The album's recording began in London in September 2001, before the band moved their sessions to Liverpool. This point marks the London recording stage. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Liverpool sessions (2002)

Recording site Parr Street, Liverpool — After London, the band worked in Liverpool, where the initial sessions were held. Martin and Buckland worked alone on weekends and presented their ideas to the band each Monday. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Second studio album by the British rock band Coldplay
• Released 26 August 2002 by Parlophone in the United Kingdom, and a day later by Capitol in the United States
• Recorded after the debut Parachutes (2000) made the band globally popular
• Greater use of electric guitar and piano than on the debut
• Co-produced with Ken Nelson
• Lead singles: "In My Place", "The Scientist", and "Clocks"

Background

• The band had gained worldwide recognition through Parachutes before making this album
• The album was finished by June 2002, but the band was unhappy with its output and agreed with Parlophone to postpone the release
• Many songs were dropped because they sounded like they could have been on Parachutes
• Work resumed after the band headlined the 2002 Glastonbury Festival
• Manager Phil Harvey heard "Clocks" and urged the band to rework it immediately

Recording

• Recording began in London in September 2001, then the band relocated to Liverpool
• Liverpool was where they had recorded some of the songs for Parachutes
• "Politik" was recorded two days after the September 11 attacks
• "In My Place" was among the first songs recorded for the album and became its lead single
• The band wrote more than twenty songs in the months that followed
• "Clocks" began as a piano riff that Chris Martin wrote late one night
• The release was delayed by two months so the band could finish "Clocks"

Cover

• Photographed by Sølve Sundsbø
• Sundsbø had originally made the image for the fashion magazine Dazed & Confused
• The image was made with a three-dimensional scanning machine
• The model, named Mim, wore all-white cosmetic makeup
• The cover was later chosen for a Royal Mail postage stamp set in 2010

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in London in 1997 by Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland and Guy Berryman, who met at University College London.
• Will Champion joined in January 1998; the group first went by Big Fat Noises and Starfish before settling on Coldplay.
• Signed with Parlophone in 1999 after the EP Safety (1998) was financed by lifelong friend Phil Harvey.

Members

• Chris Martin: lead vocals, piano, keyboards, guitars.
• Jonny Buckland: guitars, keyboards, backing vocals.
• Guy Berryman: bass guitar, keyboards, backing vocals.
• Will Champion: drums, percussion, piano, backing vocals.
• Phil Harvey: manager, later creative director, often credited as a fifth member.

Career

• Debut Parachutes (2000) won a Brit Award and a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album; A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002) and X&Y (2005) followed.
• Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008) won a Grammy for Best Rock Album and topped charts in over 30 countries.
• Music of the Spheres (2021) included My Universe with BTS, the first British group song to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
• Over 170 million records sold worldwide; the Music of the Spheres World Tour became one of the highest-grossing tours of all time.

Reception

At release

• Metacritic: normalised score of 80 out of 100 from 25 reviews, "generally favorable reviews"
• Many reviewers said the album built on Parachutes
• The Guardian's Alexis Petridis: new assurance everywhere, with the timidity of the debut gone
• The New York Times' Kelefa Sanneh: one of the year's best albums, sparser, stranger and catchier than its predecessor
• Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield: a nervier, edgier and thoroughly surprising album
• NME's Ted Kessler: an album of outstanding natural beauty, an organic and wholesome work
• AllMusic's MacKenzie Wilson: a strong album, praising Martin's falsetto and Buckland's guitar work
• The Village Voice's Emma Pearse: edgier, trancier and more conversational than Parachutes
• Robert Christgau gave it a one-star honorable mention

Reappraisal

• Highest-scoring Coldplay album on Metacritic as of 2023
• Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: number 466 in 2012, climbing to number 324 in the 2020 update
• Topped a BBC Radio poll in 2013, ahead of Hopes and Fears, Rio and The Dark Side of the Moon
• Included in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
• Billboard listed "Green Eyes" among the best deep cuts of the 21st century
• Included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 200 Definitive Albums in 2007

Records

• Reached number one in 12 countries
• Debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart with 273,924 units
• BPI certified 10× Platinum for 3 million copies
• Spent over one year on the UK chart after the singles "Clocks" and "The Scientist"
• Four consecutive weeks at number one on the European Top 100 Albums chart in 2002
• US: Coldplay's first Top 5 album, with 140,854 copies sold
• Canada: debuted at number one; quadruple platinum for over 400,000 shipments
• Australia: seven-times platinum for over 490,000 copies
• Japan: debuted at number 48 with 6,400 copies
• Grammy Awards: Best Alternative Album, Best Rock Performance ("In My Place") and Record of the Year ("Clocks")

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album's title was revealed through a post on the band's official website.
• Martin has said the title means doing something on impulse.
• The cover image was first made for the fashion magazine Dazed & Confused, whose editor loved it.
• The scanner could not scan more than about thirty centimetres in height at a time, so the head in the image was chopped.
• The band's early version of "Clocks" was recorded as a demo and put on a CD marked "Songs for #3".
• Capitol released a 180-gram vinyl remaster in 2008 as part of its "From the Capitol Vaults" series.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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