Coldplay: Like or leave, and WHY

[holden]

Okay, so i'm interested in your thoughts on Coldplay as a band. Clearly they are being hyped big-time, and also bashed quite regularly. Why's this?

My thoughts:

First heard "Yellow" in 2000 and thought, "that guy sounds a lil like Dave Matthews". But i saw a performance on television and decided to buy "Parachutes". Mind you, the phrase "one-hit-wonder" was being applied to them, and at least in the US, they hadn't caught on yet. Well, i really enjoyed the empassioned vocals, guitar builds, and even the naivete of the album...heck, they weren't much older than i was, and i was impressed.

Fast forward to 2002: "A Rush of Blood to the Head" is released, to near-universal acclaim. And why not? It was catchy as heck. Hits galore. And, i'll maintain that their sound had matured from the first album. The first song on the disc, "Politik" is so noisy and insistent, "Daylight" has almost an Eastern music feel, and the sound overall is more varied. Never mind that "Clocks", "The Scientist", "In My Place" and "God Put a Smile on your Face" became radio hits...all the tracks were solid. From there, the band began to suffer the hype: "Best Band", "Successors to Radiohead", "The New U2", etc. No band can sustain all that without a backlash. Of course, marrying Gwyneth Paltrow doesn't hurt your publicity or gossip fodder, either.

Now, "X&Y" is out and is also being either highly praised (see Blender's review) or called "sleepy and more of the same". I'll admit, preview single "Speed of Sound" was so close to "clocks", it didn't bode well for growth. Nor did i enjoy the first listen. However, i kept it in the stero, listened to it on drives to work, and it has really grown on me. It takes more effort than the other discs. Lots of subtle synth sounds. Huge basslines. Even the lyrics that are admittedly a little trite/silly in spots, are infectious and emotive.

So, if you've actually attended a gig or listened through the album(s), what do you think of the music itself? No fair saying "i don't like them cos their hits are sappy" or "Dang, how did Chris Martin get Gwyneth?!" Why the backlash, dirts? Are my ears deceiving me?

holden

[ndrwrld]

watching Mr. Martin play piano, reminds me of watching Joe Cocker twitch whilst singing.
coldplay = bleh ( meaning...they dont make me sick, but they also dont make me gaga ).
imo.

[Jafs]

Due to my loss in your language, I'll let the 3 Pitchfork reviews speak for me, because i'm agreeing with the most of their advices.


Parachutes : (5,3/10)


Pretty, lovely, fine, fair, comely, pleasant, agreeable, acceptable, adequate, satisfactory, nice, benign, harmless, innocuous, innocent, largely unobjectionable, safe, forgettable.

I have just summed up in 19 words what I am about to say about Coldplay's debut full-length, Parachutes, in 600. Aside from being seemingly tailor-made for the paper-thin adult contemporary market, what is it about this Britrock quartet that's driving them up the American charts? Is it their popularity in their home country, or their Mercury Music Prize nomination? Could it be their charming, boyish good looks? Perhaps, even, a reputation built by Noel Gallagher's projected insistence that they're "a bunch of fuckin' pansies, the lot of them?"

In reality, Coldplay's secret deadly weapon is vocalist Chris Martin. With the ability to mimic a Brit-accented Dave Matthews one minute, Jeff Buckley revived from the dead the next, and sometimes even a young Peter Gabriel, Martin's heartfelt delivery seems to be what's winning the hearts, wallets and alternative radio request lines of Americans young and old. That's not to say that the rest of the group isn't sharp. Guitarist Jon Buckland provides plaintive, strummed acoustic guitar with the occasional amplified wail, and bassist Guy Berryman with drummer Will Champion form a competent rhythm section.

Oh yeah, the songs. They're nothing special. Most of the 10 tracks on Parachutes are indeed pleasant enough, often consisting of standard alterna-pop fare with the occasional folky ballad. They're innocent and inoffensive in general, but in turn, they're also exceedingly generic and immediately forgettable-- so much so, in fact, that after a minute of one song, you've usually already forgotten what the last song sounded like. And that's even after a few listens.

Parachutes opens with "Don't Panic," the title of which is likely lifted from British mock sci-fi classic The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, despite the fact that the song has nothing to do with it. This subdued, dreamy opener contains Martin's falsetto chorus of "We live in a beautiful world," which seems to sum up the overall sentiment of the record; the record also closes with the inspirational swinger "Everything's Not Lost."

Most of the other songs sort of drift in and out of consciousness, with the exception of the second track, "Shiver." It's the only truly decent song on Parachutes, but simultaneously, it's the only one that blatantly shows its influences. In fact, the influence can even be pinned to a single song: Jeff Buckley's "Grace." Martin has his Buckley impression down cold, complete with dynamic range and the trademark vibrato. But as enjoyable as the song may be, there's no question that Buckley did it better.

And of course, you've probably heard their smash hit single, "Yellow," by now. Indeed, it's the most obvious choice for a single, and it represents Martin's vocal stylings effectively, but it's also the record's weakest moment. Buckland's grating, slightly tuneless guitars seem jarring, especially when sequenced in the middle of a series of songs that generally lack dissonance. And the saccharine lyrics are those that might have caused Mr. Gallagher's hypothetical remark: "Look at the stars/ Look how they shine for you/ And everything you do." You'd practically expect the band to show up at your doorstep with a wilting bouquet and Hallmark card.

Parachutes is ultimately a promising debut for Coldplay, if by "promising," I mean, "promising them a windfall of cash and international popularity." If nothing else, it's harmless and pretty. Unfortunately, it's nothing else. If that's what you look for in your music, by all means, go for it. If you want substance, I suggest moving on. -[color=#0000ff]Spencer Owen[/color]


A Rush of Blood to the Head : (5,1/10)



Though my hopes were briefly raised by a frazzled Christopher Lloyd in 1985, it's painfully obvious now that time travel doesn't exist as a human technological capability. This being overwhelmingly the case, I will try my best to transport with words, and paint a picture of another time-- a time ever so slightly more innocent, when terrorism wasn't being used as an excuse to crush civil liberties and drop bombs on mustachioed megalomaniacs. So, drag that bottle of Orbitz out of the back of the closet, put X-Files on the VHS, and journey back with me to the year 2000.

It was a wondrous time-- we were still fascinated by the three zeros that had signified the birth of the new millennium, and many were relieved to have escaped judgment from an infinite, intangible being. Then, toward the end of the year, we began to hear rumblings from the many-headed hydra of UK rock journalism that some amazing new music had come to usher us into the New World. This music was deemed fascinating, uncompromising and utterly prizeworthy by our English brethren, who spoke in hushed tones of how it was to be the coming of "the next Radiohead," or perhaps more tellingly, "the next Travis."

This new music was produced by a band of four affable blue-collar lads from Europe's island neighbor who called themselves Coldplay, and before you knew it, there was no escaping their lead-off single, "Yellow", as it burned itself into the national consciousness via extensive radio exposure and ABC promotional spots. I, myself, was never too taken with that single, though I openly admit to enjoying the album it was culled from, Parachutes. It was innocuous, to be sure, but it was also honestly rendered, and the opening three songs, effortless and hummable as they were, were hard to deny.

Two years and a veritable avalanche of press later, A Rush of Blood to the Head has Coldplay taking a second shot at it, and to be perfectly honest, what they throw at the wall doesn't stick quite as well. I will credit them where it's due: they've admirably eschewed cloning their debut album, a path that would have been all too easy to take given that record's critical and commercial success. But while the sound of this album is more expansive, the influences a bit less obvious, and the approach more varied, the guys forgot to tote along their initial strength: the songs.

Atmospherically, a couple of these tracks are remarkable-- particularly "Daylight", with its swooping guitar and synth lines. Even its strings, which echo melodies from Suede's last album, lend a sense of drama to a song that otherwise wouldn't hold much. Midtempo non-rockers "Green Eyes" and "Warning Sign" stretch the most obvious thread back to Parachutes with their lovelorn lyrics and slightly more developed melodies. And there are also a couple of "memo to listener: we can rock, too!" moments, specifically "A Whisper" and the lite-apocalypse of opener "Politik". The latter essentially takes the blueprint of "Yellow"-- namely, the slamming, repetitive strumming of clean electric guitar-- and builds a more spacious song from it, one with more rattle and hum, but less melodic substance. Martin's double-tracked vocals hover curiously low in the mix and the band thrashes earnestly, but all the listener really comes away with is a nebular dustcloud and the sense that Coldplay want to break out of their box.

Part of the blame for moments like these rests on producer Ken Nelson, who doesn't seem to know what to do with the band's expanded sound this time out. He alternately dries up the quietest passages and drenches the louder sections with Martin Hannett-sized reverb tides. It takes a lot of discretion to handle that sound, and the folly of Nelson and the band (who co-produced) often comes at the expense of the vocals, which frequently get lost in the haze.

And that's a shame because vocalist Chris Martin has improved since the band's not-so-humble beginnings-- his voice is dramatically fuller than in the past, and he falters less on the higher notes. But, of course, he's still far from foolproof: at times, his attempts to broaden his palette don't pan out, such as during the regrettable midsection of "Clocks", where he barely bothers to add a melody to the central lyric "nothing else compares." To his credit, he does manage a pretty good verse melody here, but then he oddly shies away from what should be the hook at the end, tentatively trailing off as though he's not sure it's good enough.

That could very well be the case, too, as it's been widely posited that Coldplay nearly didn't make this album at all, fearing that they didn't have the depth to provide an adequate follow-up to their debut. I'll avoid the obvious cheap shot there and instead offer that they indeed still might. Parachutes proved that Coldplay have at least a nascent songwriting capability, and A Rush of Blood to the Head shows them testing themselves musically, so it seems logical that if their third album were to combine those strengths they might finally start to sound like the band the UK press is always going on about.

After over a half-dozen listens, I still haven't taken anything away from A Rush of Blood to the Head (by contrast, I recognized Parachutes' "Don't Panic" for the relatively tight song it is after hearing it once), and my girl, who was much more a fan of Parachutes than I was, sums it up as "boring." She's pretty much got it right. Coldplay may claw their way back from this, but it'll be a pretty steep climb. -[color=#666668]Joe Tangari[/color], September 9th, 2002

[Jafs]

And so...


X&Y: (4,9/10)


"Don't Panic", the opening track of Coldplay's first album, drew its title from the famous motto of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novels. Two albums later, it seems they chose the wrong Adams catchphrase; most of their recorded output is better exemplified by the Guide's description of Earth: "Mostly harmless." In their seven years together, Coldplay have risen to monumental levels of popularity on a potent mixture of nice-guy charm, serviceable songwriting, and general inoffensiveness. Unfortunately, these aren't the kind of traits that often lead to interesting music. Not that the band hasn't taken the occasional stabs at creativity and innovation; it's just that those attempts have always been carefully measured, or even nervously self-conscious.

Coldplay have never seemed intent on world domination, but as their early singles caught on, journalists came waving raves. Then, with nearly 5 million copies of Parachutes sold worldwide and their popularity on the upswing, the band's sophomore album, A Rush of Blood to the Head, found the band unsure of how to advance. Luckily for them, their decision to virtually recreate Parachutes on a larger budget paid off commercially: The album got them tagged as "the next U2," a ridiculously off-base coronation that ignores the fact that U2 recorded "I Will Follow", "New Year's Day", "Bad", and The Joshua Tree, among others, before they wandered off into the MOR wilderness.

Coldplay, meanwhile, started in the middle of the road and haven't strayed since. Granted, they've produced a handful of good songs-- "Don't Panic", "Shiver", and "The Scientist" are all fine achievements, while "Clocks" remains a great piano part in search of an equally great melody-- but their albums have yet to justify the critical hyperbole, and their third full-length, X&Y, isn't going to be the one to lock that down. Though dressed to the nines in big guitars and faultless musicianship, X&Y is unable to lay claim to even a single song equal to any of the high points from their first two albums, and the band's obvious desire to be all things to all people doesn't help: They long to be huge and expansive, in The Unforgettable Fire mode ("A Message"), tear-jerking AOR balladeers ("Fix You"), and hip, Kraftwerk-referencing aesthetes ("Talk"), but at heart, they're really built for easy listening, which makes their rockers feel cursory and their ballads simpering.

X&Y is sequenced fast-song/slow-song through almost its entire running order, which means those of you uninterested in wading through doe-eyed love songs based on lazy rhyming couplets and trite resolutions have already lost half a disc's worth of music. You'll "go backwards and then/ You'll go forwards again." You'll "get lost and then get found." You'll notice that the first verse of "Swallowed in the Sea" ("You cut me down a tree/ And brought it back to me/ And that's what made me see/ Where I was coming from") is somehow meaningless, yet also cliched. Had Coldplay accompanied these lyrics with remotely interesting or memorable music, this could be somewhat overlooked; sadly, "Swallowed in the Sea" is one of several aggressively banal ballads that sink this album into a sort of neo-Carpenters abyss.

The more uptempo tracks here tend to be light years better than their leaden counterparts, if only because the louder accompaniment manages to drown out more of Chris Martin's lyrics and bring the focus to his pleasant if unspectacular vocals. Guitarist John Buckland does his part to bring life to the proceedings: He's an encyclopedia of Will Sergeant and Johnny Marr-isms, and even if most of his window dressings are little more than a distillation of tricks learned from better bands, he does a nice job of providing the illusion of a grand gesture for songs like "Square One" and "White Shadows". Martin's vocals, meanwhile, rarely command attention, content to melt into the string synthesizer and guitar reverb as if he hopes he's not imposing on you. Listening back to an earlier track like "Shiver" proves he's capable of more.

Lending to the uninspired nature is lead single "Speed of Sound"'s uncanny resemblance to "Clocks". Certainly, it rarely hurts to stick with what works, but this is not just a near-exact replica of its successful predecessor; it's also a less memorable song riding a piano hook that has so deeply infiltrated the pop-culture landscape that I've become numb to it. In fairness, the track's vocal melody outperforms the one from "Clocks" by a hair, but without a strong hook, the song fails in the one category it needs to succeed in: replay value. It's symptomatic of the rest of the album, and indeed, much of the band's catalog to date: Like Coldplay's two previous albums, only more so, X&Y is bland but never offensive, listenable but not memorable. It may be pointless to hate them, but with this album, they've almost certainly become the easiest band on the planet to be completely indifferent to. -[color=#666668]Joe Tangari, June 7, 2005[/color]



Indeed, I find that CP stuff sounds fine, but there's something missing that I can explain in their music. Probably real innovation...

[Forgotten Sanity]

Personally, I love Coldplay. Although I feel that X&Y doesn't have all of the stopping power that Rush Of Blood... had, it still has some absolutely amazing songs on it. And they're all endearing and honest, and that is the most important thing. I attribute the backlash amongst music elitists to the same kind of backlash that Tiger Woods gets among sports pundits, that being that Coldplay is too omniscient and good to really like. Well, that is absolutely bullshit.

One thing that I've learned while following music or more importantly, listening to alternative music, is that its followers really have this huge desire to feel like they're part of a special, rare group. And when one of their bands absolutely explodes out and brace-faced teenagers and 40-something accountants are all screeching their songs out, most of those people feel slighted. They feel that their secret has been exposed and moreover, since most elitists have this idea that "normal top 40 folk" don't have good taste in music, that the once obscure band that they used to love must be popular because the music isn't as good, or technical, or edgy as they really thought it was. IMHO.

Bottom line is, they're genuine, came from nothing only because of the strength of their music, and a lot of other bands out there that also write and play for a living but don't make a cent for it wish that they could have that success. To be able to write music for a living, and to be able to actually live off of writing music.

I'll be seeing them in three weeks, and I expect to have a better time that night than any of you guys will be having on that night. :P

P.S. - Speaking of elitism... if you don't know what elitism is then go to pitchforkmedia.com, pick any five reviews and read and learn. Hell, you've got three here...

[Caprice]

i heard yellow first when the music video first came out and i liked it enough to download it. then a rush of blood to the head came out. i liked it alot so i bought it and listened to that album like mad.

then my brother got parachutes and didnt really care for it so i listened to it ALOT. really good acoustic work.

then x&y came out and truly, i wasnt that impressed. yes there are some good songs, till kingdom come, speed of sound, to name a few. but i tryed listening to it in the car and i got just so, sleepy bored.

idk maybe its cause i dont have air conditioning in 90F weather.

but yea, i like them, alot actually.

[Emmet]

I think Coldplay's success is mostly down to the fact that Chris Martin can write really great songs that connect with people. I know who a few people who have listened to Fix You and started 'welling up'.

X & Y is a difficult album to get into whereas the other two were immediate for me. I know a couple of people who work at one of the studios they record at, Chris wrote loads of really different sorts of tracks between the last album and the new one which he eventually binned because he felt they weren't 'Coldplay' enough. I'm not sure whether that's going to stifle them in the long run, if they feel they can't progress musically/sonically they might keep knocking out the same type of album again and again (hello Oasis!).

And yes, I like 'em

[Eikman]

that is way too much discussion about a band like coldplay.

[Jafs]

Originally Posted by Forgotten Sanity

P.S. - Speaking of elitism... if you don't know what elitism is then go to pitchforkmedia.com, pick any five reviews and read and learn. Hell, you've got three here...

It's strange, I don't feel like a music elitist, and it's not because I read sometimes Pitchfork that I'm one of those... IMO Coldplay could do a better stuff that they did with X&Y with their potential. Indeed, I like a lot of their songs, and X&Y have his number of good songs.

But I think this could be really better...

[big screen satellite]

i just don't like Coldplay

i don't like Chris Martin's moany whiney voice...

i can see why they are popular...but the Hype has elevated this beyond all recognition, like it has with U2...who are an average rock band, who know how to milk the hype.

Embrace are, in my opinion a much better sounding acomplished group, than Coldplay

but its all a matter of opinion...

good luck to him and his glamourous wife...