I ran away

"And one, two, and one, two, three, jump !" :D

I'll see you on the (dark) side of the moon - Pink Floyd

That reminded me of something similar. In one year of listening, once, on Spotify shuffle, two songs followed each other (i am not sure any more which songs exactly, I think from AROBTTH ?). And then there eas of course the moment in MetLife Stadium when In My Place was followed by GPASUYF, which was awesome too ! I immediately thought 'wow, two consecutive songs of the album' !

Been asking myself the same question, to be honest. I hope they change the setlist a bit. My second show in the US was not as great as the first show because it all seemed so expected. On the other hand, the new leg will be next year so after some time maybe the feeling will be closer to a "first" show.

I'm writing this post to share some thoughts on several things different people have said over the last few posts (sorry for not individually picking out the quotes). First of all, it is great to see that our beloved thread is thriving again - for some time there was so little activity I was worried about it. Am I the only one here who is not too enthusiastic about Eno and Hopkins ? No offence to their work, and sure, Eno did help Coldplay to become more diverse in their sound during the Viva Era, but to me this was one of the beginnings of the end. This "open to all sounds and influences" approach still worked in VLVODAAHF, but it imho has also led the way for accepting all kinds of music including the most commercial, superficial pop acts as their influences, and has paved the way for ditching subtlety in favor of the pop-rock/dancepop bombast of MX and AHFOD. As for ambient, I'm personally not the biggest fan of ambient music and I don't think it suits Coldplay. The ambient pieces we had so far have mostly been Hopkins pieces over which Chris Martin sings, not "real" Coldplay pieces. For example Midnight: It's an interesting song and I like it, yes, but if you listen to Jon Hopkins' original track Amphora (which I have, if anyone needs it) you will be disappointed to see how little "Coldplay" has added to Amphora except Chris Martins vocals to call it Midnight now. All I'm saying is, I am not sure how Coldplay as a band and an entirely ambient sound would fit together...And if you say it's atmospheric, I would argue that Coldplay has been good atmospherically already in the pre-Parachutes (!) era, incorporating dreamy atmospheric sounds while at the same time having a guitar-based sound. It's not something they need one of those big name producers for. But no doubt both Eno and Hopkins would be a million times better than Stargate, who to me are the worst choice and ruined several tracks on AHFOD (with the band's full approval of course, its no use to blame Stargate if the band knowlingy chose their sound to be stargatifyied.) My favourite producer to come back would be Ken Nelson, but seeing that the band basically split up with him during the making of X&Y, it is never going to happen. About Guy's presence in AHFOD: I'm happy for Guy that he gets into the spotlight more often, but if Guy's increased presence on AHFOD mainly consists in stomping out bass grooves to a disco beat, I prefer the Guy whose bass was more subtle but essential to the incredible soundscapes of the first three albums (and especially AROBTTH). About AHFOD being the album with the least tension and trouble to make for them: Is that a good thing ? You may think this statement provocative. Obviously, you like the band and you don't want them to go through toil and trouble. So do I ! It's great for them as human beings that they are having that much fun and no pressure. But is it good for the music they put out ? I ask in the reverse, why were their early albums more stressful or troublesome to make ? Because they were perfectionists and wanted to show the world the very best of what they could do, to make songs that are not forgettable but art in itself. Just look at the selection process for their early albums ! Look at the sheer quality of the B-sides, excellent songs as we all know that were not deemed "good enough" by the band back then, because they had the highest level of demand for themselves. Chris, Jonny, Guy and Will were their own harshest critics. They wanted to be good; when they found they were good, they wanted to be better. This thinking led to a high quality in both the songs themselves and their production. And now ? Where are these demands now ? Today, they seem to be content with whatever they produce. I would, by the way, give music critics and the public part of the blame here, because they have mercilessly hunted down the early Coldplay and laughed at the emotionality and sincerity they brought to their songs calling them bedwetters or bland, and who called them boring or did not take them serious as rock musicians because unlike other bands they made headlines about their shyness and politeness instead of about last night's wild party with drugs and groupies, as other bands do (One of the reasons I can identify so much with the band is that, by the way, their kindness, politeness and decency as human beings). It's funny that the same people who tried to bring them down earlier love their sound now. Now they can sell whatever music they make. Liberating for them, maybe, but lets face it: If they were to make an entire album full of X Marks The Spots, so to speak, the record would still sell millions and millions of copies and hit No.1 in many countries because it has the sticker with the name "COLDPLAY" on it. They have become so big that that name alone is enough to sell any music. They say they don't care anymore what people think about them (which, as I argued above, is partly to blame on the critics and public's earlier reactions), but they also don't seem any more to care about how good the songs are in terms of artistic value. At the moment they just want to have a good time themselves and give people a good time at the concerts (and Chris said that for ASFOS, for example). There is nothing wrong about thinking the latter, but it is not a criterium of quality. The truth is that almost any cheap Eurodance song will give people a good time, this doesn't mean it is artistically valuable. But since Chris Martin only seems to care about how much he can jump around during a track and make people dance, it appears that these are his new "quality" criteria. Actually when I think about it like that I see no hope for Coldplay in the near future. Now that was an opinionpiece from the bottom of my Oldplayer heart...

Well done, your turn !

no Hint: The images describe three consecutive line towards the end of a song.

I would volunteer to stitch B-Sides together into a file and send it to you through PMs ! But for the moment I voted for Pre-Parachutes EPs because that would be awesome as well.

O ?

On and on, you're told which side you're on

I Ran Away I wanna come on out My eyes are closed I can feel it near The sides so close I wanna come on out And burn the sky vs. Careful where you stand I am safe when I am with you And I feel warm if you want me to I am cured when I'm by your side I'm alright Careful where you stand my love Careful where you lay your head It's true we're always looking out for one another

Thanks !

Starfish :D :D :D

Think I’m in, yes I’m in, love with the way that she’s talking - Riot of Colours : She is Rain

Aww, thanks for listening ! No.3 is the intro to Spies, or at least my attempt to imitate it , with slide :)

(Would) you taaake meeee toooooo ?

THAT RIFF THAT RIFF THAT RIFF (well, I could say the same for Glass of Water, lol) Careful where you stand

Break down, break down (and now one of my favourite lines is about to follow ! :D)

How do I know there's a (God) in the sky / Looking down and hearing me? - Vashti Bunyan "How do i know"

One I Love and Murder sound so like the Bunnymen. Back in the AROBTTH days when Chris did not yet have Katy Perry as his musical inspiration...

In the time that you were gone, i have been to Canada (Vancouver) :)

Thanks ! "cause I feel low, oooh, yeah I feel low, oh no, oohhh...*epic scream*" ;)

Thanks ! :)

I am beginning to feel sick as well...damn it @Nie, you shouldn't have sneezed into the Random Coldplay Thoughts thread ! I'm sure I caught it here ;) No, but seriously, I think I caught a cold... :(

Where are you from ?