This EP collects recordings from the sessions for Viva la Vida, Coldplay's most sonically tricked-out record, but the new songs feel too conservative after Viva's world-music-laden sprawl. Though "Rainy Day" finds Chris Martin crooning brightly over strings and swelling electronics, the swooning "Glass of Water" feels heavy-handed, and the atmospheric "Prospekt's March/Poppyfields" suffers from imagistic lyrics about "people talking without speaking." Fans should download "Lost+" — featuring a great Jay-Z cameo — and skip the rest.

“Let My Love Open the Door”

A peppy, hopeful love song, "Let My Love Open the Door" became a U. S. Top Ten hit for Pete Townshend in 1980, anchored by the kind of repeating synthesizer figures that he'd used in some of the Who's recordings in the previous decade. Although Townshend brushed the song off as "just a ditty" in Rolling Stone shortly after its release, in 1996 he revealed it was about love of the holiest sort. "It's supposed to be about the power of God's love," he remarked. "That when you're in difficulty, whether it's major or minor, God's love is always there for you."