X&Y

X&Y is the third album by Coldplay, scheduled for release on June 6 2005 on Parlophone Records. The first single from the album, "Speed of Sound", will be released on CD on May 23 2005. The single first premiered on BBC Radio 1 with Steve Lamacq on the evening of April 18 2005. Speed of Sound was released on several online music stores on the 18th, and was released on the iTunes Music Store on the 19th. It is currently number 1 on iTunes.

According to lead singer Chris Martin, the title X&Y is based on the ups and downs of his everyday life. Martin says "My whole day is a mixture of optimism and pessimism in its most extreme forms. And that’s what X&Y is to me. It’s two sides. I like the fact they’re very strong letters, very clear."[1]

The album is influenced by European electronica pioneers Kraftwerk, as well as 70s electronica from the likes of David Bowie and Brian Eno. Johnny Cash is another major influence; he passed away before he could record a song ("'Til Kingdom Come") that the group had written for him.

The album's ambiguous cover art was designed by Mark Tappin. According to ContactMusic, the coloured blocks form a secret code. The coloured blocks encode the title of the album using ITA2, a 5-bit alphanumeric encoding used for telegraphs.

Track listing

1. "Square One"
2. "What If"
3. "White Shadows"
4. "Fix You"
5. "Talk"
6. "X&Y"
7. "Speed of Sound"
8. "A Message"
9. "Low"
10. "The Hardest Part"
11. "Swallowed In The Sea"
12. "Twisted Logic" (contains the hidden track "'Till Kingdom Come")

External links

• Official site
• Speed of Sound in Windows Media format