Coldplay Recent Media Articles (Updated 5/30, 11:00am ET)

[colduser]

And another:

 

http://www.smh.com.au/news/CD-reviews/Coldplay-XampY/2005/06/03/1117568360773.html?oneclick=true

[cheers2u]

Here is another new review courtesy of the OCRegister:

 

http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/06/03/sections/entertainment/et_music/article_544687.php

 

 

...is there any way to read this w/o registering? thanks for the articles!

[colduser]

Sorry about that. Here's the ocregister article: Let me know if any others are not available. Thanks,aaron :)

 

Letter perfect

Review: After months of speculation, Coldplay's 'X&Y' lives up to the hype, placing the band in rare company.

 

By BEN WENER

The Orange County Register

 

 

If I see one more magazine cover-story headline barking about how the making of Coldplay's "X&Y" nearly led to the band's undoing, I do believe I will puke up alphabet soup.

 

Surely you've noticed. The first sighting was in March, when EMI (parent of Capitol Records, which issues the insanely anticipated disc Tuesday) was still praying "X&Y" would arrive in April.

 

Above Mojo's masthead: "Coldplay: Our New Album Hell!" Inside: an account of how after more than a year in England's Sarm West studios - total recording took 18 months, three times what was spent on 2002's multiplatinum monster "A Rush of Blood to the Head," 12 times what was needed to make the band's debut, 2000's "Parachutes" - Coldplay was still scrapping mixes, making scarcely noticeable adjustments, deleting tracks, adding them again.

 

At the time, falsely modest, paparazzi-hounded frontman Chris Martin - so dominant a presence, and world-famous as Mr. Gwyneth Paltrow, that many forget there are three other guys in his band - vowed to deliver the finished album to EMI by last Christmas, then "go on tour and fit in with the fiscal year." Instead, "X&Y" was pushed back to June, into the next fiscal year, and EMI shares' value dropped 16 percent, after the company issued a profit warning.

 

So we should sympathize. Most bands only have to deal with easily ignored fan expectations. Very few ever sense that the future of their record label rests on their shoulders.

 

Then again, most bands are not Coldplay, which in a mere half-decade has sold 16 million records, scored four Grammys and been singled out as one of the best live acts on Earth.

 

The delay, however, not only fueled speculation that Martin and mates were falling into a too-much-too-soon trap, but also permitted the Hype Machine to rev into hyperdrive, a velocity currently maintained with the sureness of Danica Patrick at the Indy 500.

 

Blender's alarming sum-up: "How fame, fatherhood and their new album nearly destroyed them!" The mag's five- star rating of "X&Y" also appears on a sticker just above the cover image that resembles an incomplete Absolut vodka ad as designed by folks at Apple after downing one too many bottles of the stuff.

 

Entertainment Weekly, on the other hand, asked what many have wondered since the tour for "A Rush of Blood": "Are they the next U2?"

 

Then came Q's "world exclusive" (a ludicrous claim): "Four months of fear, tantrums and nudity." It's the smartest piece of the bunch, but in its most candid moments - Martin: "I've broken my back over this record" - it, too, left the same aftertaste. Beyond Martin's conflicted ambition - he simultaneously says the band's mission is to knock out U2 as the best band in the world and, "I don't care about being big, I don't care about being famous" - there's an implied guilt-trip in all of this pre-release buildup.

 

As if they were saying, "We went through this for you, dear fan. Appreciate it. Now."

 

I doubt that sentiment is intentional, but it doesn't matter. Such woe-is-us creative torture coupled with rabid enthusiasm for "X&Y" amounts to the most hype heaped on a rock record in decades. I can't recall a time when even a new U2 album was saddled with as much anticipation.

 

Which has left this hype- weary soul dreading "X&Y" for months, so much so that I avoided the schlep to Capitol to hear it a month ago (only this week have advance copies gone out to publications not internationally recognized).

 

Better to downplay it. After all, mega-hypes rarely deliver.

 

But this one does. It's such a stunning, spiritually and emotionally overwhelming work, it just might make trade fair.

 

All right, so it won't make the band's pet cause a reality, but it's obvious now why virtually everyone who has heard this is gushing about it. "X&Y" is that monumental, forging-ahead third album Coldplay was practically obligated to make, like Radiohead's "OK Computer." Not that it's as daring as that; a bit more glum, a lot more spacey, this is still instantly recognizable Coldplay, most of its dozen cuts (plus hidden track) coming off like radio anthems waiting to be unleashed.

 

But more than that, these are songs as experiences - songs (many seeming longer than they really are) that leave you feeling as if you've lived through them. Think "Where the Streets Have No Name": Even if nothing here remotely resembles it, there's still that feeling when it concludes that you've been taken on a journey. Disneyland ride operators should wish you a happy/sad day when this thing ends.

 

It has been talked about as Coldplay's "Unforgettable Fire," and right away it sounds like it, the moody, deep-bass tumble of "Square One" echoing the construction of "A Sort of Homecoming." It's the polar opposite of the last album's arresting opener, "Politik," but the entire album aims to avoid such baldly bold moves, while retaining a grand atmosphere.

 

More than once - "Fix You" is an instant classic for "Garden State"-ers, for instance - Martin and Co. nail that falsetto-over-ambience approach that courses from Pink Floyd to Radiohead to this bunch. "What If," a piano-based piece greatly echoing Elton John's "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word," is another brilliant example, coming across like the darker side of "Imagine"; where Lennon abandoning preconceived notions was strictly utopian, Martin's similar wondering is infused with the bleaker thoughts of an insecure sensitive guy.

 

"My song is love," he boasts in "A Message," "and I'm on fire for you, clearly." Therein is the album's admittedly elusive Achilles' heel, the point where Martin's Bono-aping but rarely preachy universalisms ("see the world in black and white," "you don't have to be on your own," "do something that's never been done") are blended with vague but no doubt personally felt lines directed at wedded bliss.

 

Gratefully, he's gotten much better about writing songs for Gwyneth; they're not entirely sappy, like that green-eyed ditty he played at the Hollywood Bowl on the last tour, and they're often veiled, like that bonus cut ("Til Kingdom Come"). That said, "Swallowed in the Sea," one of two marginal cuts - the R.E.M. clone "The Hardest Part" is the other - still suffers from a few overly saccharine lyrics.

 

What is truly impressive, though, is the sound of "X&Y." Laboring over it for a year and half paid off; the enveloping enormity makes those seizing whooshes of "Politik" and the like seem quaint now.

 

"Talk" rethinks a riff nicked from Kraftwerk's "Computer Love," transforming it into a Cure-ish piece with synths sustained atop Will Champion's Larry Mullen Jr.-like drum work. "Low" is aptly titled, as it feels like that period of Bowie/Eno collaboration married to the bombast of Air, with guitarist Jonny Buckland adding subtly Edge-y guitar.

 

My favorite: the title track, which is like late-era Beatles as recast by Oasis, with Champion and bassist Guy Berryman providing lulling plod for Buckland's David Gilmour-esque psychedelia and a breathtaking Martin vocal: "You and me are floating on a tidal wave ... together ... you and me are drifting into outer space."

 

Such sonics show - hmm, just like U2- that Coldplay is capable of tweaking its formula to wondrous, tech-savvy effect without alienating its core audience in the process. At this rate, not only will they someday dismantle atomic bombs, as Spin has suggested, but they'll probably go pop and maybe visit Zooropa, too.

 

All of that, then, plus a first single ("Speed of Sound") that I loathe far less now than I did "In My Place" by the time "A Rush of Blood" arrived. Prediction: Not only will this sell by tanker-loads, it will run off with Album of the Year honors at the next Grammy Awards.

 

Get used to the hype, haters. You're gonna be hearing about this one for an eternity.

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[colduser]

Keep 'em coming:

another review this time new zealand.

 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=6&ObjectID=10328928

[mc_squared]

Stuff the reviews!!

[colduser]

:huh: :huh:

[caeldplay]

woo i was feeling a little bit down after the rs review but the orange county register one made me feel a lot better :D

[mc_squared]

Just listen and enjoy!!

[colduser]

I really dug that one as well :)

[colduser]

Just listen and enjoy!!

 

I have heard and enjoyed this album. I like to read reviews of albums as well and especially for this release. Just trying to be helpful is all.

[mc_squared]

I don't trust reviewers - they're usually just trying to be controversial and make a name for themselves!!

[colduser]

This is true, yet I still like to read them because many people are still being influenced by them.

[caeldplay]

to me it is just interesting to see what people related to the industry say, but it will in no way affect my love for coldplay and the songs on x&y

[mc_squared]

Glad to hear it!!

Even worse are film reviews on TV - so many clips are shown there's no point in watching the film afterwards!!

[colduser]

By far. I don't even watch movie trailers if I can help it.

[mc_squared]

I MAKE SURE I don't!! However, it's worth checking out Rotten Tomatoes to see whether a film is WORTH seeing or not!!

[colduser]

That's a great site. Nice to see if a film looks to be any good.

[mc_squared]

Yup - for example, "Monster In Law" was slammed BIG time!! Then again, I can't say I was surprised, as J-Lowest-of-the-Lo's in it!!

[colduser]

LMAO. J. Lo sucks. Don't think I'll be seeing that movie.

[mc_squared]

Sounds like you've got good taste!! And you can add Pariah "I Don't Do Stairs" Scarey to the list, too!!

[colduser]

:D On mine already. Though Glitter is good for pure comedic value.

[mc_squared]

"Comedic" how??

[colduser]

A few friends and I like to get chemically enhanced and watch really AWFUL movies sometimes just because they are so bad that they are funny. Glitter is a fucking awful movie.

[mc_squared]

It MUST be to have to go through all that just to be able to watch it!! :) Surely Debbie Does Dallas would still be preferable??

[colduser]

:lol: Me thinks you'd be right.