X&Y review on cdreviews.com:

[ssteiling]

Read it. Hate it. Love it. Slap me on the back in congratulatory fashion. Rip me a new one. Ignore it. Your call. Read our coverage of the (pretty) new release from your boys here:

 

http://www.cdreviews.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=804&Itemid=27

 

-Seth, cdreviews.com

 

P.S.

Feel free to respond with some commentary here or on our forum. I'm especially anxious to read a response from someone that thinks I'm an unfair jackass.

[ssteiling]

What the crap are bling points? Yikes.

[gentleparachute]

Bling points are what you get for posting on this forum... They can be used like normal bling for a number of purposes

 

Spend 'em all away in the casino...

Buy lottery... Who knows, you might strike jackpot? :sneaky:

Donate away to all the deserving people on this board :D

 

Or be a miser, hoard it all up and burn in hell... :o :lol:

[gentleparachute]

Seth, I thought your review was thoughtful and had many points... Some which I agree on, while some not.

 

My main comment would be to respectfully ask you to go listen to X&Y many more times, and also to listen without any pre-conceived notion of what it should sound like. The reason? The experience gets better with more listens and the album's a keeper (like their previous 2)... This one takes even longer than their previous ones to appreciate. While we could argue about the merits of a "pop" album (again controversial) trying its best not to be immediate, I suspect that on this count, Coldplay have successfully produced this album on their own terms... They have deliberately refused to follow some of the usual pop sensibilities (again you could argue about whether it works) but it really is a whole lot more than just a pop album.

 

I do know that feeling of betrayal over Speed of Sound; as well as the comment on the larger-than-life feel of the songs... I think these are valid. As for the lack of gloom/introspection, I'm less inclined to pin it all on Gwyneth... I think it's more to do with their pre-occupation to foray into commercial territory as far as possible at this stage of their career.

 

This is where X&Y is so much more than a typical pop album. Because despite it sounding like an album full of singles (as some fans have noted), each song has many more layers beneath that pop-lite slant - courtesy of the rest of the band (Chris Martin excluded). And IMO, this is where the album is great... Chris has given it a pop-kitsch sound that appeals to the (largely tasteless) masses while Guy, Will and Jonny have given it the depth that rewards the patient (and willing listener). It's tough to say whether this marriage works, and I'm inclined to say just about.

 

Inevitably listeners are polarised, because X&Y is bolder (and has a stronger sound) than anything else Coldplay have ever done. And IMHO, they have made an album that defies the expectation of the listener - either deliberately or accidentally - by challenging perceptions of what their 3rd album is and expectations of what it should sound like. They might have taken a wrong turn with this new style (the jury's still out at this early point), but it was deliberate and thought-out and designed to force listeners down the new direction they're going. A possible error might've been the huge gap between the commercial pop sounds and indie-stylings of this album... It makes the album sound uneven and schizophrenic, which (to over-credit the band) might be why it's been named X&Y and been described by the band as an album of 'opposites'.

[Professor Peedston]

You don't want the opinions of people who think you're an unfair jackass, because people who get that upset over reviews rarely have anything insightful to say about them anyway.

 

But honestly, I more or less agree with the review. Coldplay haven't really done much for me since Parachutes.

 

As for the "Check out this instead" list at the end, I'd move Vespertine to the top and Stars off the list entirely. :P

 

And I had no idea what bling points are for either. :lol: