greta22

yeah i got that sense too, that's he's trying to be abrasive and raw... that's why he tends to staccato the end of his vocal notes. the lyrics to this song are my favorite of coldplay's, by the way. however that still doesn't make explain why he would sing the note in the wrong key, it's just the simple fact that i think he didn't notice it and probably no one else did either. it's nothing new - it's surprising really how often you'll hear mistakes like that in major label work.

Now before anyone replies back trying to rip my head off... let me first state that I love the song. And if there's anybody who is obsessed with Coldplay, then it's me. However, I just wanted to state that I was surprised by some of the obvious production mistakes Brian Eno let slip through the cracks.... Maybe the reason I picked up on it is because I'm a musician who studies music theory as well as production work, and probably 95% of other people listening to it wouldn't even notice it. I mean this in an absolutely no-music-snobbery kind of way; I just simply mean if you're not looking for it and you don't have a trained ear, then there's a good chance you probably wouldn't notice the mistake. However, Eno's job, and a producer's job in general, is not only to create an overal cohesive sound to an album, but also notice when a singer goes into the wrong key and correct it into the right vocal melody. Even though the untrained ear won't notice it, subconsciously your brain will pick up on it being off and be less attracted to it, just like you would instinctively with scent, let's say. First off, right at 0:44 when Chris sings "roof TOPS" he's actually singing the wrong note by half a step. He's playing a C# minor chord on the piano, starts singing the beginning vocal notes on the tonic note (C#). On the word "Top" he wants to move up in the scale, which would properly be singing the E note (3rd in scale) but improperly sings down by half a step, at the D# note, resulting in a clash. He continues to sing this improperly throughout the entire song, as he gets to the next E note during "winDOWS" in the next verse he sings D# again. The funny thing is, I think he made this mistake because when you sing "winDOWS" it's actually inbetween him hitting the chord on the piano again, so it's easy not to notice it. However, if you try to sing the word in D# right on top of the C# chord, you notice it definitely clashes and sounds bad. Chris also does a pretty sloppy job around 1:16 when he sings "You better LIE LOW" (the capitalized words being the ones I'm talking about). Here he sings a downward melody of G#-F#-E-D# but is off-key, especially during the "low" part. He does even worse on the word "Cross" at 1:50 in the song. This is a minor production mistake, but right at 1:42 when Chris starts the new verse singing the word, "Priests", he starts a second too early. Not that it's a big deal but it sounds as if the track got copy & pasted a few hairs too early in ProTools, haha... Finally, when you get to the ending where it's just the vocals and pianos, Chris does a wonderful job at singing all the notes correctly. Maybe since this part is so less overpowering musically, he could hear his voice better while he was recording it? I understand, at least my interpretation is, he's almost doing a talking-vocal line, it's very Bob Dylan-esque in my opinion, particularly during the verse. So I "get it"...it's supposed to sorta be sloppy. However, as a producer, as much as I love this new song, sometimes I cringe when I listen to it. It's not his best vocals. And to tell you the truth, I would have made the vocals not so reverby, it drowns him out a bit. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to unnecessarily nitpick this song or over-analyze it. Maybe some people would think i'm over-doing it, but anyone else who's in production or music theory work would see what I mean. I'm just saying I'm surprised that despite the fact Coldplay probably shelled out millions of dollars to work with a giganticaly famous and amazing producer like Eno, along with (i'm sure) countless of other mixers and engineers who heard this album, NO ONE else noticed these obvious vocal flaws before they mastered the track? Where's George Martin when you need him...

their best lyrics by far.... and yes he's definitely saying the "fog became god" ... "blew the captain" sounds a little off though, ha ha

oh whoops sorry!

NEW ROLLING STONE ARTICLE! March 20th Coldplay in the studio: http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2008/03/20/in-the-studio-coldplay/ SWEET! :)

hmmmm yeah.... its gotta be "viva la vida or death and all his friends" because its all in one quote....i like it!! it's like a total fuck you to what we would expect from coldplay, haha. its very tim burton-esque in my opinion.

hahahaha.....

honestly, what is the big deal? it's just a freakin album title....people need to relax. i love how everyone from my generation today tries to act like we're all so unique and rebellious and different and we don't care what people think of us. which is so truly wrong. because secretly the reason anyone disliking this album title is thinking (subconciously or not) "eww this reminds me of ricky martin and my friends are going to make fun of me for it" who the fuck cares? IT'S JUST AN ALBUM TITLE!! i cant believe people could be so trivial. that's the whole point of art. people make art and call it/name it/make it any freaking way they want. chris martin and coldplay don't owe anyone an apology or explanation. yes, yes... i know people will say, "yeah but we're the fans...we're the ones who make them their money" or "i can have my own opinion about it and not have to like it" but if you honestly feel that way about 3 words, it's so trite. you dont need to like it, but then again, no one is forcing you to have to like it. thats the whole point of art. it's out there for the world to observe and maybe we dont necessarily ever need to make judgements on it because ... in my personal opinion... art is more for the sake of observation than anything else. ok...sorry.... if i sound a bit heated, but i'm just tired of coldplay getting a bad wrap. i mean come on, ok, maybe they dont make the most provocative, out there, experimental type of music....but they are definitely one of the few bands left out there who are making REAL music with actual melodies that make you feel something....rather than 99% of the other bands out there who, after playing the guitar for a few months, think they're the next "indie rock gods" and put a few chords together, throw a forgettable vocal line over it, get some fake blog hype attached to their name, and they're the next pitchfork-one-hit-wonder. coldplay's going to be around for a while. much longer than any of these other bands. and i'm gonna laugh and be happy when i see in the next 20 years, they're still selling out concerts while people are saying, "deerhoof who?" i'm glad to see coldplay is finally growing in a direction, at least the way i'm observing it, where they dont give a shit how people interpret them anymore. at least not as much as their last 3 albums, which is what i always felt held them back. and anyways, come on. "In Rainbows"? Radiohead got away with that because well...frankly...they can get away with anything. Thom Yorke could fart into a microphone for 3 minutes and everyone would say it was groundbreaking. Don't get me wrong, they're one of my favorite bands of today, but I feel they get a little bit too much special attention. Cut Coldplay some slack.

everyone's just thinking of it negatively because you're instantly reminded of ricky martin. which is fair --cause i thought of him the second i heard it too...but imagine if ricky martin had never had released that stupid song and coldplay were some brand new indie band....then no one would have doubts over it. people would probably be like, "wow, cool! so edgy". thats why i said on the rollingstone.com website that if my morning jacket's new album was named that the commentators would all be getting boners right now....mwhaha

I highly doubt this is a hoax... I remember actually seeing that "Slender Fungus" link at the bottom of the page a long time ago ... Never got around to clicking on it though...doh!! But I did know for a while that this company "Slender Fungus" designed their current site... so I highly doubt that those pictures on their site would be fake... like others have said, they put too much work into the design for it to be fake. Also, if I remember correctly... I could have sworn that link was visible before. They probably made it white after they posted the pictures of the new site, so that they could show the design to maybe close friends/associates? Anyway, I am soooo stoked! Man I can't wait to see Coldplay again. I'm going to Bonnaroo again this year too...how sweet would it be if they played there too?! (Doubt it but you never know :) ) P.S. I really like the new site design... I love the famous artwork references and the vivid colors.

Haha wow, what a great response... thanks guys!! I'm really glad you guys like them so much ... to answer the one question, I used just a little ol' digital camera called a Pentax Optio S4... it fits in an altoid container! It's pretty nice. And to answer the other question, yes of course you can use my pictures for an avatar! Do whatever you want with them, that's why I'm sharing them.... Haha yeah, I never realized it, but that one pic of chris standing next to "Giant" Johnny does look quite funny! That was during "Square One" .. it was such a fantastic concert, and the fact it was in pit made it unreal.. you really felt like you were in a tiny club watching them, so close... you would turn around and forget that 25,000 people were behind you!! :)

Hey guys, I know it's late, but I took these photos over summer when I saw Coldplay at the Tweeter Center in Camden, NJ... I was right in pit against the rail so I had an amazing view and it was the best concert I've ever been to ... I took some pictures to remember the night, and I posted these months ago on the coldplay.com forum but always forgot to post them here, so I figured the people who didn't see them at coldplay.com would appreciate them .... I apologize in advance for the load time, and i'm sorry they're a bit dark... enjoy! The pictures of Chris RIGHT in front of me is actually how close he was to me at one point! During "Talk" he wanted a cell phone from this one girl who was confused, so my boyfriend yanked it from her and gave it to him hahah... afterwards she was ecstatic.... if you want to view these photos later they're also at http://www.stoned.com/coldplay/ Hope you enjoy them! :)