Composition
Recording the album after the 11 September attacks gave the band a fresh perspective: "The new songs are reflective of new attitudes. not to be frightened. Anybody can achieve whatever they want to." Most of the song lyrics are about urgency. Martin has commented that previous songs were more relaxed since they were in a comfortable state of mind: "Perhaps there's a bit more urgency on some of these songs. And that's born from all the places we've been and the things we've experienced." Martin has explained, in relation to the theme of urgency, that the album's title means "doing something on impulse". Several songs on the album are about relationships. These tracks are based on reality, but according to Martin, they were written with a fictional twist: "Songs are like fairy tales: they have a beginning and an end and you can make it all work perfectly. Real life doesn't work like that".
The album includes ballads and acoustic songs featuring extensive use of guitar and piano. The U2-esque "epic rock" of the album's opening track "Politik", the piano-driven "Clocks", and the loud guitars of "A Whisper" were seen as an extension of the band's musical range. Chris Martin has stated that the album's title track is an homage to American singer-songwriter Johnny Cash, whom he considered one of "the greatest ... men with just guitars".
The song "Green Eyes" was written by Chris Martin for two people: an "American friend" and bandmate, Jonny Buckland.
Read more about this topic: A Rush Of Blood To The Head
Famous quotes containing the word composition:
“I live in the angle of a leaden wall, into whose composition was poured a little alloy of bell-metal. Often, in the repose of my mid-day, there reaches my ears a confused tintinnabulum from without. It is the noise of my contemporaries.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Modern Western thought will pass into history and be incorporated in it, will have its influence and its place, just as our body will pass into the composition of grass, of sheep, of cutlets, and of men. We do not like that kind of immortality, but what is to be done about it?”
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“At painful times, when composition is impossible and reading is not enough, grammars and dictionaries are excellent for distraction.”
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