Coldplay heating up the charts

Coldplay's Chris Martin (right) and John Buckland.

(CNN) -- Coldplay's latest offering, "A Rush of Blood to the Head," has rushed to the top of the charts.

At last count, the British group's second album hit No. 1 in twelve countries: from Hong Kong to Iceland, from Switzerland to Australia.

That's quite a warm reception for a group known for its chilling, melancholic tunes, such as last year's mega-mellow hit, "Yellow."

Released last month, "A Rush of Blood to The Head" signals a new musical and lyrical path for Coldplay. Featuring experimental interludes meshed with hard-edge guitar riffs, it's far more rock-heavy than the band's 2001 Grammy-winning debut, "Parachutes."

However, the first single off the album, "In My Place," proves that lead singer Chris Martin's trademark ethereal falsetto remains very much part of the Coldplay sound.

"(This album is) a product of all the things (we've experienced) since "Parachutes" came out," said Martin. "It has different sounds on it and different songs but it's still got the same priorities of melody and emotion."

Coldplay recently came out to play with The Music Room and talked about its new album.

TMR: How close did you get to accomplishing that goal of making the perfect album?

Martin: "Sometimes you need to be told what's wrong with you to improve. So we really appreciated people telling us what's wrong with us."

John Buckland (guitarist): I've got absolutely no regrets about this album. It's the best it could be. I think all of us put everything we could into it.

Martin: That doesn't necessarily mean it's good, though. It's just the best we could do!

TMR: After getting all of that critical acclaim for "Parachutes" and winning the awards, did you feel pressure with the sophomore effort?

Martin: The pressure we felt came from ourselves. It's the same thing that's driven us since the first day when we all sat down and played together. We all get really excited about songs, and when we have a new song that we're really excited about, we put pressure on ourselves to record it properly. We don't think about how many people are going to like it or possibly buy it. We just wanted to make the best possible thing ever, and we wanted to do that five years ago when we first met.

TMR: How do you think that "A Rush of Blood to the Head" differs from "Parachutes"?

Martin: It's not easy to answer because we found it hard enough to describe our first album, and we find it even harder describing our new album. And hence, comparing them is like a double whammy of difficulty. It was the best thing we could do at the time, and that's how we felt about the first record.

It reflects the fact that we're into slightly different music and we've done slightly different things. It's a product of all the things since "Parachutes" came out. It's got different sounds on it and different songs. But it's still got the same priorities of melody and emotion.

TMR: Do you think this album's a little harder?

Martin: It's definitely a bit harder because that's what we're into these days. I was really scared to play electric guitar before, or to hit the piano really hard and Johnny's turned everything up to 11. We wanted to because that's what was exciting us. And maybe the next record we make we'll really be into the oboe, and it'll be an album full of oboe tunes.

TMR: Did you write all the lyrics and then did the band compose the music?

Martin: The way our songs happen is, well it's weird because the basic idea sometimes just comes to me. I don't know where it comes from. Half a song or a whole song will just come out on the piano or guitar. All the lyrics tend to just sort of arrive and then I take it to Johnny or to Guy or Will and then it gets put into the Coldplay machine. Then Johnny's riffs start going on and the drum beats. And then it becomes a Coldplay song and not just a Naf sub Elton John-type effort on my behalf. I do the lyrics and my melodies and stuff, but nothing's finished until we've all done our bit.

TMR: Were there different things that inspired you on this album versus on "Parachutes"?

Buckland: Certainly. Over the past few years we've gotten into a lot of different types of music and a lot of different bands that we've never been into before. One of the greatest opportunities that "Parachutes" gave us was to travel around the world and buy records.

Martin: And meet people that we think are really cool and talk to them about music. The opportunity to travel has really opened our eyes to lots of stuff that we didn't really know about before. Everything from fair trade stuff, to who the New York Yankees are; it's just like a big sponge of experience. I didn't have a clue where Alabama was a year ago and I didn't know what the capital of New Zealand was.

TMR: Were there certain musical influences that really stood out?

Buckland: I suppose the biggest thing that I don't think any of us really paid attention to before we started touring was country music. We kind of ignored it and then we came over here and this guy got us a bunch of records and we were listening to Johnny Cash ...

Martin: Hank Williams, Graham Parsons... but then things like Dr. Dre and Eminem and all that and then things like Nick Cave. Just anything. Some Edith Piaf. We thought after a while that just because we're middle-class white guys from England, it doesn't mean we only have to listen to middle-class white guy music. That was really liberating. We were thinking, "wow we can listen to anything from any time" whether it's Robert Johnson or Marilyn Manson.

TMR: That's pretty broad musical taste!

Martin: I'm just so excited about music. It's like a supermarket and you can eat what you like.

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