IT MUST HAVE BEEN LIKE THE LOSS OF INNOCENCE

Chris Martin has made a shock discovery: EMI is, like, a corporation: they even wanted to pay him a bonus for on-time delivery:

"Deadlines be damned. It was all to do with fiscal years and shareholders anyway. Once we forgot about the money we were free to push ourselves to the very limits and make the best album possible."

What seems to be interesting is not that they didn't deliver to deadline, but didn't start to make the album they wanted until they'd already lost the bonus. It's like a bankrupt suddenly discovering communism.

Chris hasn't quite grasped his maths, either:

Explaining the album's title Martin said: "X and Y is the mathematical formula used when you don't know the answer. But, it's also like black and white, or hope and despair, or optimism and pessimism. Everywhere you look there's a tension of opposites."

Eh? X and Y aren't a formula; they're a pair of mathematical symbols used to denote an unknown quantity. And they don't have a black-and-white tension, either; there's also z, for example. He seems to have confused both 'unknown quantity' with 'not knowing the answer' and Alpha and Omega with x and y. Indeed, how can X and Y stand for a tension of opposites when their whole point is that nobody knows what they stand for at all. In future interviews, Chris, try claiming that the album title is about the way the world is full of unknowns. That at least might make some sense.

Chris is worried that he might not be a good songwriter:

"I still spend at least 60 per cent of my time thinking `I can't write songs.' I don't see myself as brilliantly talented, but lucky to have met the right combination of people who fit together like a jigsaw so you can't see our individual shortcomings."

So, you're spending six hours out of every ten thinking you can't write songs - well, that explains what the problem is: you're having to rush your songwriting into the remaining four, aren't you?

By the way, Chris: You know you think we can't see your shortcomings? You're probably right, we can't. But boy, can we hear them...

music chris martin coldplay