It was written by all members of the band for their fourth album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008).
The first part is a ballad with piano and strings, which then transforms into an uptempo rock arrangement with a guitar solo.
[1] The song is distinctive for Coldplay as it has no chorus and is divided into three parts.
In a track-by-track analysis, guitarist Jonny Buckland revealed, "We've been trying for about two years now to record a song that didn't have any chorus and didn't really have any verses... and '42' was the only time we were able to do it successfully."
[3] Buckland used an ostrich tuning in this song, tuning his guitar to F-F-F-f-f-f.[citation needed] For the track's influences, Chris Martin stated in an interview, "It's our attempt at "Bohemian Rhapsody" (Queen), and "Paranoid Android" (Radiohead), all those songs that we love, that go A-B-C-D-E-F-G in structure.