Track Analysis: Princess of China

The Coldplay feat. Rihanna trackPrincess of China made a respectable number 4 on the uk official chart, though this was probably helped by a number of factors. Consider this, the album from which the single is from, Mylo Xyloto had considerable publicity when released, Coldplay are one of the biggest bands in the world right now giving any release a certain amount of hype regardless of it’s quality, but, even without these factors to influence i believe the song would stand out from the crowd even if it did not have such pedigree to stand on. It’s chart longevity goes some way to prove this. Princess of China was release on the February 14th of this year and yet nine months later it is still racking enough plays to be well within spotify’s top 100 (it currently holds a respectable no.61). Compare this to the late August release of Wings by Little Mix which topped the UK singles chart and now commands the impressive no. 40 on spottily after a mere 3 months. Wings by Little Mix seems destined to slide off the chart much quicker than Princess of China but that does not mean to say that it will be the song that lives in peoples memories for the longest time. Many factors contribute to what happens in the life of a song and we don’t know who or what product may bring both of these back into the public ear – an X-factor performance or cover, a memorable ad campaign or some tabloid coverage for one of those involved all have the potential to re-inject life into a songs popularity or media presence. Just look at the recent re-entry of Faith Hill’s – There You’ll Be after 11 years thanks to an ok performance on the X-Factor by Carolynne Pool. There You’ll be from the sound track of Pearl Harbour never quite reached the number one spot having climbed as far as number 3 but i suppose it did have formidable opposition in Lady Marmalade by Aguilera, Lil Kim, May and Pink. One against four – hardly a fair fight.

Looking into this track i also found that Brian Eno once again popped up in the least likely of places. This man is clearly King Midas. Is it possible to get away from the man that brought us the windows start up music, Bloom – a great interactive iPhone music app and memorable collaborations such as David Bowie’s Heros and now Coldplay’s Princess of China. What ever it is that Eno brings to the table during collaborations it surely isn’t harming anyone involved, or their pockets. Having created the music that everyone starting a PC heard in the last lord knows how many years (17 if you must know) i suspect that Eno knows a good deal about how influential it can be to get your music somewhere it is going to be heard considering his 5 second piece for windows is possibly more recognisable to some than any of The Beatles, The Stones or Led Zeppelin greatest hits.

So what has helped Princess of China hold so well in the charts? Having recognisable voices in Chris Martin and Rihanna is always going to help a track due to it being easier to remember who “sang that song?”, and familiarity makes for a more comfortable listen. I’m sure everyone recognises that feeling of being non plussed by a band until being totally obsessed after hearing them a few times. Familiarity aside I think that the real quality of this track is the programming and depths of the synths. Listen to the depth of sound in each synth sound and the incredible use of pitch slides to add movement to a reasonably slow song at 85bpm. Something that has been the preserve of uptempo dance tracks of recent, usually making the last note slide down on a riff to help keep interest when the riff is repeats. But where as One by Swedish House Mafia, Sweet Nothing by Calvin Harris and Titanium by David Guetta use this technique in an overtly dance context Coldplay bring it to a different kind of listener while their music retains a sense of vogue . Also there is a definite sense of identity to the track created by the synth sounds. If you listen to the individual sounds it is obvious that they all belong with each other as they have similar timbral characteristics while having enough difference to be distinguished from each other.

A commonly used trick, which helps avoid having to many percussive instruments in a mix while retaining a good rhythmical feel and groove is also employed here. At the very start of the track there are two distinct sounds present, one synth plays the melody and underneath there is a synth that is so crammed with harmonics that the sound resembles pink noise like you might find in a synthesised snare drum. You can still hear some tonal artefacts that may have once been a stabbed out cord progression before the sound source was manipulated later on. This synths quick attack married with a sound that is snare-ish helps create groove while also suggesting at a chord progression that will be revealed later on. Listen out for the same progression during Rihanna’s first verse (1m10s) and you’ll notice that the synth has become more tonal while its metallic string quality is more noticeable. Considering that now there is a bass drum and snare driving the song along there is less need for this sound to be as rhythmic given the new context.

Moving neatly onto the main beat of this song which only consists of the bass drum and snare, though the snare sounds as though it might have had claps blended into it given that you can hear a collection of transients all neatly packed in to the body of the sound. The bass drum is particularly nice here though. Listen to the difference between the first hit and the three after, the tail on the first sustains in the sub bass at around 100hz until the second beat where as the other three stop quite abruptly (103.8hz would make this a G# which would fit nicely with the root note of the song). This is a very nice and subtle way of making each bar have a full bodied feel and quickly clearing the sound space to make the other sounds more dicer able.