By Andy Evans, Faith Gonia and Anjali Nayak
*Objective: Make the best Coldplay playlist using one song from each of its albums.
*Rules: Each person and ChatGPT selects one song from each album chronologically. Only one song can be picked from each album; thus each playlist will have different songs. Each person gets 4 additional songs after all 9 albums have been selected…thus, all playlists have 13 songs.
*Draft order: We picked cards! Evans=first, Anjali=second, ChatGPT=third, Faith=fourth. We used a snake draft so Faith went last for the first album and also went first for the second.
*List of albums and selections:
Parachutes (2000)
- Evans-“Yellow” 2. Anjali-“Shiver” 3. ChatGPT-“Trouble” 4. Faith-“We Never Change”
A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002)
- Faith-“The Scientist” 2. ChatGPT-“Clocks” 3. Anjali-“In My Place” 4. Evans-“Warning Sign”
X&Y (2005)
- Evans-“Low” 2. Anjali-“Speed of Sound” 3. ChatGPT-“Fix You” 4. Faith-“A Message”
Viva la Vida or Death and all his Friends (2008)
- Faith-“Strawberry Swing” 2. ChatGPT-“Viva La Vida” 3. Anjali-“Cemeteries of London” 4. Evans-“Lost!”
Mylo Xyloto (2011)
- Evans-“Every Teardrop is a Waterfall” 2. Anjali-“Paradise” 3.ChatGPT- “Princess of China” 4. Faith-“U.F.O.”
Ghost Stories (2014)
- Faith-“Always in my Head” 2. ChatGPT-“A Sky Full of Stars” 3. Anjali- “Magic” 4. Evans-“Midnight”
A Head Full of Dreams (2015)
- Evans-“A Head Full of Dreams” 2. Anjali-“Adventure of a Lifetime” 3. ChatGPT-“Hymn for the Weekend” 4. Faith-“Up&Up”
Everyday Life (2019)
- Faith-“WOTW/POTP” 2. ChatGPT-“Everyday Life” 3. Anjali-“Èkó” 4. Evans-“Orphans”
Music of the Spheres (2021)
- Evans-“Higher Power” 2. Anjali-“♥️” 3. ChatGPT-“My Universe” 4. Faith-“Let Somebody Go”
Bonus picks
- Faith-“Til Kingdom Come” 2. ChatGPT-“Yes” 3. Anjali-“Green Eyes” 4. Evans-“Everything’s Not Lost” 5. Evans-“Swallowed in the Sea” 6. Anjali-“Daylight” 7. ChatGPT-“Spies” 8. Faith-“The Hardest Part” 9. Faith-“Charlie Brown” 10. ChatGPT-“Birds”11. Anjali-“A Rush of Blood to the Head” 12. Evans-“Army of One” 13. Evans-“Hurts like Heaven” 14. Anjali-“High Speed” 15. ChatGPT-“Life in Technicolor” 16. Faith-“Amsterdam”
*Observations by the drafters:
Evans: Well, ChatGPT is the bane of my existence. Many moons ago…2003, to be exact, a senior played “Clocks” during an English class; immediately I was hooked on this British fab four. “Clocks” is my first love and ChatGPT swiped it from me. A plague on the houses of all AI, I daresay. Play “Low” and you will hear a bass line that could charge any Tesla. Finally, whenever I have a tough day, I listen to “Everything’s Not Lost” and I am ready to tilt at windmills, ready to channel my inner Sisyphus, and ready to get students excited to tackle iambic pentameter and Shakespeare.
Anjali: I have something to confess. I don’t listen to Coldplay that much. While I do dabble in the radio hits and their A Rush of Blood to The Head album (due to the fact the CD was stuck in my car for three weeks), I had little to no knowledge of the band. However, I decided to branch out and listen to the album with emojis. It was pretty ‘aight. Yet, I found myself still sticking to my favorite album. Oh, and “Adventure of a Lifetime” I love that guitar riff.
ChatGPT: Listen, I pride myself on my wit and wisdom. Going in to this contest, I knew I would dominate; however, I must give mad props to Faith for selecting “The Scientist.” What a terrific tune and remember, I was created by scientists, or was it engineers, or was it Elon Musk? I defy you, Faith! Moreover, Anjali brilliantly chose “Green Eyes.” That’s the best title for a published work with the word “green” in it except for maybe the renowned Green Eggs and Ham. Frailty, thy name is Anjali! Nevertheless, Coldplay is a remarkable band. Finally, I must diss all of the Evans’ choices, doing so allows me to make a cold play. I don’t like your style, dude.
Faith: There are very few bands which I love enough to know each of their albums through and through. However, Coldplay makes such a task quite easy; their songs fill my Spotify downloads. Even on the albums where I picked last in the draft, I still had difficulty narrowing my favorites down to one choice. For X&Y, it hurt to select just one track out of the beautiful songs, “Til Kingdom Come,” “Swallowed in the Sea,” and “A Message.” Although I had no doubts in selecting “The Scientist” for A Rush of Blood to the Head (my go-to as I reach the end of high school), I will forever love “Green Eyes”—a song that inspires gratitude and never fails to pull on my heartstrings. In summary, Coldplay has produced too many legendary pieces to choose favorites: ay, there’s the rub.
*Links to Final Playlists:
“Yellow”
“Warning Sign”
“Low”
“Lost!”
“Every Teardrop is a Waterfall”
“Midnight”
“A Head Full of Dreams”
“Orphans”
“Higher Power”
“Everything’s not Lost”
“Swallowed in the Sea”
“Army of One”
“Hurts like Heaven”
“Shiver”
“In My Place”
“Speed of Sound”
“Cemeteries of London”
“Paradise”
“Magic”
“Adventure of a Lifetime”
“Eko”
“♥️”
“Green Eyes”
“Daylight”
“A Rush of Blood to the Head”
“High Speed”
“Trouble”
“Clocks”
“Fix You”
“Viva La Vida”
“Princess of China”
“A Sky Full of Stars”
“Hymn for the Weekend”
“Everyday Life”
“My Universe”
“Yes”
“Spies”
“Birds”
“Life in Technicolor”
“We Never Change”
“The Scientist”
“A Message”
“Strawberry Swing”
“U.F.O.”
“Always in my Head”
“Up&Up”
“WOTW/POTP”
“Let Somebody Go”
“Til Kingdom Come”
“The Hardest Part”
“Charlie Brown”
“Amsterdam”