“Clocks” by Coldplay

"Clocks" is the piano-driven rush at the center of A Rush of Blood to the Head, Coldplay's second album, and it went out first in America as the record's second single in November 2002, then in Britain the following March as the third. The whole band wrote it together, and it's built around one relentless piano riff from Chris Martin, a cascading, circular figure that tumbles over itself like it's running out of time.

Martin sings and plays piano and acoustic guitar, Jonny Buckland's electric guitar hovers at the edges, Guy Berryman's bass pulses underneath, and Will Champion drums, adds percussion and sings backing vocals. Ken Nelson produced and recorded it with the band and mixed it with them and Mark Phythian, and it has a huge, glowing, arena-sized feel without ever getting heavy. The lyrics are cryptic, circling ideas of contrast and urgency rather than telling a story.

Critics fell for that piano line, and in 2004 the Grammys crowned it Record of the Year. It made 29 on the Hot 100 and 9 in Britain, and it has become one of Coldplay's signature songs, placed 490th on Rolling Stone's 500 greatest songs list in 2010. Its riff has been sampled far and wide, and there's no shortage of remixes.

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