21 years ago today, Coldplay released “Fix You.” It still sucks.
Chris Martin wrote a ballad so emotionally manipulative it’s been played at sports montages, charity galas, and every reality TV elimination since 2007. The organ intro is a push notification for tears. You don’t feel anything when “Fix You” plays — your nervous system is being mugged by a chord progression that has been A/B tested by every TV producer on the planet. The song isn’t even sad. It’s a man who married Gwyneth Paltrow singing “lights will guide you home” like he’s writing fortune cookies for airport bookshops. Grey’s Anatomy used it in a season finale and that is exactly the career trajectory it earned.
Meanwhile, in the same year, music that actually moved people was coming out of basements and warehouses and bedroom studios, and none of it needed to pickpocket your emotions with a string section to do it. Here’s what you should listen to instead — five tracks from 2005 that didn’t need a key change to make you feel something: