X&Y  by Coldplay

The main question that Chris Martin and his band, Coldplay, had to answer in the mid-2000s was what to do when your first two albums have achieved international recognition and acclaim, with each album exceeding 10,000,000 copies in sales. The answer given with X&Y in 2005 was simple: you create yet another album that has the same impact as the previous two albums.

The recordings for X&Y lasted from January 2004 to January of the following year. The album was recorded and prepared in various studios in both England and the USA. The producers of the album were Ken Nelson, Danton Supple, and of course, the members of Coldplay themselves. The band actually recorded the album three times (!), meaning that what one hears is the "third" album they wrote with the same songs. The reason was that Coldplay were not 100% satisfied with Ken Nelson's production.

X&Y reached No. 1 in most countries. Its sales were incredibly high for a time when downloading had made its appearance in a dynamic way. If an album by a British band sells 400,000 copies in France and another 600,000 in Germany, it is entirely logical and expected in the United Kingdom to approach 3,000,000 and become nine times platinum (!)