2 - Coldplay – “Violet Hill”

When released as a free download on the band's website, “Violet Hill” was grabbed by more than two million fans in the week before its commercial release. It was a sign of the strength of anticipation waiting to greet Viva la Vida..., and proved to the public, and to EMI's shareholders, that the album was worth the wait. The band reported that the song had actually existed for a while, and looked likely to be left off of the new album until Creative Manager and 'secret fifth member' Phil Harvey urged them to dust it off and include it in the album sessions.

“Violet Hill” reportedly boasts Coldplay's favourite video too, which took the band out to Sicily for the region's mountains and grand, crumbling homes. A second video was also released, in which footage of the band lurching before camera on top of Mount Etna is interspersed with footage of politicians dancing and military atrocities. It is a truly bizarre combination, but one that works well for the staunchly politicised group. Alongside the song's lyrics decrying the “carnival of idiots” running the world it combines to make a strong, if oblique, statement against war.