X&Y - Lyrics are either abstract or very plainly stated, with pretty much no in-between. Not really any cliches, but a few instances of cheese. This album's more about life's biggest questions and trying to find our way than it is about answering those questions. The instrumentation is really bombastic and gets your attention. There does seem to be a very formulaic approach underlying all of the songs, though (more so than with the first two albums), especially on the first half of the album. That, combined with its length, makes X&Y seem a little boring, a little safe.

 

Viva - Lyrics are revolutionary, on-the-nose, hard-hitting, and raw. There's hope, fear, love, loss, whimsical happiness, yearning, confusion, and anger. There's very little cheese to be found, and even the subjects talked about are somewhat revolutionary--deviating from the typical cycle of love and loss to include life, death, and the cycle of rebirth. Instrumentation is likewise revolutionary--no two tracks sound the same, yet they all come together as an album more cohesive than any Coldplay album yet. This album is hungry and brazen, just like real-world revolutions.

 

MX - A few cliches and instances of cheese start to crop up in the lyrics for this one. The subject still centers around that revolutionary aspect, but it takes a back seat to love. Everything is much more plainly said, with little room for speculation. Instrumentation is pretty good--nothing revolutionary. Encompasses the feeling of pop and rock melding together.

 

X&Y: Not really any cliches? Cue up Swallowed in the Sea, The Hardest Part, Fix You or What If all have it in spades. Swallowed in the Sea is the worst offender of any Coldplay song imo up until GS

 

VlV: Mostly they're amazing but what about Chinese Sleep Chant? Even Strawberry Swing and 42 could be a little uninspiring. :shrug: The amazing music is what makes it so serene/emotional/powerful

 

MX: PoC is cheesy but that's about it. Paradise is close but then it has lines like "the wheel breaks the butterfly" which is a phrase from old literature and is really cool. I think UAtW is one of Coldplay's best lyrical efforts <3 and HLH minus the chorus, UFO and UWtB are all really strong as well. I don't see it as straightforward, a lot of the lyrics make me wonder what to take away from it. Major Minus, Charlie Briwn and UFO I feel like there are plenty of interpretations for. :nod:

 

I think people tend to gloss over X&Y's lyrical flaws because it's an older album with nostalgia and exaggerate MX's because it wasn't as good as VlV. :thinking: :P

X&Y: Not really any cliches? Cue up Swallowed in the Sea, The Hardest Part, Fix You or What If all have it in spades. Swallowed in the Sea is the worst offender of any Coldplay song imo up until GS

 

VlV: Mostly they're amazing but what about Chinese Sleep Chant? Even Strawberry Swing and 42 could be a little uninspiring. :shrug: The amazing music is what makes it so serene/emotional/powerful

 

MX: PoC is cheesy but that's about it. Paradise is close but then it has lines like "the wheel breaks the butterfly" which is a phrase from old literature and is really cool. I think UAtW is one of Coldplay's best lyrical efforts <3 and HLH minus the chorus, UFO and UWtB are all really strong as well. I don't see it as straightforward, a lot of the lyrics make me wonder what to take away from it. Major Minus, Charlie Briwn and UFO I feel like there are plenty of interpretations for. :nod:

 

I think people tens to gloss over X&Y's lyrical flaws because it's an older album with nostalgia and exaggerate MX's because it wasn't as good as VlV. :thinking: :P

 

People look over X&Y's lyrical flaws because the music, the melody, etc. make up for it.

 

Also, even if Paradise is a tad cheesy, the melody massively makes up for it.

@HowCouldIForget I heard once that Strawberry Swing was named as one of the most psychologically relaxing songs, so I don't think it was meant to be inspiring. Just a nice, fun and peaceful tune :)

@HowCouldIForget I heard once that Strawberry Swing was named as one of the most psychologically relaxing songs, so I don't think it was meant to be inspiring. Just a nice, fun and peaceful tune :)

 

I heard that somewhere too... quite interesting actually. I do like the song :)

X&Y: Not really any cliches? Cue up Swallowed in the Sea, The Hardest Part, Fix You or What If all have it in spades. Swallowed in the Sea is the worst offender of any Coldplay song imo up until GS

 

VlV: Mostly they're amazing but what about Chinese Sleep Chant? Even Strawberry Swing and 42 could be a little uninspiring. :shrug: The amazing music is what makes it so serene/emotional/powerful

 

MX: PoC is cheesy but that's about it. Paradise is close but then it has lines like "the wheel breaks the butterfly" which is a phrase from old literature and is really cool. I think UAtW is one of Coldplay's best lyrical efforts <3 and HLH minus the chorus, UFO and UWtB are all really strong as well. I don't see it as straightforward, a lot of the lyrics make me wonder what to take away from it. Major Minus, Charlie Briwn and UFO I feel like there are plenty of interpretations for. :nod:

 

I think people tens to gloss over X&Y's lyrical flaws because it's an older album with nostalgia and exaggerate MX's because it wasn't as good as VlV. :thinking: :P

 

Totally agreed on MX. Much of it is quite interesting and complex, but the presence of certain synths seems to predispose people to think both the lyrics and music are of inferior quality. Probably the worst song on the album lyrically is Up in Flames, but even that one has interesting imagery about "could we pour some water on" which I think is one step more interesting than "I love you so...so much that it hurts." ETIAW has great lyrics IMO...especially the second verse: "I turn the music up, I got my records on, from underneath the rubble sing a rebel song." Very poetic, declarative, artistic, and revolution-centric. In many ways I feel like MX has the same themes as VLV but makes it feel more modern.

Plot Twist on "Falling Snow": It's a song for the upcoming Hunger Games movie that refers to the imminent fall of President Snow (after all, how could Chris leave his JLaw alone in this epic battle ?)

Totally agreed on MX. Much of it is quite interesting and complex, but the presence of certain synths seems to predispose people to think both the lyrics and music are of inferior quality. Probably the worst song on the album lyrically is Up in Flames, but even that one has interesting imagery about "could we pour some water on" which I think is one step more interesting than "I love you so...so much that it hurts." ETIAW has great lyrics IMO...especially the second verse: "I turn the music up, I got my records on, from underneath the rubble sing a rebel song." Very poetic, declarative, artistic, and revolution-centric. In many ways I feel like MX has the same themes as VLV but makes it feel more modern.

 

The thing with Mx to me its seems that the melody of voice doesn't have life it self, its just keeps imitating the melody of instruments. And the instruments have the melody similar. If you pick white shadows from x&y everything is diferent. Or the song x&y it self is like a wave of guitars and the guitar have more life. MX its good but there is so much thing there that feels poor in melody, it indeed have good lyrics, but its just that. But ok, the ideia was to be poppy and easy anyway

The thing with Mx to me its seems that the melody of voice doesn't have life it self, its just keeps imitating the melody of instruments. And the instruments have the melody similar. If you pick white shadows from x&y everything is diferent. Or the song x&y it self is like a wave of guitars and the guitar have more life. MX its good but there is so much thing there that feels poor in melody, it indeed have good lyrics, but its just that. But ok, the ideia was to be poppy and easy anyway

 

That is the thing... I don't see or feel any of this complex thing hahaha. It have so much elements, but have many elements doesn't make complex for me. Spies is a complex song to me for example, feels different and strange, and that is what I like in coldplay, songs like daylight or square one, or 42 wooow

 

And sorry about my english =P

 

For me, Coldplay's "peaks" don't happen in a chronological order. Their peaks come when they decide they have to prove themselves to the world. I know music is a very subjective topic, so it's hard to speak about certain songs or albums in terms of being "better" than other songs/albums. That being said, the two things that I believe to be good indicators of the quality of a song/album are 1) Strength of the lyrics and how ideas are portrayed 2) Experimentation, evolution, and risk-taking in the melody, instrumentation, structure, etc. that give the song a unique sound (e.g. the song isn't your typical verse-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus with guitar riff #23 that could have been written by any rock or alternative rock band in the last 10 years). If we look at Coldplay's albums in those terms we get:

 

Parachutes - Lyrics are simple, sweet, and from the heart. No cheesy cliches but nothing all that groundbreaking either. Instrumentation is appropriately quiet and only takes center stage in a few cases (Yellow, Trouble)

 

ARoBttH - Lyrics range from simple to abstract to gut-punchingly visceral. A lot of the songs drip with the sheer weight of what these lyrics are saying and how they are said. It's dark, it's hopeful, it's real. Instrumentation follows along, and when the lyrics aren't taking center stage, you bet the instrumentation will step up and take over. Politik, In My Place, GPASUYF, Clocks, The Scientist, Daylight, Amsterdam . . . all have these amazing trade-offs between instrumentation and lyrics

 

X&Y - Lyrics are either abstract or very plainly stated, with pretty much no in-between. Not really any cliches, but a few instances of cheese. This album's more about life's biggest questions and trying to find our way than it is about answering those questions. The instrumentation is really bombastic and gets your attention. There does seem to be a very formulaic approach underlying all of the songs, though (more so than with the first two albums), especially on the first half of the album. That, combined with its length, makes X&Y seem a little boring, a little safe.

 

Viva - Lyrics are revolutionary, on-the-nose, hard-hitting, and raw. There's hope, fear, love, loss, whimsical happiness, yearning, confusion, and anger. There's very little cheese to be found, and even the subjects talked about are somewhat revolutionary--deviating from the typical cycle of love and loss to include life, death, and the cycle of rebirth. Instrumentation is likewise revolutionary--no two tracks sound the same, yet they all come together as an album more cohesive than any Coldplay album yet. This album is hungry and brazen, just like real-world revolutions.

 

MX - A few cliches and instances of cheese start to crop up in the lyrics for this one. The subject still centers around that revolutionary aspect, but it takes a back seat to love. Everything is much more plainly said, with little room for speculation. Instrumentation is pretty good--nothing revolutionary. Encompasses the feeling of pop and rock melding together.

 

GS - Cheese! Cheese and cliches everywhere! Everything sort of gets stuck in this cycle of love and loss which repeats throughout the album. There's nothing new at all being said here. Instrumentation is really lacking compared to other albums, and it makes everything feel sort of empty and cold. Granted, this empty and cold vibe could have been a really cool way of portraying that hopeless feeling you get after a breakup, but in order to pull that off you need some really stellar lyrics to hold everything together, and that didn't happen.

 

 

Taking all of these into consideration, the two albums that are usually considered to be Coldplay's "best" (ARoBttH and Viva) came at a time, as I said, when the band set out with something to prove. For ARoBttH, it was to prove they weren't "soft, indie-rock bed-wetters" and for Viva it was to show that they hadn't gone stale and could break out of the alternative-rock box the world had put them in. That being said, I don't think Coldplay is past their peak. I think they can still put out another ARoBttH or Viva, but they need to have the drive to do so. Something needs to light their fire again and give them back their hunger.

 

That got long, sorry :lol:

 

Well put there, agree on it all. Hopefully they felt they had to prove themselves again with AHFOD after GS.

I've moved some posts. Keep it on topic guys, this ain't a general discussion thread, it's about AHFOD. No problem if goes off slightly to general Coldplay chat but bear in mind, there's an 'oldplay' thread too :)

Sigh any LP7 news?Or anyone who has any information feels like its time to let some info out?

No album news but Chris was spotted in Malibu today.

No album news but Chris was spotted in Malibu today.

 

Yes, Chris was spotted by the Daily Mail (or Stalkey Mail as @diogo_sg puts it :p). He's still wearing that happy face hat...

 

And that's the news lol. In most of the world it is Sunday, so Monday is only a day away. ;)

Plot Twist on "Falling Snow": It's a song for the upcoming Hunger Games movie that refers to the imminent fall of President Snow (after all, how could Chris leave his JLaw alone in this epic battle ?)

 

Sorry, is this all legit? My sarcasm detector isn't working.

 

So 'Falling Snow' is what was written on the back of Chris shirt?

Sorry, is this all legit? My sarcasm detector isn't working.

 

So 'Falling Snow' is what was written on the back of Chris shirt?

 

The back of chris's shirt read "of snow"

The front of it read "the falling"

The back of chris's shirt read "of snow"

The front of it read "the falling"

 

Ahhh, I remember some of those details. But is the song for the Hunger Games or LP7 or both then?

Amazing day was for gcf.. This new song will be for Hunger Games.. Any new song for the new AHFOD album still????

Amazing day was for gcf.. This new song will be for Hunger Games.. Any new song for the new AHFOD album still????

There's no confirmation whatsoever that Amazing Day was made for Global Citizen. And I'm sure I ran away was just kidding about the Falling Snow-The Hunger Games thing. Still nothing.

Ahhh, I remember some of those details. But is the song for the Hunger Games or LP7 or both then?

 

I don't know. Lol.

@I ran away was just kidding, there are no sources that even seem to suggest that Falling Snow is for Mockingjay Pt. 2. Otherwise, we would have gotten a link to said source. In fact, we have no idea if Falling Snow is even a song title. That is only speculation.

Monday Alert*

Plot Twist on "Falling Snow": It's a song for the upcoming Hunger Games movie that refers to the imminent fall of President Snow (after all, how could Chris leave his JLaw alone in this epic battle ?)

 

Actually it wouldn't be the first time Coldplay's song titles resemble a movie Chris' girlfriend/wife acts in. We've had View From the Top (although that song was never officially released) which is also a Gwyneth Paltrow movie form 2003, and Proof, which is a 2005 movie with Gwyneth in it.

Mooooondayyyy

The Falling Of (President) Snow. I think you're onto something there!

Actually it wouldn't be the first time Coldplay's song titles resemble a movie Chris' girlfriend/wife acts in. We've had View From the Top (although that song was never officially released) which is also a Gwyneth Paltrow movie form 2003, and Proof, which is a 2005 movie with Gwyneth in it.

 

the only other thing that comes to mind is bruce paltrow's the white shadows. anyway, seems like chris is dating someone else now.