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After hearing some of these songs, how do you feel about a "concept album?"


neonhorn22

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I think that LP5 will be a 'concept album' in the sense that it will have songs that could have fit in with any of their previous albums. For example, Moving to Mars would have fit brilliantly into X&Y's tracklist, while Us Against The World sounds like the guys pulled it straight from the Parachutes era.

 

So, I think all of the songs will differ from each other, but fit together cohesively like Viva.

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Chris said that it won't be a concept album in a fairly recent interview. I think that they only decided to scrap the concept album idea recently. When Chris played Wedding Bells at the Apple Conference he said that it was the 'start of a story' so at that point the concept album was probably still being considered. But now Wedding Bells has presumably been scrapped, or it at least won't be on the album as confirmed by Chris at Boogaloo. This may be part of the scrapping of the concept album idea.

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^ I don't actually think we have any idea of what the guys are doing at this point in time as far as album content. From what I've heard, they've had over a hundred songs to choose from, any of which could be from any of the 'recording sessions' they've held. After all, their original material was recorded, scrapped, and then pulled out again for consideration.

 

Maybe a mix of concept album and something else? :shrug:

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I don't think it's the same concept they started with, but there definitely seems to be the recurring theme of "us against the world" or rebellion, or however you want to classify it. There have already been some recurring lyrics, and the new songs seem to be pretty related to one another in subject matter.

 

Mixed with the graffiti/street imagery and thematically it reminds me a little of modern Green Day with American Idiot/21st Century Breakdown. I like Coldplay much better and trust their originality, that's just a comparison that popped into my head recently. I don't think they want to tell a story as intentionally as Green Day does, but I think if a person wanted, they could fill in the blanks and pull a story out of Viva, and I expect the new album to be similar in that regard just based on what we've heard so far.

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I don't think it's the same concept they started with, but there definitely seems to be the recurring theme of "us against the world" or rebellion, or however you want to classify it. There have already been some recurring lyrics, and the new songs seem to be pretty related to one another in subject matter.

 

(...)I think if a person wanted, they could fill in the blanks and pull a story out of Viva, and I expect the new album to be similar in that regard just based on what we've heard so far.

 

You read my mind!!!!

 

In the end, even if they don't want the LP5 to be a concept album, they are making one. The only difference are those gaps, witch make the listeners experience much more pleasing, because he believes he's working with the music. That is one of the things that make Coldplay a great band.

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Coldplay albums, especially the last two, have always had recurring themes. That's nothing new. I'm pretty sure over half the songs on X&Y have identical lyrics. (exaggeration but you know what I mean) That doesn't make it a concept album.

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Coldplay albums, especially the last two, have always had recurring themes. That's nothing new. I'm pretty sure over half the songs on X&Y have identical lyrics. (exaggeration but you know what I mean) That doesn't make it a concept album.

 

True about the recurring themes/lyrics, this does happen just as much in X&Y as Viva. It just seems to me like the songs on Viva are more related to one another and there might have been more intention when they made the tracklisting, in a sort of conflict-resolution type way. I think the hidden songs/extended outros like Chinese Sleep Chant and Reign of Love are also meant to add to this in some way. Whether or not that makes it a concept album I don't know, but I think it's a formula they might follow again to some extent.

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I don't think it's the same concept they started with, but there definitely seems to be the recurring theme of "us against the world" or rebellion, or however you want to classify it. There have already been some recurring lyrics, and the new songs seem to be pretty related to one another in subject matter.

 

Mixed with the graffiti/street imagery and thematically it reminds me a little of modern Green Day with American Idiot/21st Century Breakdown. I like Coldplay much better and trust their originality, that's just a comparison that popped into my head recently. I don't think they want to tell a story as intentionally as Green Day does, but I think if a person wanted, they could fill in the blanks and pull a story out of Viva, and I expect the new album to be similar in that regard just based on what we've heard so far.

 

Good post; I'd even argue UATW is the album title, especially given the pattern in the past for the title track to be a fairly obscure song, well except for VLV obviously.

 

But yeah, I agree with your post completely. And this is a direction I can agree with. :) It also makes ETIAW have just a little context.

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I LOVE it when there is a secret story behind the songs which shows a certain developement or is similar to some social situations. It makes it more easier to create nice lyrics and its always better to hear the whole album within a context than just song after song...

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