Man ray kind o f sky

I gotta say, I'm a straight guy, but I find the way Chris looks to be endlessly interesting. He's now a perfect pinup, but it's completely self-made. Just look at the way he looked before Parachutes caught on. He was a normal decent looking guy with some questionable, possibly sexy but hardly pinup-worthy big hair. No one would have said he was particularly stunning looking back then, but he or the magazines have found a way to cut his hair and light him just right and get him to peer lovingly into the camera to emphasize his best characteristics. The change is incredible.

Thanks for the explanation. It helps to see where you are coming from... yeah, I mean, I cant say Chris is being dishonest. But what matters with a song is not the intent, but whether that comes across. For all I know, Chris completely invented the scenario of "Warning Sign" and never went through a relationship problem like that, but the song is so totally hard hitting and believable it wouldnt matter to me if he was taking creative license. With "X&Y" (title track, title track :P ) I do have a feeling it's about his personal life, and not written simply to sell more records. I mean in that case, it would have been the first single, and it would also have had a better melody. But I don't BELIEVE in it. It sounds fake, even if it is not. And this is sort of true of "A Message" too, a bit less. Maybe Chris and Gwyneth (or Chris and Apple, or whatever) really imagine themselves floating on tidal waves and in space when they're together, but it's impossible to imagine real people doing such a thing. Those phrases are such complete cliches, they have no emotional resonance anymore, unless combined with music that's as impressive as space and tidal waves. See: shoegazer bands, which often had equally crap lyrics but it didnt matter. If "X&Y" sounded amazing I wouldnt be giving a second thought to the lyrics.

I was talking about "White Shadows" as the song I love even though it still has the type of production I dont think Coldplay needs. When I said "X&Y, even this great song...," I was talking about faults of the entire album, which even apply on my favorite song "White Shadows." I was not talking about the title song, "X&Y." Sorry if that wasnt obvious. I'm not saying White Shadows doesnt work great with the huge, mock-U2 epic sound. I'm just saying it's a problem when every song on the album needs to be drowned in synths like that. The better ones sound okay with big production though they still come off as less distinctive than past Coldplay (just compare "Square One" to "Politik"-- "Politik" was heavily produced and epic, but not THAT much). But especially the weaker songs would benefit in a more stripped down style, a la older Coldplay. I think that's subconsciously the reason everyone likes "Fix You" so much. It's not that it's one of Chris' better melodies or lyrics ever, but it's great because it's the only one on the album with the organic Rush of Blood/Parachutes sound, reminding us how Coldplay used to be able to be poppy and accessible to anyone without sounding intentionally slick and just COMMERCIAL. When you use an ultra-commercial style of production and write a "weak" song, it's never interesting, just bad. When you use Parachutes (or "Fix You") style intimate production and write a "weak" song, it can rise above being weak and still be moving and interesting because it sounds like it's speaking to you. Production has made a huge difference for Coldplay in the past. If Chris Allison had produced all of Parachutes, it wouldnt have been half the album it was-- Coldplay might not even have been noticed much. Interesting production elevated Coldplay way above Travis for instance. Travis are amazing pop songwriters but an album like The Man Who did not sound as personal as Parachutes, it sounded just a bit forced due to the slick production. You know how they put up the signs in the studio, "Soul!" "Passion!" The original performance is only a part of getting that across. Every decision they make in the studio is as important. Ken Nelson and the band did such a brilliant job getting the intimate yet anthemic sound on the first one, and on the second one, which was a real challenge because it had to sound stadium friendly and it still managed to sound just as intimate. X&Y simply sounds stadium friendly. Is this album better than average... I dont personally think so, though you can disagree. Because what does that mean? I'll give you an example. I never particularly paid attention to Shakira but I was in a store today and listened to Fijacion Oral, her new Spanish language album. You know what, it's amazingly good, all the way through. Great vocals, a lot of variety between ballads and upbeat tracks, I can't understand the lyrics but I suspect they are no more bland than X&Y, in one case I can sort of understand them and I think they're quite exciting, and it's actually a far better produced album than Coldplay's, with a lot of acoustic guitars but loud beats when it needs them. Now, this is "just" a pop album from the top 10 of the Billboard charts. I love it, I'm just saying, this is the kind of album Coldplay fans love to criticize as a way of defending their band-- "oh yeah, X&Y may not be as good as Rush of Blood, but come on it's way better than all that girl/boy crap." I dont think Chris Martin would agree with these fans cause we know he loves mainstream pop music-- Nelly, Limp Bizkit, probably Shakira. But a lot of Coldplay fans feel their band is ROCK and therefore something special, that no matter how bad its music gets, it is still somehow on a level above anything else that sells as much, I dunno, maybe cause they are white people and they play guitars. Maybe I'm not a Coldplay fan. I'm a fan of the first two albums, but I try to be objective. When Coldplay make a new album filled with songs I would have laughed at if the Backstreet Boys had made them, I can't tell myself not to laugh at it them because they're Coldplay. Yes, it is surely better than whatever the Backstreet Boys are doing now. They arent even capable of writing a decent fake-U2 song, and Coldplay is capable of writing ones so ingeniously manipulative most people dont even notice how derivative they are. But arent they still capable of writing COLDPLAY songs, with that mix of naivitee and self confidence, indie and pop, gooeyness and good taste, that made us all big fans? Not anymore. Because they've lost the naivitee, the indie, and the good taste. X&Y is music that doesnt just get played on Clear Channel but sounds designed for it. Many things in the charts suck worse than X&Y. But many things in the charts, and definitely outside them, are far better. Enjoy it if you enjoy it, you dont have to agree with me, but at least understand there are millions out there who probably agree. Millions of albums sold does not mean millions of albums enjoyed. (If I had to grade them, I would give Parachutes an 8 or 9/10, Rush of Blood a 9 or maybe even 10/10 if I'm in the right mood for it, and the new one, I dunno, it might be as low as a 3 or a 4. But numbers are stupid. Let's just say it doesn't compare.)

Wow, I knew Chris was influenced by him for the new album, but I didn't realize they were doing any concerts together. Awesome! :P

I certainly never called X&Y a great song. I think you must have misread. If there's one song I never said anything positive about, it would be that one.

...KID A," the Radiohead album, it should say. Sorry it got cut off. :o I was wondering cause Parachutes got big around the same time and everyone was (stupidly) calling them old-Radiohead ripoffs. But we have to admit Radiohead's new sound since Kid A has helped Coldplay's popularity, by creating an empty space in the market for melodic soaring guitar pop like that band used to write. If back in 2000 Radiohead had still been writing the kind of music they wrote on The Bends (or if Jeff Buckley was still at it), Coldplay would never have been allowed a chance to stand alone and develop their own fans. I know Chris has said Radiohead are one of the all time great bands for him, so I assume he likes all their stuff. But did Chris or another of the guys ever comment specifically on Kid A or Amnesiac and what they thought of them? Like maybe when they beat Amnesiac for the alternative Grammy? Coldplay isn't really "alternative," at least compared to Amnesiac, so they must have felt a bit weird about winning that.

"X&Y," because it sounds like it's written by one of those robots that write hit songs for the lowest common denominator.

Also, "Til Kingdom Come": 5/10. For some reason "Green Eyes" gets a bad rap but I liked that song, it was simple and direct and it provided a nice break between the more epic songs on Rush of Blood. "Til Kingdom Come" may have been written for Johnny Cash, but it's in a similar country folk style to "Green Eyes," and it's not anywhere near as good. It feels like they were imitating Cash's own style a little too well here. It doesn't feel like THEIR work (kinda like "Talk"). It's definitely cooler in this case though, since it's just a bonus track and was never supposed to be performed by them. Even if Cash had performed it, it's hard to imagine it more than okay, but I wouldn't hold this one against X&Y, it's less overproduced than the rest, for sure.

Yup, I honestly do like White Shadows, but every single other song gives me mixed feelings. I tried to love this album, as a fan of the others, but I can't. They are a different band now for better or worse... and I would say much worse. When I rate something 5/10 I mean it's AVERAGE, not average by Coldplay standards but average by the standards of all that's out there, halfway between the best and the worst. Still, you have to understand I'm not saying those are among the worst songs out there-- they are very bad by previous Coldplay standards, where even the worst songs were pretty good, but they aren't BAD. "Low" is a bit below average (closer to the worst song ever than to the best), but the 1/10s and below are the only ones I think are actually BAD songs. That makes 4 truly bad songs on an album, which is only a third of it, and not unheard of. What hurts X&Y for me more is that the good songs are hovering in average range. I could ignore the bad ones easily enough and not let them ruin the album, if not for the fact that one of them is the title track (and closer for side X), one of them is the album closer, and one of them takes the tune of one of my favorite songs of the '80s (and I don't even like most Kraftwerk besides that song!), uses it in the cheapest way possible, and almost ruins my appreciation for the original "Computer Love."

1. White Shadows 9/10. Claustrophobic and moving, like the best tracks on Rush of Blood. But not as good as most tracks on Rush of Blood, due to the imitation-U2 sound. Even though it's such a good song, I could understand people dismissing it, and I've even gotten a bit tired of it myself-- Coldplay are doing themselves no favors by using such heavy production. The whole reason people loved Coldplay was they were poppy but still sounded refreshingly different from the other stuff on the radio. You could hear every instrument. You could hear guitar, you could hear drums, bass, synth. They were a band in the old fashioned way, not just an anonymous mass of sound. Now they have sort of lost the sound and musical attitude that made them special. Coldplay was never a rough sounding band in the first place. They did not need to get this smooth. When people say X&Y is Coldplay's "Kid A" or "Pop," they are right, in that it's very electronic and processed. But "Kid A" and "Pop" made up for that by experimenting with the form or having lyrics that criticized superficial pop culture, which carried extra "ironic" weight because they were combined with superficial sounding pop music. X&Y, even this great song, is simply electronic and processed in the usual boring way we hear on the radio these days. Critics of Coldplay who say they haven't changed much since Parachutes and Rush of Blood are completely wrong. Between Parachutes and X&Y, they have probably changed their sound even more than Radiohead did between their first album and OK Computer. The difference is, they're going in a bad rather than good direction. 2. Square One 8/10. Trying way too hard. Somehow it works, you can just feel the honesty in the lyrics, and it's a song anyone and everyone can relate to, but musically it has to be said it's a sort of remake of Politik, and a far lesser one. Also, it kind of annoys me that people call it Coldplay's heaviest song, when A. it's hardly heavier than Enya due to the production, and B. those hard guitar riffs were written by someone outside the band, according to the liner notes. Otherwise, shares all the overproduction problems I mentioned before. This is still full of beautiful melodies and has a nice tension and build other tracks lack. Would make a very successful single in America, if edited. 3. Fix You 7/10. Best production on the album, the only one that's subtle and not overdone, but the songwriting is a bit weak. Nostalgic favorite because it reminds me of the quiet mood of Parachutes, but it's not really on that level. Hard not to like, but hard to love. It doesn't have the transcendent buildup or great melody of "The Scientist," which it seems similar to. Would have fit better on the previous Coldplay albums. 4. Speed of Sound 6/10. I had to hear this a few times before liking it at all, because at first all you notice is the piano part, which is terrible and too much like "Clocks" (or actually more like Keane. It's something a three year old could have come up with, and very below the level of the gorgeous riff in "Clocks"). But the rest of the song is very good. Surprisingly beautiful lyrics. It is so well structured, everything is in exactly the right place to build up the maximum tension and make your jaw drop when the incredibly great chorus comes. They are total masters at writing verse-chorus structures now. And it has the album's best guitarwork from Jonny at the very end! Which doesn't even sound like the Edge! But... for all that, there's something very tired and average about it. This is their most formulaic and unoriginal song ever, and the fact that it's also one of the very best on the album shows what a weak album this is. I can imagine this is amazing live, though. 5. What If 5/10. Nice tune and heartbreaking lyrics suffocated by overproduction. When people say Coldplay is better than other stuff on the chart, I'm not sure how true it is anymore. There are a lot of girl and boy groups who write songs that sound a lot like this. This is pure chart pop. That doesn't mean it's bad, but it's not special, which is very sad considering how honest these lyrics are compared to most of what's on the charts-- they should be heartbreaking, but they've been made to sound innocuous. The only thing that makes it distinctive is Chris's vocals. But I'm sure hardcore Dido fans love every Dido song for the same reason. (Maybe you're a Dido fan-- nothing against Dido, she's pleasant, but Coldplay used to be more distinctive than that.) 6. Swallowed in the Sea 5/10. Overproduction. Nice melody. Cannot get anywhere. It could have been another "We Never Change" if it wasn't produced like this because I like these lyrics. They remind me of Peter Gabriel's "Secret World," a bit. But I don't even hear any contributions from other members of the band. If only they'd kept Ken Nelson. 7. A Message 5/10. Well enough produced for a change, epic without being too much like U2 or Celine Dion, but the song itself is just boring. It's nice, but utterly and completely boring. A big step down from the last-minute additions to Rush of Blood, which were all brilliant pop songs it's hard to imagine anyone writing, let alone in such a short time. But this one actually sounds like it was done in 5 minutes. 8. Low 4/10. Sounds like "White Shadows" if it had no melody. Actually, sounds like "New Year's Day" (EXACTLY, at the beginning) if it was a very bad song. I can't believe they convinced Brian Eno to play synthesizer on this. It seems to be trying to be experimental, but it's not. Maybe it sounds good live, it's just an unformed mess on X&Y. 9. Talk 1/10. You don't remake a song unless you can add something new to it. This sounds like U2 covering "Computer Love," not like an original Coldplay song. The lyrics are even worse on the new version than the leaked one. I have nothing against them sampling the riff, but that riff is really all there is to this song, and they don't even play it right. They needed to do something better with it, just like as fans of "Clocks," we would expect a rapper who samples the keyboard from it to do something creative and make it worth listening to their version rather than just standing on Coldplay's work. If "Computer Love" was an obscure or strange song like most of what Kraftwerk did, Chris would get bonus points for making it known to the world, but "Computer Love" (which is very melodic and catchy, compared to anything else Kraftwerk did) was actually a big chart in 1981. In fact, it went number 1 in the UK! So the exposure was not needed-- they should have made it a b-side, if they needed to release it at all. 10. Twisted Logic 1/10. It's been a long time since I've heard any album, however good or bad, with a closing track this disappointing. Whether you are a good artist or not, you try to close albums with your best tracks, not your worst, and this song is a failed experiment similar to "Low," except even less interesting. Ordinarily I don't make a big deal about Chris' lyrics, they are what they are, and his voice and passion makes them moving. Sometimes he even surprises me and writes great lyrics. But this song is attempting to say something important, something about world hunger and debt and things like that, I think, and it completely fails, which is a shame. The line about computers looking for life is insultingly bad. I thought the opening melody was quite beautiful even though the song is weak, until I realized it was identical to Alanis' "Uninvited." That same ripped-off Eastern sound which bands have tried a million times before. To think this is the band that wrote one of my favorite closing tracks ever, "Amsterdam." Bleh. (I can't think of "Til Kingdom Come" as the closing track-- it's not bad, but it sounds so out of place on this album.) 11. The Hardest Part 0/10. Just horrible in every way. 2nd worst Coldplay song ever. 12. X&Y -10/10. The worst thing this band has ever, and hopefully will ever, do. You know why? Because it seems created for no other reason than to move product. And as much as I dislike some of the other songs on this album, they still feel like they have some integrity. I really want to believe they are still people with integrity, still trying to be a meaningful band, and not just a mega-selling one. But the lyrics of this song make me think it's a big sham. They are a joke. They are completely meaningless. To have it be the title track, and define what the title itself means, single-handedly makes me like the album less. An embarassment.

Now I admit, THAT was a good interview. I was actually thinking Chris is in need of a devastating kill-yourself breakup, and then he'll write brilliant lyrics. That would be the best Coldplay album ever, not that I'm saying I want that for him.

uh, and if you dont mind me asking, how the hell is Led Zeppelin "in the world right now"? :o

At the moment... a band called TV on the Radio, if their second album is as good as their first. Best old band, Radiohead. But I didn't like Hail to the Thief too much. Everything they did from The Bends till that was absolute genius, and their b-sides are still killer. They have the potential to still be by far the best, but we'll have to see what their next one is like.

I do think they'll be seen as a certain kind of classic, just for their quality. And they'll be albums people will play for their kids, and future generations. People will look to Coldplay as examples of good songwriting and they'll be influential in that way. I just dont think they'll be classics on the level of OK Computer, Nevermind, The Joshua Tree or those albums from the 60s and 70s, which is fair, because they don't reflect the times. They are sort of just timeless albums which keeps them from being revolutionary. People whose personal favorite albums are all the "classics" are boring though.

You mean, will the next video just be a pretty advertisement trying to sell the album on the band's sex appeal, like Clocks and Speed of Sound and God Put a Smile on Your Face, or will it be an actual artistic video like all their videos from before that? How does everyone know Fix You is the next single anyway... it would be a good single but I think they should go for White Shadows next, because the first single was a piano song. White Shadows is basically a U2 ripoff, but it's so much better than what U2 is doing these days. If they want to be the biggest rock band in the world, they release White Shadows. If they keep releasing only the slow ballad singles they'll completely lose any rock audience. Square One would be good too, actually, because it's both a slow ballad and a rocker. With a little editing for time, I predict that would be a massive hit, maybe the biggest they've ever had. It's like "Politik" but a bit more tamed for radio. Anyone can relate to the lyrics.

Politik Shiver Spies The Scientist Yellow Trouble Green Eyes Warning Sign A Whisper A Rush of Blood to the Head Amsterdam

The title song, Twisted Logic and The Hardest Part are AWFUL.

It's like you guys have never heard the word "cheesy." X&Y is not that bad, and lots of people might like it, but it's really far from being "great art" in the sense that anyone but a hardcore Coldplay fan would define it. It would also be quite pushing it to call Coldplay's other albums great art. That's now what Coldplay tries to be about. At least before, they WERE great pop music. Now they sound like Sting. Very occasionally something is catchy or moving, but it's all so slick and soulless it's not worth the trouble. Also, Sting is obviously more intelligent than Chris Martin, though this probably hurts his incredibly pretentious music in the end. The Pitchfork comparison was apt: Chris Martin's about like Dido-- the female Sting, minus any attempt at using big words.

Coldplay and Star Wars/Lord of the Rings-- both use the exact same font. Perhaps a font calibrated to allow boring, undeserving entertainment products to make tons of money?

Now this is a myth. Taste is taste. Thom has not really been into guitar rock much, except his own band, since the Pixies broke up. Phil even likes Athlete, so I'm sure he's at least a Parachutes fan, and Ed loves U2 and anthemic rock n roll. I would not be surprised if that half of the band appreciates Coldplay's first two albums, maybe even this one. Musical taste aside, reporters try to provoke people in interviews. They try to get Chris to say he hates Thom, and they try to get Thom to say he hates Chris. They want a Gallagher style feud, but it's not gonna happen. Still, we all know Thom Yorke is a bit unpredictable in interviews sometimes. (Fans of Chris Martin's mood swings don't have a leg to stand on in criticizing Thom for mental health, though, so please don't). What he said, in response to a leading question, was about like this: "You become lifestyle music whether you want to or not. Coldplay is an example right now." Is he criticizing Coldplay? No, he's not passing any sort of judgment on their songs, he's just saying it's sad the way the marketing campaign has grown so big the intentions of the music itself are obscured. The only time when Thom specifically had a go at another band for sounding so much like him it made him sick, was a few years ago. And it wasn't Coldplay, it was Muse. Who don't sound like Radiohead now, but around Showbiz, Matt Bellamy was basically Thom crossed with Jeff Buckley. One reason he made his voice sound strange on Kid A was he was sick of turning on the radio and hearing his disembodied self singing about things he didn't care about. He was once depressed by "fridge buzz" radio, but imagine feeling like he'd become a part of it, just due to other bands' music. But Coldplay hadn't even released their first single until Kid A was done. Most likely it was Travis' popularity that inspired the voice change. And while I doubt he's a fan of Travis' music, he can't hate them personally too much, or he wouldn't work with the same producer. Thom just could not sing like that, write that kind of song anymore, because his territory had been pulled out from under him and appropriated by other people. But not Coldplay. Coldplay was a new band, so the territory was new for them, and as I said, they came around too late to have any impact on Radiohead's evolution. I don't know what Chris is really about yet. But let's look at Bono. Bono would not be phased by the idea that his work has become "lifestyle music," he would love it. Bono has a completely opposite philosophy from Thom. I think both of their views (if not recent actual music by U2, or Radiohead for that matter) have lots of integrity. Bono wants U2 to be primarily a communal experience, inclusive of everyone. How good an album is is determined by how popular it is, but not popular in a monetary sense, something purer. Bono is serious, he doesn't write albums JUST to pander (even if they now sound like it), but he's a populist at heart. It's not that Thom intentionally excludes people, but Thom is an outsider, anyone can see that. He looks at the things the media doesn't tell you, that don't get on TV, and he makes them personal. He writes music outsiders appreciate. If U2 does this at times, or has in the past, they've made it easy for everyone-- Art Rock for Dummies. When Radiohead writes complex songs, they aren't that hard because the band still has plenty of melodic sense, but you have to puzzle them out for yourself. Radiohead's music is a much more personal thing for them than U2's is-- U2 has given up ownership of their music to the world, because for them it's only as good as the number of people who GET it. Thom and Radiohead do not hate popularity. They've said how much they love "Hey Ya," the Beatles, tons of popular stuff! In fact, with the exception of the Cure and Echo & the Bunnymen, they've namedropped every older artist Coldplay has namedropped. And they aren't like Nirvana. They don't feel guilty about being successful, at least not anymore. But the difference is, Radiohead do not particularly enjoy being successful either, because to them success is in the music itself, not the number of people who appreciate it. They want it out there, they want people getting it, but they NEVER compromise what they want it to sound like in order to have more people hear it. What they want it to sound like isn't always necessarily good, either, but it always ends up sounding how they wanted it, if they release it. They would never have released an album like Pop which they didn't feel was done. They would have taken the million dollar tour losses instead, or gone into bankruptcy. Bono described songs as "parents," who tell you what to do. Once the song is there, you have to find a way to present it to get it to the most number of people. And sadly in recent years, if that means gutting the lyrics or pointlessly overproducing it, or appearing in an iPod ad or at the Super Bowl, fine. Thom has described his songs as children-- to be protected and allowed to grow up and finally put into the schools/albums where they really fit. That's why there are so many brilliant Radiohead songs that have been recorded in many failed attempts, but never released, because they didn't get things just right. I'm not sure what kind of band Coldplay is in terms of backing philosophy, more the U2 or more the Radiohead. To be honest, I'm getting very bad vibes from Chris right now. He used to be the most humble man in rock, awkward like Thom, yet no hard edge (okay, defect of the music, definite plus for personality), but I really think fame has changed him. He's still completely insecure, but he has a harder shell, and he's intentionally making a play for power. Maybe it's because the indie rockers he always wanted to be like have not taken him into their ranks, and the pop people have. When people like you, you become influenced by them, and you naturally want to please them. X&Y is not such a contrived thing. A band's own tastes can change as they try more smoothed over commercial styles. But if/when this was what Bono was doing in the '80s, he was able to make it seem so much deeper than that. When I see the "Speed of Sound" video, it simply looks like a true "television commercial." Bono hawks iPods on TV now, but on their third album's first video, which musically was not that far from "Speed of Sound," he was out there in the snow, singing about WAR. Bono is right: U2 has WEIGHT, and so whatever their flaws, its understandable they are a candidate for the biggest band in the world. Radiohead has WEIGHT, and they get a special award for being humble enough never to throw it around at everyone (the critics do that, not them). Coldplay has been a very pretty, a very moving band at times. Their first two albums are amazingly great for a new band, if not quite earth shatteringly creative yet accessible like The Bends. But Coldplay for all its heavy production doesn't have the kind of weight either U2 or Radiohead has, certainly not on X&Y. How can they aspire to be the biggest band in the world in any meaningful sense, without being a band that's ABOUT anything? How can they hope their music, with those lyrics, could possibly define the lives of everyone on the globe the way U2's best songs do, or define the state of the world for their fans the way Radiohead's songs do? It sounds like when they say they want to compete with U2, all they mean is they want to sell more albums than U2. There's absolutely no honor in that alone. So Thom Yorke has not said anything bad about Coldplay, besides stating the obvious (they became successful despite themselves), and he probably never will, because he's not the type to slag anyone off or put himself into the tabloids. He has a family and kids just like Chris, and that's what matters to him now, aside from music. But maybe one of these days when Coldplay's popularity is not so "despite themselves" anymore, he will say something nasty, and maybe they will deserve it.

Now this is a myth. We all know Thom Yorke is a bit moody and off the cuff in interviews sometimes. (Fans of Chris Martin's mood swings don't have a leg to stand on in criticizing Thom for mental health, though, so please don't). What he said, was about like this: "You become lifestyle music whether you want to or not. Coldplay is an example right now." Is he criticizing Coldplay? No, he's not passing any sort of judgment on their songs, he's just saying it's sad the way the marketing campaign has grown so big the intentions of the music itself are obscured. The only time when Thom specifically went into another band for sounding so much like him it made him sick, was a few years ago. And it wasn't Coldplay, it was Muse. Who don't sound like Radiohead now, but around Showbiz, Matt Bellamy was basically Thom crossed with Jeff Buckley. One reason he made his voice sound strange on Kid A was he . But Coldplay hadn't even released their first single until Kid A was done. Most likely it was Travis' popularity that inspired the voice change. And while I doubt he's a fan of Travis' music, he can't hate them too much, or he wouldn't work with the same producer. I don't know what Chris is about yet. But let's look at Bono. Bono would not care if his music was "lifestyle music," he would love it. Bono has a completely opposite philosophy from Thom. I think both of their views (if not recent music by U2) have lots of integrity. Bono wants U2 to be primarily a communal experience, inclusive of everyone. How good an album is is determined by how popular it is. Bono is serious, he doesn't write albums JUST to pander (even if they now sound like it), but he's a populist at heart. It's not that Thom intentionally excludes people, but Thom is an outsider, anyone can see that. He looks at the things the media doesn't tell you, that don't get on TV, and he makes them personal. He writes music outsiders appreciate. Radiohead's music is a much more personal thing for them than U2's-- U2 has given up ownership of their music to the world, because for them it's only as good as the number of people who GET it. Thom and Radiohead do not hate popularity. They've said how much they love "Hey Ya," the Beatles, tons of popular stuff! In fact, with the exception of the Cure and Echo & the Bunnymen, they've namedropped every older artist Coldplay has namedropped. But the difference is, Radiohead write music for themselves first, to express a particular mood or . They want it out there, they want people getting it, but they NEVER compromise what they want it to sound like in order to have more people hear it. What they want it to sound like isn't always necessarily good, either, but it always ends up sounding that way, if they release it. Bono described songs as "parents," who tell you what to do. Once the song is done, you have to find a way to get it to the most number of people. And sadly in recent years, if that means gutting the lyrics or pointlessly overproducing it, fine. Thom describes his songs as children, to be protected and allowed to grow up and finally put into the schools/albums where they really fit. That's why there are so many brilliant Radiohead songs that have been recorded in many failed attempts, but never released, because they didn't get things just right. I'm not sure what kind of band Coldplay is. To be honest, I'm getting very bad vibes from Chris right now. He used to be the most humble man in rock, awkward like Thom, yet no hard edge (okay, defect of the music, definite plus for personality), but I really think fame has changed him. He's still completely insecure, but he has a harder shell, and he's intentionally making a play for power. Maybe it's because the indie rockers he always wanted to be like have not taken him into their ranks, and the pop people have. When people like you, you become influenced by them, and you naturally want to please them. X&Y is not such a contrived thing. A band's own tastes can change as they try more smoothed over commercial styles. But if/when this was what Bono was doing in the '80s, he was able to make it seem so much deeper than that. When I see the "Speed of Sound" video, it simply looks like a true "television commercial." Bono hawks iPods on TV now, but on their third album's first video, which musically was not that far from "Speed of Sound," he was out there in the snow, singing about WAR. Bono is right: U2 has WEIGHT, and so whatever their flaws, its understandable they are a candidate for the biggest band in the world. Radiohead has WEIGHT, and they get a special award for being humble enough never to throw it around at everyone (the critics do that, not them). Coldplay has been a very pretty, a very moving band at times. But Coldplay doesn't have that kind of weight, certainly not on X&Y. How can they aspire to be the biggest band in the world in any meaningful sense? How can they hope their music, with those lyrics, could possibly define the lives of everyone on the globe the way U2's best songs do? It sounds like when they say they want to compete with U2, all they mean is they want to sell more albums. There's absolutely no honor in that. So Thom Yorke has not said anything bad about Coldplay, besides stating the obvious (they became successful despite themselves), but maybe one of these days when it's not so "despite themselve" anymore, he will, and maybe they will deserve it.

The My Iron Lung EP has just 7 songs (not counting the acoustic version of Creep at the end). And it certainly blows away X&Y and plenty of superior albums. Get that.

Hey: Jude don't say it bad They took some sad songs and made them blander Remember to let it out of your heart Then you can start to make it better Hey Jude, he ain't afraid You were made to be even better The minute you get it out from your skin X and Yyyyyyyy You're no bedwetter And anytime you feel the pain, like Jude, refrain Don't put in the Keane, go for vocoder For well you know that it's a fool who likes to drool While hearing a celeb cry on shoulders Nah nah nah nah nah nah-nah-naaah Hey Jude Don't let us drown Don't allow us to be swallowed In that shredder Keep out of the lifestyle music machine Your mind will be unfettered So turn it off and turn it on, like Jude, keep strong You're waiting for music to be reborn with And don't you know that it's not you, even Jude might too (enjoy Coldplay until this foreskin) Nah nah nah nah nah nah-nah-naaah Hey, Jude don't say it bad Take these sad songs and cut the tether Remember, bad music is hardly a sin This album's just empty Let him dismember Nah nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah, hey Jude Nah nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah, hey Jude Nah nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah, hey Jude Nah nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah, hey Jude Nah nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah, hey Jude Nah nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah, hey Jude Nah nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah, hey Jude Nah nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah, hey Jude Nah nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah, hey Jude Nah nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah, hey Jude Nah nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah, hey Jude Nah nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah, hey Jude Nah nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah, hey Jude Nah nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah, hey Jude Nah nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah, hey Jude Nah nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah, hey Jude (fade out)

For some reason I have an idea the patron saint of somethingorotherlikeumlostcauses is in this thread.