X&Y

X&Y is the third studio album by the British rock band Coldplay. It was released on 6 June 2005 by Parlophone in the United Kingdom, and a day later by Capitol in the United States. Produced by Coldplay and producer Danton Supple, the album was recorded during a turbulent period for the band, during which their manager and creative director, Phil Harvey, briefly departed. Producer Ken Nelson was originally tasked with producing the record; however, many songs written during his sessions were discarded due to the band's dissatisfaction with them. The album's cover art combines colours and blocks to represent the title in Baudot code.

The album contains twelve tracks, divided into respective halves labeled "X" and "Y", and an additional hidden song, "Til Kingdom Come", which is listed as "+" on the disc label and inside the record's booklet. It was originally planned for American country star Johnny Cash to record it with lead singer Chris Martin, but Cash died before he was able to do so. At a runtime of 62 minutes and 30 seconds, it is Coldplay's longest studio album.

After facing high anticipation globally, X&Y received positive reviews overall and was a significant commercial success, reaching the number-one position on the charts of 32 countries, including the United Kingdom (where it had the third-highest sales week in history at the time) and the United States (where it became Coldplay's first album to top the Billboard 200 chart). With 8.3 million copies sold worldwide, X&Y was the best-selling album of 2005, eventually becoming one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century with over 13 million units sold by December 2012. It spawned the singles "Speed of Sound", "Fix You", "Talk" and "The Hardest Part". Despite its success, the band's opinion of the album has soured over time, largely due to the turbulent dynamic they experienced during recording, as well as their disappointment in the final product.

Coldplay announced details about X&Y in March 2004 while the album was being recorded. Their initial plans were to stay out of the public eye throughout the year. Lead singer Chris Martin stated, "We really feel that we have to be away for a while and we certainly won't release anything this year, because I think people are a bit sick of us." This plan was not carried out, because of the pressure their second album A Rush of Blood to the Head had induced; but they were trying "to make the best thing that anyone has ever heard". Prior to the announcement, Martin, lead guitarist Jonny Buckland and British record producer Ken Nelson had started recording demos while in Chicago. The band then entered a London studio in January 2004.

The band spent all of 2004 producing X&Y. The released album is the third version the band had produced during the recording sessions, and some have even considered it as their fifth album due to constant changes in track lists and re-recordings. The band members were not satisfied with the output of their initial sessions with Nelson, who had produced the band's previous two albums, Parachutes (2000) and A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002). It also remains the only Coldplay album in which they had been through the creative process without Phil Harvey's "presence, influence and guidance".

The initial set release date was late 2004, but was later pushed back to January 2005. As the new target date was approaching, the band again discarded songs, which they deemed "flat" and "passionless". Sixty songs were written during these sessions, fifty-two of which were ditched. The band started rehearsing the songs for a planned tour, but felt the songs sounded better live compared to their recorded versions: "We realized that we didn't really have the right songs and some of them were starting to sound better because we were playing them than they did on record, so we thought we better go back and record them again." Guitarist Jonny Buckland has said that the band had pushed themselves "forward in every direction" in making the album, but they felt it sounded like they were going backwards compared to their earlier works.

Attempting to perfect their work, Coldplay had to "step it up a few notches and work hard at it to get it right". The band chose Danton Supple, who mixed the bulk of A Rush of Blood to the Head, to oversee the production of X&Y. When January went, the band had to finish the album; they were conscious of the pressure as "expectations for the record grew larger" and "completing it became tougher and tougher". Finally, the band were settled with the song "Square One", which Martin has described as "a call to arms" and a "plea" to each of them "not to be intimidated by anything or anyone else". Once finished, the band felt like they could do their own songs and not have to think of anyone else's demands. During this month, the band were into the final weeks of production and had put the finishing touches on the tracks.

Drummer Will Champion later admitted that Coldplay did not rush to complete the album "because the prospect of touring again was so daunting that we felt we should take our time, and also we wanted to make sure that it was the best it could possibly be". According to him, the band had no deadline, which allowed them not to feel pressured into finishing something. Once a proper deadline was imposed onto the band, they became more productive than in previous sessions. At this juncture, the band had written "about 14 or 15 songs". Martin added that the reason why they ended up late was that they "... kept [adding] finishing [touches to] the record until it was way too late ... [they] don't listen to it at the moment, because [they would] just find something to go back and change." The late release of the album was blamed for a drop in EMI's share price. In response, Chris Martin said "I don't really care about EMI. I think shareholders are the great evil of this modern world."