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Earlier this week, we asked readers to make a case for their favourite Coldplay album. Here are some of the reviews posted on to the dedicated album pages. If you'd like to find out how to review pretty much any album you can think of on guardian.co.uk/music, see here for details on how to do it.

LuHai on Parachutes

I was quite young when I first heard Yellow. I remember it vividly. I was taking a stroll outside my mother's shop in Hastings Old Town, and I heard a thunderous riff playing on the speakers of a jacket-potato restaurant. The oddly dissonant verses intrigued, but nothing grabbed. Then the chorus broke. And I was taken. Taken by that heavenly chorus, and it hit me in that direct way that is so rare now. I was 11.

Sometime later I bought the album, with its lustrous, romantic image of an orange globe, and slowly fell in love. It soundtracked nights of unrequited dreams, summery breezes, and the embered glow of my bedroom dimmer light. The album has a woody, warm, end-of-the-night quality, something on the cusp.

With a tenderly ambient production by Ken Nelson, it's a pleasure to hear the almost jazzy drumming of Will Champion and the thrum of the acoustic guitar. I never really paid attention to the words, only the mood that they created. Sparks and We Never Change sound like what a dwindling glass of red wine must feel like.

It's hard to pick favourites: it's like asking me to pick a favourite dripping on a Pollock painting; the whole mesmerises. Yellow and Trouble are the obvious centrepieces, the latter with its contemplative piano melody. Contemplation is a good description of the album's mood, and something I did a lot of in my early teens I suppose. Parachutes allowed me to get lost in their own bookending of the 90s – a transitional moment.

For me, Parachutes is perfect. The followup was very good. The next one all right. After that I just lost interest. The band never really moved on. It's hard when you peak on your debut. Chris Martin's gift for melody and a winning hook hasn't left him, but his devotion was never to the band. Parachutes is a record I can listen to in its entirety and one to which I can easily return. Its nostalgia and good songs are a reference point in my life.

I know it's easy to criticise Coldplay – all mums, MOR and so much talk of 'bones' and 'stars'. And I even tried to be a music critic, but I realised I can't. It would mean ravaging an album I hold dear, and one that I've loved for a long time.

cjpowell on A Rush of Blood to the Head

Chris Martin once said, 'I don't mind not being cool.' To be honest, neither do I, but being a Coldplay fan is not something that will keep you too far down the social pecking order.

When a band bursts on to the scene in the way Coldplay did with Parachutes, people are always excited at what will come next. Will they be one-hit wonders trying to relive the glorious days of Britpop, or will they succeed in releasing another major album on the musical landscape? With A Rush of Blood to the Head, Coldplay succeeded in the latter, and it is with this album that they began on the path to true greatness.

A Rush of Blood to the Head cemented the band's status in the development of alternative British rock, retaining the quintessential Coldplay sound we saw in Parachutes but showing a definite progression. Chris Martin's vocals, the driving piano and the familiar harmonies are all there, but A Rush of Blood to the Head demonstrated a sense of maturity and depth we had not seen before.

The opening track, Politik, provides a driving, imposing start, with Martin's distinctive vocals reverberating eerily above urgent piano chords. The second track, which was the first written after the success of Parachutes and sounding like a song that could easily have fitted in on that album, is a fantastic pop tune; In My Place is one of the tracks that justifies Coldplay's lasting status. God Put a Smile Upon Your Face shows the musicianship within the band, and the lead fills from Jonny Buckland highlight the track.

It's an album that just continues to give, with the melancholy tracks Daylight and A Whisper taking the listener on an exciting journey with repetitive choruses and hypnotic, violin-like guitar riffs. Martin sings the line 'Oh, my star is fading' in the fantastic album closer, Amsterdam, but how wrong he was: A Rush of Blood to the Head thrust the band further into the limelight.

They arrived on the scene with Yellow, which became an instant hit, but after A Rush of Blood to the Head they surpassed all they had done on Parachutes, creating great new British rock with some real emotion fused to it. With such great success and an album that remains timeless, if I were Chris Martin I don't think I would be too bothered about not being cool either.

oldworkboots on A Rush of Blood to the Head

Before the silly outfits and the wide-eyed staring into the camera, Coldplay – for the time it takes to listen to this album – were mighty. Now I've had enough. So has everyone else with good taste.

adamknott on Mylo Xyloto

Let's talk about the name, Mylo Xyloto, for a moment, because the fact that it's meaningless means everything. Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends was odd, definitely – it might even have required the use of a translator for some – but in spite of its ambiguity it still clung to a grounded idea. It had a touchstone, the military themes that Coldplay could revert to if all else failed, supported by their faux-revolutionary outfits and the paint scrawled knowingly over a Delacroix painting.

Mylo Xyloto, five albums into Coldplay's career, finally disregards all of the restraint and conscious meaning that has kept them tethered to the ground for so long, and finds an accidental purpose – the most beautiful kind. As though Viva La Vida had been the last comprehensible ramblings of an almost-insane person, Mylo Xyloto sees these once reserved (remember Parachutes?) pop stars lose it entirely. The Eno-inspired quirks that Viva La Vida showed off are delivered here with a sort of arrogance – just hear the overblown synths of Princess of China – and the euphoria that Lovers In Japan showcased pours out of practically every second melody.

Way back in 2002, Coldplay asked on Politik for 'love over this', a plea for the primal over the considered that has taken a decade to come properly to fruition. And while the band that wrote The Scientist have always been thought of as a pop band, Mylo Xyloto is a different sort of pop. It harbours a sense of abandon and overwhelming optimism, which creeps in on opening instrumental MX, peaks with the excesses of Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall and even infiltrates the down-tempo Up in Flames. Mylo Xyloto is a record that not only features Rihanna as a guest vocalist, but also declares that spot a favourite moment; it is unashamed in its populist leanings, finally, and that loss of control is palpable. Martin said after X&Y that Coldplay needed to get 'better, not bigger'. How about both?

MightySalami on Mylo Xyloto

I have a personal grudge against Coldplay, yet also a kind of admiration. A lot of my family comes from Exeter in Devon, which is the home city of Chris Martin, the watery–eyed vegan frontman of the band. For some reason, everyone in Exeter seems to absolutely love Coldplay. Everyone goes around humming Yellow. My cousin always seems to be playing Shiver in her car. Why? It really drives me mad.

But at the same time, I admire the fact that a band with such an annoying frontman, useless lead guitarist and inaudible bassist, who write such vague and nonsensical odes to whiny, feeble love affairs and inarticulate political malaise, have found a way to somehow become the world's best-selling band. How could they?

The album itself is comprised of maddeningly annoying vocals of 'who–oh-oh-oh' in pretty much every line, emotionally corrosive falsetto, super-saturated production, random weird electronic distortions of guitars, incompetent guitar work and hazy background fuzzing.

Personally, I think it's unbelievably pretentious, with minimal musical talent and very little substance, but an enormous improvement from X&Y, which was terrible.

This poll is now closed

Coldplaycontinues to tour behind its 2015 album, A Head Full of Dreams, bringing anthems like “Hymn For the Weekend” and the title track to life around the globe. Just as these new songs compete for fans’ attention alongside old hits like “Clocks” and “Viva La Vida,” we decided to put Coldplay’s catalog to the test and count down its best songs.

A Head Full of Dreams is a strong album, but for now, we think its songs need a little more time to sink in. Our list picks from Coldplay’s previous six LPs. Since their 2000 debut, Parachutes, the band was in a constant evolution of self-discovery via music. From the early tender ballads to the swirling piano anthems, to the experimental pop and even dance dreamscapes, here are the 10 best songs from Chris Martin and company.

10. “We Never Change”

Coldplay have evolved so much over the past 16 years and seven albums, it’s almost hard to recognize them as the four blokes behind Parachutes. Back then, they wore baggy cord pants and Clarks Chukka boots, not neon shirts covered in graffiti. But it’s the album that started it all, winning the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album and the BRIT for Best British Album. “Yellow,” of course, was the singalong megahit, but the LP is packed with gems. “We Never Change” is one of them. “I wanna live life and always be true / I wanna live life and be good to you,” Martin confesses. “I wanna live life and have friends around.” These are simple sentiments that appeal to perhaps everyone, and the ascending guitar twinkles deliver the ripples in your chest.

9. “Hurts Like Heaven”

For 2011’s Mylo Xyloto, Coldplay went in on the visual and storyline elements of the album. It’s an Orwellian drama about an authoritarian government out to destroy sound and color -- and the love story of two dissenters out to change the world. The visual aspects, from the cover to the tour production, are inspired by graffiti, featuring eye-popping displays of neons. Musically, it explores pop, R&B and electronica, and even features a guest appearance from Rihanna. But the highlight is this jittery track, which, says Martin, was written almost entirely by guitarist Jonny Buckland. After the 43-second title track intro, with shimmering xylophone and bleeps and bloops, 'Hurts Like Heaven' explodes like a Fourth of July night sky. Where Buckland usually provided textures and subtle layers, here, he’s a guitar god, riffing fluidly over Martin’s chanting and a propulsive beat. Thanks for this one, Jonny.

8. “Speed of Sound”

Like “Clocks” before it, this tune is prime mid-career Coldplay. It’s built around another catchy, looping piano riff and its driving drums, waves of guitar and rising synths build to a peak that makes the listener feel like they’re floating at, well, the speed of sound. It was the lead single from their third album, 2005’s X&Y, and was their most successful song to date, debuting at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, notching the band’s first Top 10 hit in the U.S.

7. “In My Place”

It’s a hallmark Coldplay song that’s both grand and sweeping and deceptively simple and universally understood. There’s the three-note atmospheric guitar riff, the arena-filling straight drum beat, and Martin’s introspective lyrics about your lot in life, expectations and realities aimed at everyone’s jugular: “In my place, in my place / Were lines that I couldn't change / I was lost, I was lost / Crossed lines I shouldn't have crossed.” Then, of course, comes the memorable chorus: “Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, how long must you wait for it?” The Rush of Blood to the Head single went on to win Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the 45th Grammy Awards and become a fan favorite and live staple.

6. “The Scientist”

'Nobody said it was easy / No one ever said it would be so hard.' On the second single from A Rush of Blood to the Head, Martin touches us all on what is perhaps Coldplay’s most touching ballad. It opens with a Martin solo at the piano, pleading about the complications of love: 'Come up to meet you / Tell you I'm sorry / You don't know how lovely you are.' Love, he suggests, will always be unexplainable by reason and logic: “Science and progress,” he sings, “do not speak as loud as my heart.' The band enters to build the song higher and higher, as Martin’s falsetto croons to the heavens.

5. “A Sky Full of Stars”

Evocative and universal sentiments of love and freedom pervade most of Coldplay’s music, but the band have experimented with the packaging on each and every album. On this track from their 2014 release, Ghost Stories, Coldplay are in full Ibiza mode -- the trance-like EDM beats and dramatic drops are like a dance-floor dopamine shower. Co-written and co-produced with EDM superstar Avicii, “A Sky Full of Stars” is the band’s first straight-up EDM/dance song, and they absolutely nail it.

4. “Viva La Vida”

Coldplay just knows its way around a memorable, emotionally moving melody. Here, the band ditches the tools they used to build their musical empire -- acoustic strumming, electric twinkles -- for grand string orchestration, harpsichord and booming marshal drums. As the title track and single from their fourth studio album, 2008’s Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends -- named after a Spanish phrase meaning 'Live the life' and featuring an album cover of a painting of a battle from the French Revolution -- the song sounds like Coldplay fronting the Paris orchestra circa 1789. It has that larger-than-life feeling, bolstered by Martin’s lyrics of mercenaries fighting in foreign fields, Roman cavalry and ruling the world. It’s Napoleon-approved, for sure. Viva also started the band’s ventures into album as art project -- the artwork, music and the onstage presentation (the band wore retro military outfits with colored arm bands) presented a cohesive work with themes of liberation, love, war and freedom, and “Viva La Vida” is its centerpiece. It worked: The Brian Eno-produced album debuted at No. 1 in 36 countries, became the year’s best-selling LP, and won the Best Rock Album Grammy.

3. “Sparks”

It’s an acoustic-driven, nostalgia-inducing track from their 2000 debut LP that ignites the sparklers in listeners’ hearts. Guy Berryman’s gentle, swaying bass melody leads, with Martin’s acoustic strumming as the backdrop on which Buckland adds star-shimmering electric guitar notes that sound like bells ringing in the ether. This gets our vote for Coldplay’s most beautiful song. It’s a love lullaby that captures what the band does best: move hearts.

2. “Green Eyes”

No matter the color of your sweetheart’s eyes, put this tune on for a makeout session that’ll turn your hearts to fondue. “Honey, you are a rock, on which I stand / I come here to talk, I hope you understand.” Oh, Chris, you’re so direct and unapologetically sappy -- and we love you for it. This acoustic ditty from their second album, 2002’s A Rush of Blood to the Head, is the epitome of Coldplay’s early days with its acoustic beginning and full-band crescendos. Anyone that tries to deny this song is, in Martin’s own words, out of their minds.

1. “Clocks”

This is the song that pushed Coldplay into new territory, artistically and commercially. Before, they staked their success on a tender, acoustic-driven sound with twinkling but spare electric guitar, all heavily indebted to ‘90s Britpop. But several songs on their second release, A Rush of Blood to the Head, start to color outside those lines. “Clocks” is based on an earworm, whistle-worth piano melody -- that’s been sampled countless times since -- and brings in charging bass as it builds and builds and builds to an apex of vocal melodies and Martin repeating, “Home, home, where I wanted to go,” another universal sentiment.