Coldplay- The Scientist

I was just thinking of how I should start analysing and critically assessing my favourite songs.

Okay, not really critically assessing but more, talking about it. Yeah.


I guess my dad was right when he said how songs nowadays don't have any layers or aren't deep enough. (He was talking in referance to The Eagles-'Hotel California', does anyone seriously know what this song is about?)

Anyway, I guess the surface of The Scientist is pretty clear. When anyone hears this song, the memory of a past relationship resurfaces. It doesn't matter if the past love was painful or a pleasure, the song is haunting enough to make one dig up these old memories.

The chorus itself reeks like a conversation between two people:-

Person#1: Nobody said it was easy.
Person#2:Oh it's such a shame for us to part.
Person#1: Nobody said it was easy. No one ever said it would be so hard
Person#2: I'm going back to the start.

Of course, this is all what I have in my mind. When we all know in fact, it's just him that's thinking all this.

The song embodies what it feels like when a relationship is over and done with- trying to examine the whole thing under a microscope to see what happened or what went wrong.

Albeit, The Scientist.

In a way, he is trying to explain the relationship using "scientific logics". Hoping this way, he can rectify what he had done wrong to get back with his love.

Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry
You don't know how lovely you are

If you refer to my previous post, about how I discussed with a friend of the subjectivity of feelings- same goes for this.

He realises he can't use science to explain it, because love just doesn't work like that. There's no way you can measure it or place any conclusive evidence on something so open to interpretation.

I was just guessing
At numbers and figures
Pulling your puzzles apart

Questions of science
Science and progress
Do not speak as loud as my heart

As much as he tries to examine it, he can't. He does whatever it takes and goes back to how it all began. Again and again. Just wanting to know what went wrong.

Running in circles
Chasing tails
And coming back as we are

The music video itself very much mirrored the meaning of the song. The video experimented with the the theory of relativity- going back in time.

Just like in the song, how he goes "back in time" to solve everything.

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The song doesn't try to explain the outcome of what he does. Or even what he did for that matter. Instead, it concentrates on what he feels and does just at that moment. It doesn't tell a story.

It shows just how much the heart has so much more control over the mind. It's no point looking at the physical surface without taking a better look at what's inside of it.

This was my own interpretation of course..I personally think the song can be looked at in different ways.

And my dad says songs don't have meanings anymore! PFFT!