The vocals for this straight-up Rock tune that features a male choir were recorded in an art gallery in Barcelona that was once the medical room of an ancient nunnery. Drummer Will Champion explained to Q magazine July 2008: "This is us singing all together and then another us singing together. The Coldplay Choir. And it had an echo that lasted for a long, long time. When we did a lot of group singing we just roped in whoever was around. Studio engineers, whoever."
Chris Martin revealed to Rolling Stone magazine that it was producer Brian Eno who came up with the line "I don't want a cycle of recycled revenge." The Coldplay frontman explained: "I had this blank spot in the lyrics: 'I don't want to battle from beginning to end. Something, something, something. I don't want to follow death and all of his friends.' So we were all having a sandwich, and it's like, 'I don't want to watch too many episodes of Friends? No, that won't do. I don't want to listen to Radiohead's The Bends? No. I don't want to eat any Jerry and Ben's? No.' And then Brian came out with the line, and he was like, 'I quite like that. You should use that.'"
Chris Martin told MTV News: "Well, this is supposed to be the theme of the album, really. We're aware of all the bad stuff in life, you know - i.e. Death and all his friends - but that doesn't mean you should ever give in to it, you know? So we all sing that bit together really loudly, as kind of a message to ourselves: never giving up and never focusing on the bad stuff too much."
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