A Rush of Blood to the Head by Coldplay

A Rush of Blood to the Head, Coldplay's second album, arrived on 26 August 2002 on Parlophone in the UK, with Capitol following in the US a day later, and it's the sound of a band that had gone global with Parachutes (2000) and "Yellow" deciding to aim bigger still. Coldplay produced it with Ken Nelson, and this time the electric guitars and the piano do much more of the heavy lifting.

"Politik" pounds away like a door being kicked in. "In My Place" is a slow, stately plea, "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face" has a nervy, driving strut, and "The Scientist" is a heartsore piano ballad. Then there's "Clocks", its cascading piano figure spiraling on and on like a nervous heartbeat, the one that came to define the whole record. "Warning Sign" and the title track keep the mood rueful and grand.

It went to number one in 12 countries, with EMI shipping more than two million copies worldwide in the first week, and it has since sold over 17 million copies around the world. In Britain, only seven albums of the 21st century have outsold it. It won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album, with "In My Place" taking Best Rock Performance and "Clocks" Record of the Year. In 2007 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame put it on its 200 Definitive Albums list, and in 2010 its cover turned up on a Royal Mail postage stamp.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.