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Talk (Coldplay song)

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"Talk"
Song
B-side"Gravity", "Sleeping Sun"

"Talk" is a song recorded by English rock band Coldplay and originally released as the fifth track on their third album X&Y, released in June 2005. In December 2005, the song was released as the third single from that album, becoming a substantial hit across the world (see 2005 in music). In the United Kingdom, "Talk" entered the UK Singles Chart at #10 (see 2005 in British music), and elsewhere in the world its success varied: it reached #1 in the Netherlands' Dutch Top 40 and the top five in Canada's BDS chart. Both the song and its "Thin White Duke" remix were nominated for the 2007 Grammy Awards, the latter of which won.

Background

Coldplay received permission from the electronic music band Kraftwerk to use the main riff from their song "Computer Love" (German version: "Computerliebe"), from their 1981 studio LP Computer World (German version: Computerwelt), for "Talk", replacing Kraftwerk's synthesizers with guitars. Subsequently mash-up artist RIAA combined "Computer Love" with "Talk" to create the song "Kraftplay". Presciently the I Love Music website had humorously imagined the results of such a collaboration[1] several months before it appeared.

The band recorded three separate versions of "Talk"; the one found on X&Y was based on an early cut of the song. A newer version of the track (with a different set of lyrics) was leaked onto the internet in March 2005. "Talk" was originally intended to be a b-side for the single "Speed of Sound" before becoming the last addition to X&Y's track listing.

This song was performed live at the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards on 3 November in Lisbon, Portugal and live at the 2006 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, United States.

"Gravity", the single's b-side, was originally written by Chris Martin for the British band Embrace, and is found on their album Out of Nothing. The song charted at number seven in the UK. Many editions of the single also included "Sleeping Sun" as a second b-side.

The song was also used as the basis of a downloadable hoax track entitled "Talk to David" [2] produced as an April Fools Day prank by the UK The Guardian newspaper. This featured lyrics purporting to give support to Conservative opposition party leader David Cameron [3].

Chart performance

By mid-October, "Talk" had been added to the playlists of twenty-six U.S. alternative rock stations. Stations that offered early airtime to "Talk" include KTCL (Denver), WEND (Charlotte), KNDD (Seattle), KUCD (Honolulu), WFNX (Boston) and z103.5 in Toronto.

A month later, "Talk" was being supported by sixty-one U.S. alternative rock stations. On 18 November 2005, the single debuted at number thirty-two on the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks chart. "Talk" peaked at number five on the chart, a significant improvement from the performance of "Fix You", and matching that of "Speed of Sound".

On 31 December 2005, it "bubbled under" the Hot 100. It finally charted on the Billboard Hot 100 on 25 February 2006 and peaked at number eighty-six.

By then, the song had gained additional exposure in other genres. "Talk" reached number ten on the Adult Top 40, which covers Hot Adult Contemporary music. It topped the Hot Dance Club Play chart as "Talk (Junkie XL/Francois K/J. Lu Cont Mixes)".

It reached number four on the Canadian Singles Chart in late 2005 and topped the Canadian BDS Airplay Chart for four weeks in early 2006.

Music video

File:ColdplayTalkVideo.png
The "Talk" music video is a homage to B-grade sci-fi movies.

The music video for "Talk" was helmed by director/photographer Anton Corbijn. Corbijn had previously directed the video for "All These Things That I've Done" by The Killers.

Filming took place on November 5 and November 6 at Ealing Studios, London, just before the band began an European leg on the Twisted Logic Tour. The black-and-white clip invokes a B-movie science fiction theme, with imagery ranging from a flying saucer to 3D glasses.

It seems the entire video can in fact be viewed in three dimensions using Anaglyphic 3D glasses like the ones worn by the band. Due to the red (left eye) and blue (right eye) edges that define a stereoscopic image. However the effect is subtle and best appreciated with a high resolution version.[citation needed]

The main plot line of the music video features Coldplay as astronauts landing on an alien planet, where they re-activate a dormant robot. The robot in the video bears a strong physical resemblance to the original Marvin the Paranoid Android from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy television series. (The robot also more closely resembles the robot from The Beastie Boy's song Intergalactic, and also possibly the robot Torg from the 60's B-movie Santa Claus Conquers The Martians) A previous Coldplay track, "Don't Panic" also referenced the series with its title. At one point of the clip, subtitles present the lyrics of the song spelt backwards just like in the video for "No Surprises" by Radiohead. At the very end of the video, there is whistling that resembles The Clangers.

The video was extremely popular in Poland. It spent thirteen weeks at number one on MTV Poland Top 20 Chart and 47 out of 50 days (because it was retired) at number one on TRL Poland.

A coded message for Make Trade Fair, one of the band's chief charitable causes, is supposedly hidden to robot's control button scheme, in the X&Y code. [citation needed]

Track listings

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In the UK

  1. "Talk" (radio edit) – 4:29
  • 7" R6679
  1. "Talk" (radio edit) – 4:29
  2. "Gravity" – 6:12
  • CD CDR6679
  1. "Talk" (radio edit) – 4:29
  2. "Sleeping Sun" – 3:09
  • DVD DVDR6679
  1. "Talk" (radio edit) – 4:29
  2. "Gravity" – 6:12
  3. "Speed of Sound" (video)
  4. "Talk" (video)
  5. Behind-the-scenes footage from "Talk" video shoot
  1. "Talk" (Thin White Duke mix) – 8:27
  2. "Talk" (Francois K Dub) – 9:04
  3. "Talk" (Junkie XL mix) – 11:45

In The Netherlands

A special three part single was released over three weeks in December featuring live tracks recorded at the Gelredome in 2005.

  1. "Talk" (radio edit)
  2. "Swallowed In the Sea" (live)
  3. "God Put A Smile Upon Your Face" (live)
  1. "Talk" (album version)
  2. "Square One" (live)
  3. "Clocks" (live)
  1. "Talk" (live)
  2. "'Til Kingdom Come" (live)
  3. "Fix You" (live)

In Australia

  1. "Talk" (radio edit) – 4:29
  2. "Sleeping Sun" – 3:09
  3. "Gravity" – 6:12

In Canada and Japan

  1. "Talk" (radio edit) – 4:29
  2. "Sleeping Sun" – 3:09

In the U.S.

  1. "Talk" (edit) - 4:05
  2. "Talk" (album version) - 5:12
  1. "Talk" (Junkie XL mix) – 11:45
  2. "Talk" (Francois K Dub) – 9:04
  3. "Talk" (Thin White Duke mix) – 8:27

Other cover images

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