ApproximatelyInfinite

Jo and I differ on what we thought of the Oxegen performance, I think...there were a few sound mixing problems, but I've definitely heard worse, and I think they sounded pretty good, if not outstanding compared to other times I've seen them. The crowd was fucking ridiculous, though, as expected--but I can't say whether or not I thought it was worse than Coachella, because that had a lot of other shit going down too that just didn't happen at Oxegen, like people bloodied and kicked in the head. As for them onstage--yeah, they can be somewhat wooden, especially Nick and Nikolai. But if you watch Nikolai, like if you're right in front of him at the barrier, you'll see just how much he really does enjoy himself. He does little sneak interactions with the people up front that the cameras never seem to catch. Fab is hard to see sometimes and Nick is just kind of stoic, but Albert is great to watch. I think Julian (who IS very much sober) lost a lot of his stage presence when he gave up drinking, and his nerves and own insecurities keep him from being as much of a crazy frontman as he used to be (he used to be a madman when he was hopped up on various things). But I don't really go to a Strokes show, or any show, to see antics or have the members look at me and interact with me, so I don't really mind. I just enjoy seeing a band I love with all my heart live, and I'm not someone who thinks they're up there for the money or because they feel they have to be, I just think they have their own way of doing and dealing with what they do :shrug:.

Wow, I never posted a review...I haven't had internet for a week, really, so that's my excuse for being late :P. This is just copy and pasted for something I wrote for Tumblr. It's super-long and about the whole day, not just Coldplay, but here you go:

No, not English/Asian Beyonce fans...hmm, it sounds like we were close to each other, though! I was between two nice Irish people and a Spanish girl (who I found out later was the one kicking me earlier in the day) with her Irish boyfriend. No problem :D

I was the very front row, against the barrier, between Guy and Chris :wacky: Sorry guys, too tired to do a review tonight (I had to do my Strokes one first), but I'll have it up tomorrow! In the meantime, here's the one video I took during Coldplay...my battery wasn't going to last and I took more still photos, which use less power: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_CEemPl30U&feature=channel_video_title]YouTube - ‪Hurts Like Heaven--Coldplay, Oxegen Festival, July 10, 2011‬‏[/ame] It's as jerky as hell because of the crowd, and dark, but the audio is pretty good! The best of my photos from the whole weekend are HERE. I'm as big a Strokes fan as I am a Coldplay fan, so be prepared for that too, haha.

:lol:! Thanks for sharing that, Brooke :wacky:. I was on a bit of a gig-high, but I still stand by everything I tweeted in the heat of the moment...including the fact that it was the best I've seen them in (I think) 13 times in 6 years. I hope to have my full (characteristically long) experience story up tonight! :dance:

X&Y certainly isn't my favorite album of theirs or anything, but I connect more with the lyrics than I do with most of the ones from the Viva era, or this era so far. I feel like they still come from a personal place, or at least are put more literally. I feel like a lot of the Viva/LP5 lyrics are more oblique or are too metaphoric for me to really connect to them in the same way I did when Chris kind of just said how things were in a plain way. He seems to be writing less about himself, which a lot of musicians do, but I prefer the way he wrote when it seemed like he was talking plainly about things that he had actually been through.

I was more disappointed in the studio version of Major Minus than I was in ETIAW. I feel like I could be disowned by the more down-to-earth half of the Coldplay fandom for putting it that way, but whatever. I just feel like the vocal distortion takes away from the song--it doesn't seem to fit or add anything in a constructive way. It sounds more like something they threw in because they were bored and haven't done a lot with filters and voice effects before. I love the live version, but I feel like even if I'd never heard them play it live before and hadn't heard what it sounded like with unencumbered vocals, I still would have winced and made a horrible face when hearing the voice filter for the first time on the studio version. I just don't see the point, and I think it detracts from the otherwise pretty great song. (Side Note: OH MY GOD, KATIE, YOUR AVATAR :dead:)

This might be one of the only songs in the world where I drastically, drastically prefer the live version. Usually I don't care for live versions much unless I'm physically at the concert, but this live version...God, it saves us from the horrible vocal distortion. Why did they decide to do that? Not even Will's backup vocals can help out. It's so drenched in filters that I actually flinched when the vocals came in on first listen. I'd be a hypocrite if I said I was categorically anti vocal distortion on records, since my other favorite band relied heavily on vocal filters for two straight albums. But I think vocal effects can be used constructively, and this is not one of those times. This just sounds like they were bored so they threw it on, and I can't see where it adds anything. I feel like vocal distortion shouldn't stare you in the face and make you wince, and this definitely did that (and I don't think it was just because I'd heard the clean vocals of the live version before). There's the line on "Life in Technicolor ii," where he sings "every road is a ray of light," which I think is one of the few other times Coldplay's done vocal distortion, and even though that's a very obvious use of a filter, it seems more subtle to me, it seems to fit and add something. Not so with this song.

My plans were to go all day once I got the tweet this morning...til I just got back to my computer tonight and looked up the details and saw the final price is $127 :freak: I still have to think about it, but that's really a crazy price, even though I'd love to see TDCC again and The Kooks for the first time. We'll see, but damn, I went to another small festival in a very similar venue in Maryland two months ago, and the tickets were $55, so I thought this would be similar, but I guess not :angry:. If I wasn't seeing them at Oxegen I might say screw the price and go, but because this is Coldplay and I KNOW they're going to tour again at least twice over...I'm starting to think I won't spring for this. Le sigh.

YAY! :dance: OMG YES. I'm SO happy it's on Vh1 as well, because I don't get Palladia, which is a constant annoyance, but this is so brilliant :wacky:. I've set it to record already. SQUEE.

I never thought I'd see the day that Chris Martin tweeted, or said anything online :lol:. He even handwrites things and they get scanned in when he says anything on the official site! About the "new bit" part, I doubt they're still in the recording stages, but even if they are, they could be putting one or two new small things on and still have it out for the "towards the autumn" timeframe we've been told. But I agree with something someone said above about it probably having to do with a live adaptation of it rather than something entirely new to record.

OR if there are any Londoners/UKers that would like to see them at the O2 Academy on 7 July but don't have a ticket, let me know, I'm trying to sell mine for face-value :D

I absolutely love the new album. I don't know if it's even in my top two albums of theirs, but I think it's great. I think "Monday Morning" and "Stay Young, Go Dancing" are my favorites. I'm seeing them in Brooklyn on August 2, as I had to sell my ticket to see them in London in July because of a concert-conflict. Does anyone happen to be going to Brooklyn too? I'm going alone and it feels weird to be going to a summery outdoor concert alone :lol:. I go to club/theatre concerts alone all the time in England, but this one feels weird for some reason :P

That sounds kind of like a joke to me, I guess...but I won't say I'm not intrigued by the idea. Even though my gut tells me they'll release it conventionally and the Oracle said it's "a long way off," I would also not be surprised at all if they did a surprise release. What that would gain them, I have no idea, but I think it would be fun for some band that's not Radiohead to try something like that out and see what it does to sales. The hype alone of something like that from a huge band would be fun to watch.

WOW, I really meant to type South AFRICA :lol:. Oof. I think I made that mistake because I was just talking on Twitter with friends about how calling it "SA" was misleading, because it could mean South AMERICA as well as South AFRICA. *runs to edit post* :uhoh:

:lol:! Well if that has anything to do with what MX stands for, whether that's a song name or an album title or whatever, I'm going to crack up :P

dp :angry:

And if we're going to get really precise, my opinion is that the album will be released Monday, October 3 in the UK and Tuesday, October 4 in the US :P The first South African gig is October 5, and that's a proper GIG, not a festival. I think it would make sense to have the very first real gig very soon after the record release, and they're already going to be warmed up from the festivals anyway...so I see no reason to delay having their first proper show after putting out the record. Also, it would be kind of weird to have a proper gig after the festivals without a record out, if you ask me, but that's also completely possible.

Unless they're going to announce the CD 10 days before like Alien Radio said (something I call "pulling a Radiohead" :P), I still maintain August is too early. The Oracle said today it's not 100% done yet, and that it seems to be recorded completely, but now is time for all the technical stuff. If that's going to take til about the end of June (a total guess) and they're doing this in the conventional industry-approved way, July alone really just isn't enough for the typical amount of promotion in addition to all the production of the physical CDs and vinyl records and all that. I still say October. The Oracle even said to look to what the EMI rep said ages ago, and he said "autumn," which I take to mean post-September 21. I remain firm on my October prediction :D Now that we've heard some songs, I'm more impatient than ever (though I think I'm still fairly patient compared to some people :P). But we DO have an ETA, and I'm pretty sure they 100% confirmed that it would be out in 2011. That means the ABSOLUTE WORST is Christmas for the release, and even then...time flies, guys :wink:

Charlie Brown, with Hurts Like Heaven a close second.

I feel like this is one of the only somewhat respectable lines in the song, in my opinion (but before anyone jumps down my throat, besides the lyrics and the title, I really like the song, OK). It definitely seems to have more thought in it than some of the other lyrics, or maybe it just comes through to me better on that line. I took it to mean that he'd rather be a facilitator than someone who just ends things, like a party-pooper or something :lol:. Like a comma is a functional part of a sentence that helps it flow, while a full stop or period just ends it. But I think the only reason I bothered to put any thought into that line is because the rest are so utterly bad :P

Nah, it's almost definitely just me :lol:. Seriously, no one ever agrees with my musical analogies. I'm not *really* hearing the Human connection either, but I kind of see what you're getting at! :D (And you know how much I love Albert :heart: :heart: :heart:)

^What's even the source on that anyway? I don't see why people are saying it's that song, but maybe I just missed something.

I feel kind of like a teenybopper Top 40 radio listener with no taste, but I seem to have the opposite problem as a lot of people, and the more I listen to it, the more I like it. I feel like I need to defend that opinion with qualifiers, like "I know it's just shallow pop" and "wow, did Apple and Moses write the lyrics?", but the bottom line is that I'd probably have liked it as a fun, guilty-pleasure song no matter where I heard it or who it was by. And it just kind of makes me feel like this:

Wow, until this moment I really hated that lyric, if that's what it actually is, and was going to say I hoped the first person I quoted was right, but now that I see it actually references something, I think I have more appreciation for it.