Man ray kind o f sky

Didn't they already do that with Parachutes? It's such a "natural" sounding album. Jeff Buckley's Grace is kind of heavily produced actually, in comparison. Marilyn Manson :lol: but I think Coldplay would actually sound really great with more metal influence.. which is there a bit on Low, maybe. The riffs in Square One are almost verging on some of those post-rock/metal type of bands like Envy, just a more pop version of that. My wish would be half their album goes in a shoegaze/even metal direction like Low/Square One/A Whisper/the riff of Politik and Yellow, but a lot more extreme, and the other half would be as close to Kylie and Girls Aloud as a rock band can get.

so, answer the question.

If you read the thing you would see i'm not seriously knocking anything, I accept Chris for his limitations and ultimately lyrics have almost no effect on which Coldplay songs I like and dislike, because he is very good at putting emotion into even the bad lyrics. The exception is a few lyrics like Talk, Twisted Logic and Til Kingdome. These songs I feel he is trying way too hard to fit the lyrics into some preconceived idea or framework, and trying to be an intellectual is the last thing Chris Martin should do. I really don't give Til Kingdom Come a second thought though, till I had to find more songs for this list. I don't usually listen to it (for that matter, I rarely listen to X&Y since I initially got it) as it's just a bonus track with minimal connection to the previous song or the album, heartfelt as it might be. But see it doesn't feel heartfelt because Chris is trying to use the Johnny Cash idiom and this is not an effective way for him to convey what HE feels. Green Eyes was kinda similar and a million times better, I like that track a lot. What's special about Johnny Cash anyway is his own style and performance. Ring of Fire is a pretty anonymous song in the first place apart from being done by him and June Carter. Covering Ring of Fire or writing a song in Johnny Cash style but not having him sing it.. well that's just pointless. I admit I haven't heard Coldplay's version of Ring of Fire.

the only time/place I ever voluntarily listen to Coldplay would be in bed on headphones with the lights out alone and feeling sorry for myself. quite beautiful in that situation. it's not good public music, I don't think. :)

for better or worse- um mostly worse- Chris Martin'slyrics are singled out a lot. 15 is a lot but, let's try it! 15 Best (no order) Brothers and Sisters simple and beautiful. to write this kind of thing when signed to a minor label shows Chris was never trying to be cool and "indie". unfortunately most of his songs since then are a lot sadder. which is nice, but it's hard to write good inspiring lyrics. of course it would never work without the incredible music. Don't Panic not as much a fan of this song as some people, it's more easy to admire than get excited about. but its greatest strength is subtlety. I have to give credit for the simple and poetic lyrics. to begin with such depressing statements and then make the chorus "we live in a beautiful world". it's like a big anthem completely decomposed. just naked honesty here. Spies fragments again. what is going on? the one Coldplay song I have no idea what the fuck it's about. this is a very good thing. I drift off in a complete other world with this, which is about the last reason most people would think of listening to a Coldplay album. The Chinese government thought it was about them and banned it. ha... kinda insulting themselves there. Yellow possibly still his best lyrics. this beautiful anthemic statement, but just slightly OFF, you know what I mean? what does "yellow" mean? "swam across" what? where is the water in the rest of the song? I wonder, is it the same water the "spies" came out of? the lyrics feel like they were written in 5 minutes off the cuff when the man's heart was at its fullest, all the mixed metaphors no one bothered to go back to make perfect and rhyming. it doesn't make literal sense but it makes emotional sense. that's why it's a classic pop song, like Wonderwall was, but actually a lot better. Trouble anotehr heartfelt and disturbing sketch of a song. "spiderweb and it's me in the middle". the repetition in both the music and lyrics of this song is quite hypnotic. I think I could really argue Chris' lack of lyrical "proficiency" contributes greatly to the emotions of their first album. We Never Change an even better example of that. this song seems practically like it was written by a kid. a heart connected to a mind that can't quite understand and express what it's going through, or is just opting to withdraw from everything. it is really quite brave to write this type of bare lyrics for public consumption and this song never fails to be moving. God Put a Smile on Your Face This song gets slagged off a lot for its lyrics, many people see it as Christian. I've never been sure- the title shocked me but I think it's great for its awkward directness. the song however is highly ambiguous, and has many great lines which sound bitter when taken out of context. The Scientist This song always reminded me of some of Brian Wilson's songs, in terms of lyrics. It is so damn saccharine, I wanted to laugh it off when I first heard it, but it got under my skin. It is impossible to separate the lyrics from the transcendent music of course... I just want to turn out the lights and curl up in a ball when I hear it. The worst song ever to be played in malls. Clocks Chris wrestles with self doubt, the first of many "good" lyrics he would write. Usually these "good" lyrics with catchy lines actually suck a lot more than his "bad" lyrics because they come off forced. This one doesn't. "Home, home, where I wanted to go"... a heartbreaking vague statement for the end. This song is very 80s pop/post-punk, Cure-like darkness/vagueness, that's what's good about it. A Rush of Blood to the Head this gets in there for the barely understandable chorus of "all the movements are starting to break". the verses are forced. a disturbing little narrative about buying guns and burning houses that never feels anything close to desperate and bleak enough, but the chorus has this tragic abandon which felt very 2002. needless to say it's also one of Coldplay's best and most underrated songs musically. Square One Another contender for the best lyrics Chris Martin has written (which admittedly isn't saying all that much). also very self-absorbed, but unlike What If, which is affecting yet impossible to sympathize with, he makes it universal instead of wallowing in it. It's a remake of Politik, same message (I think) and similar sound. This time truer, more desperate. "is there anybody out there who / is lost and hurt and lonely too" god. why do I shiver at that instead of laughing? White Shadows I love hypocrisy songs from people like Bono and Bono and Bono.. oh sorry did I just repeat that? Well he has written several, and they are always his most interesting lyrics- "I must be an acrobat to talk like this and act like that" (so did Cobain of course, and Thom Yorke). Chris Martin will never be such a world conquering figure that he needs Bono levels of guilt, nor an anti-rock-star who is crushed by his own success. But obviously he feels terrible, and not just cause Gwynnie might leave him. In fact I really don't know what this song is about, but "all the space I'm taking up" frightens me. Yeah, I wish you and your band would take up a bit less space. But this song is where X&Y finally earns its dodgy "scientist" sort of theme. Just think of the physical, environmental, economic space we are all taking up... perhaps all us "white" people. Or the white shadows are those things in the past that.. well you know the rest. When I heard this I wanted to congratulate Coldplay for finally managing to create music and lyrics that were truly claustrophobic, yet oddly bloodless at the same time... and then of course it opens up like a sunrise/trance hit at the end. Actually the end reminds me of a certain Peter Gabriel song. Speed of Sound Hmm, this song is actually the most forced thing Chris Martin has ever written, yet oddly the song is saved by its lyrics. If you think about them a bit, they actually become coherent. Yet, this IS a Christian song, or a religious one at least. That's how I think of it. I don't believe in God. I don't think we can "see how it all began" by looking at some birds out a plane window (how low is he flying anyway??) and I'm sure the Chinese are very angry about being lumped with a certain other nationality as if they are the same! BUT... minor concerns really. Listen to the song it sounds blah... till the guitars of the climax where it redeems itself. The lyrics actually "say something" though, that might be a first. A Message Ok, Chris loves cliches! But Chris obviously also loves the recipient of this song. to say it's "cheesy", would be missing the point. Now I can't really stand Til Kingdom Come, that is just insincere sounding. This one's more like the nice "Green Eyes", a needed "honest" moment in the Rush of Blood/Parachutes tradition after the vague atmospheric wannabe epics of the previous tracks. It's not a classic (how many Coldplay songs are.. though??) and I haven't always liked it, but after a few plays I realized this kind of song is forever going to be what this band excels at most, because other bands did the other kind of songs Coldplay excels at better or first. Oh yeah also, the lyric is not as lame as all that: "my song is love" goes on, it's "my song is love, unknown." I think he stole it off some Christians or something, but I try not to think about that. U2 wishes they could still write this kinda brilliant pap. Low I love these lyrics, can't really say why. the thing about the balloon creeps me out, very Ian McEwan. Dark and European in sound, certainly in lyrics as well, it's like a reimagining/pastiche of U2's "New Years Day", "Ultraviolet" and David Bowie's Low. Dense. Swallowed in teh Sea oh god I love bad Chris Martin lyrics. really, just compare this with The Hardest Part and you see why bad CHris Martin lyrics beat good Chris Martin lyrics hands down. The man can express nothingness no well. there's something so domestic about this song. so literally MIDDLE OF THE ROAD (I see the road, and it's "a thousand miles long", Chris endlessly going down the middle). It's a cinematic song with all these ridiculous rhymes, but so unpretentious, sounds like something a bar band would bash out in the smallest and most remote and most poor town of the British Isles. good. kinda like what the Doves did on Some Ciites. So in sum Chris Martin often writes quite good lyrics. We are not talking about a Morrissey or Bob Dylan here, but the lack of wit in his lyrics, the awkwardness, helps to express... the inexpressible. Ironically I was thinking it's much the same as Radiohead's Kid A, which did this by cutting up a person's voice. Chris didn't need to do that because his style of thinking is already so simplistic and fragmented it's practically brain damaged at times. his "heart" is not damaged and that also comes through. interesting how none of my three favorite actual songs on Rush of Blood- Politik, Warning Sign, Amsterdam- got picked. oh yeah and now the worst not quite sure how this became a "standout" b-side. it's quite a pure ripoff of Radiohead b-sides circa OK Computer isn't it? lyric are self pitying drivel. Shiver cocky shit. "just you try and stop me"?? the thing about this song is it's about 200 times as stalker-ish as Every Breath You Take, yet no one points this out. nevertheless, it is very easy to relate to and Chris' amazing, showy vocal performance (not to mention the fucking perfect guitar part) totally sells this bastard. Parachutes I still cannot even remember what this song sounds like, nor its lyrics. I think it's one of those "informal" ones, but perhaps a bit too informal, y'know. Everything's Not Lost "sing out, yeaaaaaaaah" the first of many such outbursts from Mr Martin. if you want us to sing out write a better anthem! In My Place luv the song, lyrics are brilliantly awful Daylight this one's just funny, but again I love the song. nothing original about it, should be retitled "token eastern song". brilliant. it's the age of pastiche after all. What if? Are these lyrics so bad they're good, or so good they're bad? I'll go with the second one. The brutal simplistic honesty of Chris Martin fails to be affecting anymore when #1 he's one of the richest people in the world #2 happily married by his own account with kids (not to mention with who) #3 indulging in pointless fantasies of the destruction of it all. Furthermore this is an example of two facts that remain true: #1 Coldplay doesn't make proper pop music because they whine and drone on (the guitarwork in this song is great however, hardly pleasant) #2 Coldplay doesn't whine about anything more significant than Chris Martin's selfish insecurities #3 Coldplay is too bland for their whinyness to be "interesting". "ooooooooooh that's right. Just go listen to Black Box Recorder hits already and stop bedwetting. Now IF all the things in this song were to actually happen, I might feel a twinge of grief for Chris, but honestly I think his music would suddenly "fix" itself at that point and he'd possibly even make a Blood on the Tracks. This is still a key track of Coldplay's career. You could never bother to listen to X&Y and then skip it. Talk hmm. a true low point of modern music in all respects. the lyrics of the original (with about two lines) say much more than this. horrid. nothing pretending to be something. X&Y oh god. The Hardest Part And the Kmart fart was listing this invalid art, haven't they heard arvo paaaaart the farthest thing from listening to britpop kings, it was the lamest in the chaaaart Fill the ears of the crowds We can hear those with taste, close them now Piano dying of gout sounds like Keane, age 80, still around Someone's looping the sound At the end, but it still wears us out Silver lining the prow of the yacht that Chris bought, and the house oooooooooooooooooooooh you wonder what it's all about Twisted Logic failed political statement. it would be better w/out the line "computers looking for life" that just makes me laugh every time. oh yeah also it would have been better with a "proper choon"! although the loud guitars are nice. Til Kingdom Come yeah yeah. too bad Cash died, but this woulda sounded like shit with him singing it as well. go back to the British music, it's all you can handle!

actually The Bends is Radiohead's only "concept album" (all the songs use human illness/"brokenness" as a metaphor). OK Computer might be semi-concept with the technology thing but the songs are still about a broad range of things to do with modern life. You can tie their other albums together very nicely in different ways but they are intentionally vague so they don't have a single concept, just an emotional and musical unity (which is also true of most albums anyone puts out, including Coldplay's). Brian Eno worked on Lamb Lies DOwn on Broadway.. so... maybe you guys are right after all! but would you consider Talking Heads' Remain in Light a concept album? See, the words "concept album" don't really mean anything. Any good album should have a concept behind it, and most of the good ones, the concept is in the background.. if the concept is the main thing you notice, enough to want to call it a "concept album", then the music and lyrics probably suck.

I enjoy X&Y much more as an 8 or 9 track album. I skip Talk, the title track and and Hardest Part.. and sometimes Twisted Logic although it's sort of decent/a failed attempt to do something meaningful and different. also Everything's Not Lost annoys me often... but I don't listen to Parachutes that often so I wouldn't go out of my way to stop the album before it if I did, and I guess you need the upbeat singalong after We Never Change. I think it's definitely the weakest song on there though. Just like Twisted Logic is trying and failing to be Radiohead, Everything's Not Lost is trying and failing to be Oasis... great bassline though.

Brothers & Sisters Spies Warning Sign

1 Apparatchik 2 Love My Face 3 Safe Allies 4 The Scientologist 5 Cripes 6 Lox&Bagels 7 All Around 8 Blue Rays 9 A Whimper 10 Try to Hide Your Eyes 11 Blood Tides 12 Brussels +Bring Me Blind Love

wow, let's see.. Fix You 7/10 Talk 2/10 The Scientist 10/10 Clocks 9/10 very hard choice

good post. I also find this thread stupid at best. If I had to suggest one, I would say White Shadows. It's not a soothing message to "the victims" (why would someone think that's what they want at this point anyway, a pop song platitude??) but it's full of turmoil and regret and has a dark helpless semi-political tinge to me, and it ends with hope for a new day, yet with dark surrounding. Even the title is self contradictory. Very "war on terror".

this video is the most avant garde and postmodern thing Coldplay will probably ever do. not that I like it. :P awful song though- I don't skip, on hardly any CD by any artist but I have to skip this song on X&Y- so it fits the video for me. I don't know how Coldplay managed to make the three absolute worst songs on their last album either singles or the title track (Talk, X&Y, Hardest Part) and they could have probably picked better singles than Speed of Sound and Fix You too. I woulda gone with 1. Speed of Sound (they obv wanted to play it *very* safe and retro but ok), 2. White Shadows, 3. Fix You, 4. A Message, 5. Square One (sent to the rock stations). I think I coulda got their album waaay more sales if I was in charge of marketing, not that it deserved more.

but Square One already sounds like Politik! just a more electronic version of it. I really love both these songs and Square One has probably Chris Martin's best lyrics and his most affecting singing at the end. But I like the less processed sound of Politik better, for an epic rock track. Square One is about the best thing about X&Y, too bad the rest of teh album couldn't keep up that standard, but it was already a bit of a retread of the formula. The opening track on their next album? I'd say somewhere between White Shadows and Brothers and Sisters.

But Eno is not "alternative" music. Coldplay is not and was never "alternative" either, they were just marketed that way in the US because all music based on guitars is considered alternative now. Anyway, that's why this is brilliant news. Coldplay has a brilliant POP album in them, one that isn't sluggish and verging on supermarkety-depressing like bits of the last one... I think Eno could help them make it. Let's not assume Eno means "weird". That's only one side of him- remember he may have done Passengers with U2, but he also did "Pride (in the Name of Love)", "Beautiful Day" and "One". I don't think Coldplay could ever succeed at being weird, but hopefully they can be exciting again, like the riff of "Yellow" or "Shiver" or the emotion in Chris' voice on Rush of Blood. Or even "Square One", "Low", "White Shadows", "A Message", the standout tracks on the highly average X&Y. Coldplay is most exciting simplicity. Songs like "Twisted Logic" and especially "Speed of Sound" were just trying too hard to be complex, though they had a few good elements in them. Coldplay has already "gone electronic", ever since Parachutes, which was unusual for a big pop/rock album in being so "organic" sounding. They had "Clocks" and then most of X&Y was very synth based. So it's obvious they made a decision to move that way- electronics are not automatically a sign of "trying to do a Kid A", they are just an integral part of all types of popular music today. X&Y is in fact much more electronic than Radiohead's third album OK Computer was. Now Coldplay will probably use them in a more instantly accessible way, with or without (lol) Eno. For example some people might call Coldplay's use of electronics on X&Y "selling out" as the synths are often pretty bland and even cheesy, whereas the synth in "Warning Sign" (or pick any song from OK Computer) definitely adds a bit more musical depth to that song. Ok so Eno hasn't done any notable pop productions in a few years (Paul Simon's Surprise=not so great) but even listening to U2's ATYCLB album from 2000 and comparing it to their more recent (mostly horrible) album, you can see the subtlety that Eno brought to U2's sound, while being very POP (not like the Pop album!) at the same time. The Joshua Tree is a bit overrated as far as songs- U2 have written better ones at times- but put on headphones, listen to the SOUND of it and it never gets old no matter how much that sound is ripped off now by every last Christian rock band. And ok, that album was more Lanois maybe. But he was a disciple of Eno. Eno believes in minimalism (if you are not sure what the word means, listen to the last minute of Where the Streets Have No Name or With or Without You). The point is Eno has done massively accessible multimultimillion selling albums that still made new rules instead of doing what was being done at the time. All of it is "experimental", or was when he first tried it. That doesn't mean the result is going to sound bizarre and alien. If Coldplay tried to do songs like "King's Lead Hat", "Jocko Homo" and "Born Under Punches", or even like "Daddy's Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car" (which kinda sucks anyway- tho I love ZOoropa), it just wouldn't work out. That is not Chris' personality. There was always alienation in Thom Yorke even when he just had a guitar. Bono always had a mean streak to get you to pay attention (would Coldplay throw a brick through a window? um I don't think so. Chris couldn't even manage to actually burn down that house). Coldplay is a different kind of band for better or worse. I wouldn't mind a "Heroes" or "Zoo Station" from them though. Chris needs some more sharp edges to sing against- "Low" had those, even though it sounded almost like a cover version of something on Achtung Baby. Their songs could also use more pop simplicity and focus on the rhythm- as in White Shadows, which is already very Tears for Fears, i.e. very Eno, because Tears for Fears were trying to copy Peter Gabriel's third album which was trying to copy Eno and German electronic sound. For everyone talking about Radiohead, here's what Thom Yorke has to say about so-called alternative: "Alternative rock needs bludgeoning to death on a big stick and left on a bridge to warn passers-by." Thank f*** Coldplay doesn't pretend to be alternative anymore. It's the main thing they have going for them, compared to bands like the Arcade Fire which are no more "original" yet get cred from indie kids just for being non-mainstream. Chris Martin seems really into appearing on hip-hop and r&B albums and all that. While I can't say the rap style fits his strengths AT ALL, it is a good populist attitude from him as his band is also doing mass accessible pop music. Without adopting some pretentious wannabe hip-hop sound (Eno isn't exactly so up on that, is he?) this next album could strip them down to the melodic/rhytmic essentials so their songs sound better on the radio. X&Y I find only sounds decent on headphones (decent, not particularly good) but pretty damn annoying as singles, so whiny and bombastically bland. Funny thing about that, Radiohead's new album may also be a bit more mainstream, minimalist and melodic than usual for them. I suppose it depends what Nigel Godrich will do to it. Some of the songs are not that unlike Coldplay. As a Radiohead fan, I would actually bet that what Coldplay does with Eno will be at least as interesting as what Radiohead do next, only because of the producer. And I'm not especially a fan of Coldplay, although I think Parachutes is very nice at times and Rush of Blood was quite an incredible winter headphones album. Wouldn't it be great if Coldplay could get this finished up by the end of the year and Radiohead and them could finally go head-to head like Blur and Oasis in the Battle of POST-Britpop! Singles on the same day and all that, lol. peace, from an interested observer.

"Why have Warning Sign when you can have Talk or Twisted Logic?" uh, maybe because it's actually a great song and those aren't. Nice to see them playing more from Rush of Blood and less from X&Y. why do they start with both Square One and Politik? that seems a bit wrong. Square One is like a sequel to Politik, but the songs are a bit too similar to be right after each other. not that I've seen one of the shows yet, it's just hard to imagine. they should start with Square One, move into a song like The Scientist or Shiver or something, and do Politik late in the set.