When Coldplay sampled Kraftwerk on their third album, X & Y was a signifier for the British band, telegraphing their classicist good taste while signaling how they prefer the eternally hip to the real adventure was elegant façade of soft sand rock. The hiring of Brian Eno to produce the bulk of their fourth album, is another matter entirely. Eno pushes, not necessarily to experiment but to refine the approach and not to leave their comfort zone but to find some tremulous discomfort within it. In their hands, more serious aspect of this band to shake things up, albeit politely, but such good manners are so inherent to Coldplay's DNA that they remain courteous even when they experiment. With its big-budget production, Eno has a gift for amplification of the personality of an artist, allowing the bands to be as risky as they want to be - which is fairly in the case of U2 and James and Paul Simon, but is not so much with Coldplay. And yet this gentle encouragement - which is almost a kindly uncle to his nephews permission to rummage through his study - pays great dividends for Coldplay, as the winds of change in the specifics without altering the kernel.
