Charlie Brown

Opens with a guitar line that immediately suggests velocity and expansion — Coldplay in their arena-filling mode but retaining the melodic tenderness that keeps their bombast from collapsing into noise. Chris Martin's vocal is warmer and more playful than his usual searching tone, riding a rhythm that genuinely bounces. Lyrically the song reaches for freedom through the lens of a beloved literary character, a metaphor that shouldn't work as well as it does for the sheer infectious enthusiasm of the delivery. The production is layered without being cluttered, Brian Eno's atmospheric touch still evident in the way the reverb creates a sense of open air around even the densest arrangements. The song works as a running song, a driving-on-a-clear-day song, a song for the moment when a long spell of heaviness finally breaks and the body remembers what lightness feels like. Pure, unironic uplift.