"Yes" is the sixth track from Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, the fourth studio album by British rock band Coldplay. The track actually consists of two songs: the eponymous "Yes" and the hidden "Chinese Sleep Chant". Both compositions were written by all band members.
Writing and composition
"Yes"
The title song, especially its tuning, was originally inspired by The Velvet Underground. Its main characteristic are the low vocals by Chris Martin; this was suggested by producer Brian Eno, to add to the variation between the songs on the album. "Yes" also features strings arranged and played on an electric violin by musician Davide Rossi, a frequent collaborator of the band. In an article for Rolling Stone anticipating the album, Evan Serpick writes: "Martin’s vocals take center stage like never before: sounding more aggressive and strong than ever, they sit on top of an irresistible North African string-and-tablas arrangement and ache more convincingly than all the lilting falsetto in the world", describing the piece as Coldplay's freshest song since their debut album. Lyrically the song is about love, sensuality, temptation and loneliness. Chris Martin himself called "Yes" a "sexy" song, but "written for another character", saying that he's "just pretending to be someone else in there."
"Chinese Sleep Chant"
The hidden song "Chinese Sleep Chant" was described as "a self-conscious parody of shoegaze" with My Bloody Valentine influences. Critics also noted the "wall of sound, heavily processed guitar-swirl and falsetto vocals through reverb." Describing the composition, Serpick from Rolling Stone says: "Opening with a jagged guitar riff, the song quickly settles into a propulsive dance-track loop with low-mixed, angelic vocals." Will Champion also commented the experimantation on Martin's voice which was "drenched in vocal effects and backwards and all kinds of weird and kind of wonderful vocal treatments" to make it sound unique. In an interview Martin defined the song as Brian Eno's favourite, as well as Guy Berryman's favourite and Champion's least favourite from the album. "Yes" is not the only example of double song on Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends. The band discussed the reason for including two songs on the same track, explaining that they hoped to add more value to the whole recording, in response to the decline of music sales. They also expressed the desire to keep the album concise with a total of ten tracks.
