“Talk” by Coldplay

Coldplay built "Talk" around a motif borrowed from "Computer Love", Kraftwerk's 1981 song, and set it on X&Y, their third album, in 2005: cool machine precision wrapped in big, open-hearted British yearning. All four members wrote it, and the credits add Karl Bartos, Ralf Hütter and Emil Schult to their names.

Chris Martin sings lead and plays piano, organ, keyboards and acoustic guitar. Jonny Buckland plays electric guitar, Guy Berryman handles bass and synthesizer, and Will Champion plays drums and percussion, with Berryman and Champion both singing backup. Six string players are on the record as well: Audrey Riley, Chris Tombling, Susan Dench, Richard George, Peter Lale and Laura Melhuish. The band produced it with Danton Supple, and Michael Brauer mixed it to a high gloss.

Critics warmed to it, singling out its sound and its lyrics. In America it entered the Billboard Hot 100 at 86, but the Netherlands went for it in a big way: it hit number one on both the Dutch Top 40 and the Single Top 100, the band's first chart-topper there. Both versions drew nominations at the 2007 Grammy Awards, the song itself and its "Thin White Duke" remix, and the remix took home Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical.

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