Every Coldplay Studio Album, Ranked From Worst to Best [Updated]
Breaking down the British band's discography.
Whether you think it’s warranted or not, Coldplay is arguably the most divisive band on the planet.
They’ve sold over 100 million albums worldwide and scored two of the ten highest-grossing concert tours in history. They’ve also been called irritating, innocuously tepid, and, according to the New York Times, “the most insufferable band of the [2000s].” Various comment sections and listener reviews (which I won’t dignify by copy-pasting here) are far less kind to the group.
All this begs the question: What is Coldplay’s deal?
Are they as bad as the haters say? Are they a blander, less offensive version of U2 with greater EDM aspirations? Or are they better than all that? Has their musicianship and pop-rock acumen been drowned out by a vocal minority shouting in the digitized village square?
To clear this up once and for all, I present my deep dive into Coldplay’s studio discography. I’ve ranked every album from worst to best, basing each assessment on a fresh listen. Recordings of live shows and one-off singles weren’t included in this list.
As the click-baiters are wont to say, some of the findings may surprise you.
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Let’s begin, starting with the lowest-ranked album:
10. Music of the Spheres (2021)
Let me clarify something off the top: Just because an album such as this one is ranked as the worst in an artist’s discography, that doesn’t automatically make it awful or unlistenable. Just inferior to everything else they’ve made.
Music of the Spheres, taking its title from a Greek philosophy theory, is the most recent Coldplay record (as of this writing). It’s also, by most measures, their most vanilla. You can hear Chris Martin and co. tiptoeing around the unifying, humanistic statements of its predecessor, Everyday Life, but, in packaging these ideas to be consumed by the largest possible audience, they can’t fully commit to any of them. You’re left with a record that, both musically and lyrically, is fine. At times, aggressively so.
It’s not all bad, however. I’ve written about how much I adore the lead single “Higher Power,” and the epic closer “Coloratura” manages to insert some prog rock notes on the back of your aural palette. Dare I say the latter’s guitar solo is David Gilmour-esque?
9. Everyday Life (2019)
You know when people say “interesting,” and it’s their way of sitting on the fence and not committing to assigning labels like “good” or “bad” to something? Well, Coldplay’s only double LP (as of this writing), Everyday Life, is … interesting. I went back and forth on where to slot this in, and, to a degree, I’m still undecided.
Let’s start with the good. For all the detractors who call their music bland or superficial, this record sees the group use their platform to make pointed political statements. Lyrically, they tackle police brutality (”Trouble in Town”), access to firearms (”Guns”), and the global refugee crisis (”Orphans,” which is somehow one of the more joyous tracks on the album), among other thorny issues. Relatedly, this collection of songs isn’t a bummer, either. Instead of harping solely on how discriminating the human experience can be, there’s plenty of optimism and hope for the future. Much of that stems from the global scope of the production, with contributions from artists from Pakistan, Iran, Nigeria, and several other countries.
And yet, in the face of all those positives, Everyday Life suffers from a lack of cohesion. There’s a fine line between sounding unpolished for artistic effect and scattershot to the point of coming across as unfinished, and I’m not sure Coldplay always finds themselves on the right side of that line. It’s a shame because this release had the potential for greatness.
8. X&Y (2005)
Since I was a kid, the Coldplay song I’ve had the biggest love-hate relationship with is easily “Fix You.” For a long time, it was the intro music that my hometown team would skate out onto the ice to, eliciting rapturous applause from the rabid (make that psychotic) fan base. But the more I heard it, the more I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was a “meh”-to-lousy track. Call it oversaturation or my brain simply rebelling against another manufactured request for a dopamine release, but at some point in my teens, I flipped. I was off the “Fix You” bandwagon.
This brings me to X&Y, the band’s 2005 release that became the biggest-selling album of that year, with over 13 million units sold to date. The good news is this record has some incredible sonic detail. The arrangements are more intricate, and the various elements, mainly Jonny Buckland’s guitar, are given more space to shine in the mix. Also, lots of synths, which was a new thing for them. The bad news: at a little over an hour long, the back half gets thuddingly repetitive.
What fascinated me most was the lyrical angle, which sees Martin grappling with doomed romantic endeavors post-Paltrow marriage. The spooky “The Hardest Part” is among the most gut-wrenching tunes he’s ever written.
7. Moon Music (2024)
Maybe the most interesting thing about Moon Music, the 10th studio album Coldplay released, is how they’ve fully embraced who they are sonically and culturally, no matter how uncool that may seem. Chris Martin’s press junket appearances ahead of the album’s release were extremely telling, which saw him defending the group’s brand of unwavering positivity. “If you were allowed to be yourself, would the world be as aggressive as it is?” he asked in a New Yorker interview where the band’s music was branded as “self-help pop,” which sounds like a compliment and a put-down at the same time.
This collection of songs was an intriguing, if uneven, listen. The styles can be divided into two distinct categories: Coldplay’s typical brand of piano or call-and-response-driven stadium anthems and more celestial-sounding ambient electronica. The latter category features an opening track featuring genre legend Jon Hopkins, a flex of an inclusion on its own. But, despite highlights like “Jupiter” and “Aeterna,” I wanted more.
I wanted Coldplay to lean into the ambient side and serve up another slice of unexpected brilliance (a notion I’ll explore more shortly). I wanted them to remember their strengths more consistently and resist the pull of oversaturated ensemble tracks. But, even at a brisk 43 minutes, the group leaves you with a mixed bag that teases more than it satisfies.
6. Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008)
This Coldplay album was the one I had the foggiest memory of going into this exercise, so I’ll admit to cheating and reading the personnel credits before listening. I was intrigued. With credited producers such as ambient wizard Jon Hopkins and the godfather of experimental art-rock, Brian Eno, I braced myself for a record that went to more exciting places than lead single, “Viva La Vida,” which is just okay. It certainly was (insert diplomatic, trying-not-to-hurt-anyone’s-feelings pause) interesting.
If I had to sum Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends up in a single word, it would be “scattershot.” Maybe “unfinished” or “unpolished.” It has some redeeming moments, like the trickling synth work on “Life in Technicolor” and the wonderfully built harmonies on the closer “Death and All His Friends.” However, a lot of the execution sounds half-baked. Tracks like “42” and “Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love” unfold like those movies that can’t decide which moment they want to end on, so they leave all three or four possible denouments in and let the audience choose for themselves. It’s a pet peeve of mine, but it may not annoy you as much.
Viva’s tracks explore new, riskier territory for the band. I wish there had been more of a payoff.
5. A Head Full of Dreams (2015)
Well, the experimentation of Ghost Stories was fun while it lasted.
A Head Full of Dreams dropped less than two years after Ghost Stories and, sonically and spiritually, felt like a bit of a market correction. It’s as if the band got in a room with producers and label reps and said, “Okay, that experimental thing we did, it’s out of our system now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.” You can hear Coldplay grasping at the formulaic strands they deployed to good effect on Mylo Xyloto, pushing genre pastiches as far into the euphoria zone as possible.
At times, it really works, too. “Adventure of a Lifetime” is an outstanding disco-adjacent number that almost dares you not to move along to its infectious groove. “Everglow” benefits from putting Martin’s piano and vocals front and center in the mix, something the band’s gotten away from somewhat over time. All that said, there are a few head-scratchers, too, including the Bey-assisted cut, “Hymn For the Weekend.” It was the first time in this listening exercise that I rolled my eyes as the song ended. As catchy as it is, it’s still assembly-line pop at its core.
4. A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002)
Since Coldplay’s meteoric rise to fame, the comparisons to Radiohead have followed the band around, for better and worse. The head-to-head doesn’t do either group’s goals and style justice, but if there’s a record where the comparisons are warranted, it’s A Rush of Blood to the Head. Like parts of Radiohead’s 90s releases, especially OK Computer, this is brooding alt-rock full of existential dread, paranoia, and cynicism, a prevailing mood that Coldplay hasn’t been too eager to return to, despite Blood selling over 17 million copies.
The opener, “Politik,” is one of the best examples of this dynamic at work, as Martin commands the listener to “open up your eyes” to what’s really going on around you (some helpful context: the song was recorded only two days after 9/11). “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face,” and the seething title track continues in this vein, though I’m not sure the record holds up completely under its ambitions. Martin had definitely grown as a songwriter since Parachutes, but a few of these tracks meander and become a bit frustrating due to a lack of focus.
Thankfully, the high points far outweigh those duds.
3. Mylo Xyloto (2011)
Listener reaction to Mylo Xyloto upon its release ranged from confusion to downright disdain. Many point to this record as the precise moment when Coldplay threw whatever ambition they’d displayed on Viva out the window and entirely sold out to the pop music machine. I’m not saying that distinction is incorrect, but I will say the sneers are misplaced. Yes, this is on the poppier side of the pop-rock spectrum, but it’s also admirably constructed and, occasionally, quite beautiful.
The best moments are the ones that come through in the sharpest, most vibrant technicolor. “Hurts Like Heaven” is a gorgeous little synth-pop diddy, while “Charlie Brown,” with its joyous and deceptively complex melody, may be the group’s most underrated song. The other singles are a mixed bag, though “Princess of China” has grown on me. More surprising was the quality of the deeper cuts. “Major Minus” is a nice guitar-driven throwback to their earlier indie-rock days, while “Up With the Birds” is a widescreen closer that boasts writing credits from Brian Eno and Leonard Cohen (!).
In short, I low-key loved Mylo. It features some of the band’s catchiest, most impressive arena-ready songs.
2. Parachutes (2000)
You’d never know that Parachutes was still part of Coldplay’s discography going on the band’s public acknowledgment of its existence. Martin is on record describing it as “terrible music,” and the only recent concert inclusion from that release is its biggest hit, “Yellow.” Despite all the nostril-flaring at its mention, what if I told you that Parachutes was solid, if not downright good?
Over the years, the one knock against it (and, overall, much of the group’s output) has been its simplistic songwriting, and I can’t argue that. However, like Ed Sheeran, that doesn’t mean Martin and co. aren’t capable of writing some gorgeous Britpop. In addition to “Yellow,” “Trouble,” and the closer “Everything’s Not Lost” are melodic standouts. But, even better than that trio of cuts is “Shiver,” with hypnotic guitars cascading over an urgent backbeat that perfectly underscores the singer’s passionate performance.
As someone with vivid memories of what alternative rock sounded like at the turn of the 21st century, Parachutes may sound better with hindsight than it did when it was first released.
1. Ghost Stories (2014)
Words I never thought I’d associate with Coldplay’s music include “haunting” or “fragile.” But here I am, about to use those very terms to describe Ghost Stories.
Released after the two-year Mylo Xyloto tour, this LP is a moody, indigo-colored turn that pares back Coldplay’s more grandiose aesthetic to impressive effect. Producer Paul Epworth, who’s worked with the likes of Adele and The Weeknd, said the group came to him with an almost-finished project, and he helped lend some direction. In his words, the goal was to “avoid going for any of their obvious clichés.” By weaving in elements like drum machines, off-beat guitar solos, and tons of vocal reverb, it’s safe to say they accomplished that mission.
It’s also worth mentioning that, despite his carefully worded explanations to the press, it’s clear this is Chris Martin’s divorce album. The inescapable regret and remorse on tracks like “Always in My Head,” “Magic,” and the devastating “Oceans” are personal to the point of sounding like you’re reading the uncensored parts of someone’s diary (or therapy session transcript). That raw edge also raises the dramatic stakes beyond anything the group released before or since.
In short, it’s excellent (well, minus “A Sky Full of Stars,” their derivative EDM hit that’s so out of place in this LP that it’s kind of laughable). Well worth anyone’s time, especially the haters.
Which Coldplay album or song is your favorite? Sound off in the comments!
Your ranking made me not want to listen the new album
Parachutes is still one of my favorite Coldplay albums. This may be due to nostalgia, but I don't believe that's the reason why I love it so much... I think it's a great album in general.