Pitchfork

The rehabilitation of Coldplay's reputation has been one of the more curious rock stories of the year. Frequent punching bags for their earnest, nice-guy pop, Coldplay shrugged the lazy comparisons and slowly turned into the little rock engine that could, plugging away and eroding doubts and sourpuss looks, and running laps around damn-near-forgotten former contemporaries such as Travis and Starsailor. What's done it for me is both a) listening to their songs late at night while very drunk, b) the electro-house remixes.

The gilded vocal rock star has been an increasingly more common dancefloor star ever since Armand met Tori, and Coldplay's Chris Martin is among the more frequently remixed stars. On their Trembling Heart remix, Röyksopp repeat the wistful, longing electropop trick they gave The Streets' "Weak Become Heroes"-- although not quite that successfully. Amplifying Martin's yearning for home and matching a soaring, vaguely retro rhythm to his towering vocal melody, the Norwegians have turned guilt-free sentimentalism into a dewy-eyed gem.