MasoKnight

And yet the review of X&Y on their website is 5 stars... A ridiculous trend lately. Edit: The Independent's review of X&Y wasn't starred, but I'm guessing they would've given it 2-3 stars. At least one organization is consistent.

The version we currently have is not very high quality, but musically it is the same as the album version. It is the proper length.

Hmm. That hasn't occurred to me, and Morning Bell is one of my favorite songs off Kid A (and Amnesiac.) The drums are similarly stuttered, but that's about as far as I can go with any substantial similarity.

If anybody watched the Jimmy Kimmel skit, you'd see that the real Will has been missing for awhile. They just picked him up, and it's clear on this album that he's back. :D

There seems to be a lot of hate for this song, with some people calling it "filler" at best. Some of us, though, see the song for what it really is - a beautiful, and ultimately necessary, breath of fresh air in the middle of an album full of all sorts of different sounds. Having this lovely lullaby of bells in the center of the album, keeps me from getting overwhelmed by the heavier material. For those complaining about the over-production of most of the album (an opinion I don't agree with, by the way), why not look to Reign of Love? --------------- Reign of love I can’t let go To the sea I offer This heavy load Locust wind Lift me up I’m just a prisoner In a reign of love Locust wind .... How I wish I'd spoken up To a reign of love Reign of love By the church, we're waiting Reign of love On my knees go praying How I wish I'd spoken up Away get carried On a reign of love.

I'd love to see more instrumentals not only to start off an album but in the middle of albums as well. One of my biggest issues with X&Y was that instruments would build and build, but they would never get the spotlight because Chris would sing over them (What if, Low, for example). That problem has been corrected somewhat on VLV (The middle of 42, parts of DAAHF and Yes, and even going so far as to use Chris's voice as an instrument on Chinese Sleep Chant), but on the next album I'd like to see them extend this idea to full-fledged multi-minute instrumentals like Doves or The Flaming Lips might do. I'd say they're heading in the right direction, though. And it's about time Coldplay's instruments start getting some attention. Edit: And now that I see the poll choices, I'll add this. Instrumentals shouldn't be done just for the sake of being "musical" or "experimental". Life in Technicolor is a genuinely good and pleasing song, and it never feels like it's been added just to aim at some musical credibility.

I'd say it builds to one of the best guitar solos Coldplay has produced.

It sounds like "flat" to me, too.

That was pretty good, actually.

Is everyone here trying to get the LA code? Nevermind, I'm assuming this is for Canada.

20 minute Reign of Love. Wow. I wish Coldplay would release some "rough cut" material at some time in the future. It'd be cool to hear the process of their songs being built and rebuilt. I don't think bands release stuff like that very often, though. My first encounter with it was on the re-releases of Fleetwood Mac's albums.

I joined a Justin Timberlake forum for this album. I think that says it all.

Yes, I downloaded it. Yes, I love it. Yes, I will pick up a physical copy on June 17th.

Exactly. It's a really, really lovely song. And it's the perfect breath of fresh-air in the middle of an album with lots of sounds.

I didn't think that was bad at all, actually. I quite enjoyed it. Chris laughing at Jonny's mess-up is priceless. "I'm so sorry I squeezed your fingers!" Haha. I laughed out loud at the Angela Merkel celebration clip.

Didn't get to hear it all, obviously, but it seems like Chris's comfort/confidence level has grown a lot since MTV.

Let's see how take two of VLV goes. :p

Nice performance of Violet Hill. I'd prefer a piano to the acoustic guitar, but it was probably an issue of space. Still awesome, though. It looks like that TV with rabbit ears (which was playing the dancing politicians video) will be traveling with them for awhile.

I looked. It seems like they're from past shows only. http://abc.go.com/primetime/jimmykimmel/garage/index.html

About to perform.

The Escapist really is brilliant. It's one of their shortest songs, and it's light on lyrics, but it's one of the most emotional things they've ever done, I think.

Was the missing Will bit aimed at how they've "found him" on this album? :p

1) AROBTTH 2) DAAHF 3) VLV 4) X&Y 5) Parachutes Parachutes is beautiful but too short to be as rewarding as the others. Musically, I prefer it to X&Y, but X&Y's live intro is really cool, so that puts it above Parachutes for me.

http://www.justintimberlakeforum.net/viewforum.php?f=15 There's an interesting discussion there.

Random observations of the final few songs: There's a line in "Strawberry Swing" about being able to keep your feet on the ground, which makes me wonder about its connection to the song with a title like that which was left off the album.. The transition between "Strawberry Swing" and "Death and all His Friends" is really abrupt. A few other songs feel the same way, but I attribute most of them to being ripped as individual tracks rather than as an entire album. This one, though, seems that it'll be that way on the album. The chorus of "DAAHF" is... kind of rap-ish. Anyone else feel that way? "The Escapist" is beautiful!