Coldplay at Work on -Something Different- for Upcoming Album

Coldplay are currently holed up in a studio in northern London, trying to hammer out the details for their still-untitled fourth album, due out in May. On a white board, three band members have posted radically different proposed track listings for the album. Chris Martin has withheld his, hoping to lobby his colleagues a little while longer. "I heard a Bono quote once that said 'Bands shouldn't break up over money, they should break up over track listing,' " he says. "Nothing could be more pertinent at this point." To record their fourth album, the band hired legendary producer Brian Eno and pointedly tried to remove all outside influences. "We felt like the first three albums were a trilogy, and we finished that," says guitarist Johnny Buckland. "So we wanted to do something different." The band let Rolling Stone hear the songs they're working on, and most are refreshingly, bracingly different from Coldplay hits like "Clocks" and "Speed of Sound."