Famous Old Painter

Yup, it's not even close

(quote missing, what the hell?) Agreed. You can't really judge the production properly with the quality we have. The songwriting on the other hand...

I didn't expect anything and was still disappointed!

I know it's not a popular opinion around these parts but I really quite like Ghost Stories, so I'm not one of those "everything Coldplay does now is crap" kind of guys. I wasn't listening to AHFOD to hate it, honestly. I actually wanted to find some nice moments I could add to playlists and the like. Coldplay rarely let me down in that department. But.... :cry: I'm off to cuddle my copy of Viva. Reminisce over the good times...

Truth be told I really like GS, I even prefer it to X&Y and parts of Parachutes. I like every song on it, even ASFOS. But I really dislike MX, and none of the AHFOD songs have impressed me thus far. I don't know if that makes me a vitriolic Oldplayer or what but I'm certainly not hate-listening to the new stuff, I approach it all with an open mind in the hope that it impresses me. But I'm not gonna lie and say I enjoy songs I don't.

In a way this kind of hits the nail on the head. Coldplay were never that original, they were always criticized for ripping off bands like Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Sigur Ros, My Bloody Valentine etc. The difference is those were bands worth ripping off; they made intelligent, emotionally resonant and timeless music, all of which flowed into Coldplay's works. Compare that to today where Chris is getting his inspiration from of-the-moment chart acts, who play formulaic music appealing to the lowest common denominator for the purpose of shifting units. I'm certainly not saying that's what Coldplay themselves are doing, I have no doubt Chris is making this sort of music out of love and sincerity. But it's just sad to see it go like this, considering the taste and judgement they used to show.

Everglow sounds like boyband music :(

Just off the top of my head, Am I Safe by Ryan Adams and Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space by Spiritualized renders this statement blatantly untrue. And that's just the ones I know about.

"He (Chris) has lots of vivid dreams. He still has one that he's been having for years, where Thom Yorke doesn't want to hang out with him."

Is this the shortest gap Coldplay have had between album announcement and release?

Added!

What do people make of the new songs played at Tidal? I er... I really don't like them. Taking nothing away from people who do but... ugh. Thankfully that thread reminded me that this masterpiece exists [video=youtube;EmIgnrAt_rA] :heart::heart:

nah

So, this is the India song?

Expanding on this, I've always felt like the first four Coldplay albums work because the songs sound like they could've been written at any point during the last 40 years. MX and GS on the other hand sound very of-the-moment, it's hard to imagine them being written or recorded at any other point in history. That's fine in the short term but it also means they won't age well. For me it still feels like Coldplay released Viva yesterday, yet MX feels like forever ago now. I don't buy into the whole Chris being happy = bad music thing either. Viva was ludicrously happy at points and most love that, whilst GS is sad and downbeat for the most part and people here don't seem to get into it at all. I actually think one of the reasons why MX failed was because it seemed like Chris was pretending to be happy through his songs, which could be why a lot of it feels so hollow. Not so much the emotion itself, but the sincerity of it. He seems genuinely happy now though, which gives me some hope for AHFOD.

We don't know for sure yet that they didn't!

Added

At the moment, AHFOD is looking like an utter circus with too many wtf surprise guests to keep track of. So I've started this thread for that purpose. So far we've got AVICII Coleman Barks Khatia Buniatishvili Blue Ivy Carter Merry Clayton Brian Eno Noel Gallagher Beyonce Knowles Tove Lo Moses & Apple Martin Barack Obama Gwentyth Paltrow Stargate Annabelle Wallis I'll keep this thread updated when/if more are revealed.

Karma Police vs No Surprises

Yeah, Ghost Stories leaked just a few days before retail. It leaked because someone grabbed a physical copy from a shop which had started stocking it. Honestly, I'm expecting the same this time around. About a decade ago albums would leak months in advance, because album leaks were relatively new phenomenon and labels weren't sure how to combat it. Nowadays labels, particularly big ones like Warner, are very strict and careful to make sure albums don't leak. They probably have entire divisions devoted to it. So I wouldn't get your hopes up this time around, guys.

Something that never even occured to me until you guys brought it up; I remember back in the AROBTTH days the band were really giving it their all to raise awareness for Make Trade Fair. It got its own page in the linear notes, there was a large chunk of the Live 2003 doco devoted to it, Chris texta'd the logo onto his hand and X&Y even had the logo on the cover! Since then they seem to have really eased up on the whole social awareness thing. They still do it, but to a much less in-your-face extent than they used to. To be honest I don't really mind that, but it's a defining difference between Oldplay and Newplay.

Why is Christmas Lights considered the last Oldplay song? When it was released there was an entire separate thread in the music section about the song for those who didn't approve of where Coldplay was going.

I predict in 10 years time, Chris will be 48

That video :laugh3:

I think the assumption of Oldplayers disliking the song because it's happy doesn't stack up. VLV is an incredibly happy album and Ghost Stories is a very sad one, yet Oldplayers dislike GS and love VLV. Strawberry Swing is my favourite song by this band, and that song is as positive and upbeat as anything.