RunForTheHills

Completely agree. :thumbsup:

One of the best commentaries I have ever heard on the current events and the global situation as a whole (posted just today). Really gets right to the very core of why we're in this mess and what people need to do to begin improving our predicament. I highly recommend listening to all four parts if you have the time. [ame= &feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=SP91FABF31A3F769F3] [/ame] I'm sure at least a couple of people who frequent this section will appreciate the depth and directness of the perspective presented here :wink:

I wonder if this is just to provoke even more of a reaction from the protesters? I'm of the opinion that they are doing everything possible to push peaceful protesters over the edge, so that they can justify the rampant police brutality and the increasingly suffocating restrictions of our freedoms in the interest of 'security'. Just goes to show how little they care about keeping up appearances these days. It's almost as if they get a kick out of adding fuel to the fire at every possible opportunity to see just how far they can push people.

So people aren't allowed to get excited about something they care about anymore without being put in their place? If it isn't a point of interest for you, then don't participate in the conversation. There really is no need to put other people down.

Good to see Up With The Birds getting so many votes :nice:

:thumbsup: I also thought of mentioning how I wished they included Moving To Mars on the album, but I've tried slipping it into different places on the tracklisting and it doesn't seem to work anywhere :thinking:. It's one of my favourites from this era (this is evolution, people) but it's almost as if they knew it was on another level compared to the rest of the tracks, which is why they left it off. It's the most mature and original track of this era, and it's just a shame they didn't decide to create an album in the same vein. It could have been their masterpiece. :lol:

I know what you mean. The only times MX evokes any emotion from me are during DLIBYH and the second half of Up With The Birds (my favourite part of the album by far). The rest of the songs are a mixed bag, ranging from agreeable to uninspiring. I was expecting to love Hurts Like Heaven, but for some reason it ended up sounding a little lifeless in the studio. Same goes with Charlie Brown (although to a lesser degree) in the sense that Chris' voice seems to lack the sense of urgency that the live interpretations promised. Then there's the juxtaposition of songs which contain some of Chris' most engaging lyrics to date (Us Against The World) with songs that are lyrically abysmal (ETIAW, Paradise). Major Minus winds up sounding completely out of place which is unfortunate, as does Princess Of China (which is not that bad of a song in it's own right IMO, it just doesn't belong here). There are good songs on MX, and there's a lot to like even in the weaker tracks, but I really think that VLVODAAHF was far better executed as a colourful and varied body of work, which seems to be what MX is trying to market itself as. To me there is very little flow to this album until A Hopeful Transmission is introduced near the end. So for me, as an album, MX would have to be ranked last in that sense: 1. AROBTTH 2. Parachutes = VLV 3. X&Y 4. MX

Check out Collapse Of The Empire (especially their first two albums). More concise and upbeat than most post-rock I know of, but it's definitely quality IMO. Depending On You from their first album, Systembreakdown (longest song on the album): [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U46AjBdTk1Q&feature=channel_video_title]Collapse Under the Empire - Depending on You - YouTube[/ame] Title track of their second album, Find A Place To Be Safe:

Yeah, for me this is no more a 'concept' album than any of their previous albums. If anything this is their most disjointed release so far, both thematically and sonically.

I'm pretty sure what you said in bold has no relevance whatsoever to what your opinion of the album may or may not be. :inquisitive: I'm sure everyone here knows that this album is what the band decided to release(really doesn't get more obvious than that), but people will have varying opinions of it's contents and/or production regardless. The fact that the album "is what it is" doesn't make it inherently 'brilliant' as you seem to imply.

I love this one, the second half really takes it to another level. It makes me wonder why they didn't think Moving To Mars would fit on this album, to me it's these types of songs that should have been the main direction of the album.

I think it sounds a bit too compressed dynamically, but this is probably my favourite on the album, I love the euphoric atmosphere it has! It really does end too soon though, it was the only song that I didn't want to finish when it did. 8/10 for me :D

I personally don't mind her voice at all, but why Chris looks up to her / her material truly baffles me. In terms of the content of her music (and videos) I see absolutely no reason why someone would admire what she does. The song itself is pretty good though. I prefer it to Paradise and maybe Teardrop, but everything else we've heard trumps it IMO.

Yep, right with you on this one.

Firstly, I have zero respect for Rihanna as an artist, and I was hoping that her presence would be subtle, but I was still cautiously optimistic about how the song itself would sound. I think it's pretty good, but I really wasn't expecting Rihanna's part to be THAT prominent. Like others have said, it's pretty much Rihanna feat. Chris Martin. I'm not so sure that it works well as a Coldplay song, but personally as a standalone song I prefer it to Paradise (although paradoxically, it sounds even less like a Coldplay song than Paradise does - take from that what you will :shrug: ). Basically the crappy live version showed more promise for me. I'm not even sure I can even rate it at this point, I guess because it really doesn't sound like anything else they've done up till now. Also, that synthy guitar part right at the beginning of the song (and throughout) really reminds me of the synth work in 'A Spell A Rebel Yell'. Anyone else agree?

Chris really just needs to put a solo album out there so he can get all this silliness out of his system - where he can indulge in all the senseless collaborations he pleases! Because right now it really does seem like the rest of the band are getting complacent with the direction that Chris is taking, and they're just following suite. I know the words 'experimentation' and 'evolution' are being thrown around an awful lot to describe this new direction, but to me it just sounds like they're having an identity crisis :shrug:

No, I completely agree. I don't mind so much that Up In Flames made it on the album - I do like the melody, but MTM (for me at least) is better in almost every department. A few people have noted that UIF sounds unfinished, which is interesting considering that it was the last song they wrote for the album - sounds to me like they rushed it a bit when they could have spend more time fleshing it out. I'm not sure how much you like Paradise, but frankly I'm astounded that the band thought a song like that was more worthwhile than MTM, which is in a completely different league. If you ask me, the main problem with this new era is less to do with the actual music they've been creating, but rather the decisions they have made regarding the album tracklisting and their marketing strategies. For example, I don't see how they needed to include ETIAW on the album, after including it on the EP. Same goes with Paradise - seriously, what gives? Having these subpar songs sit alongside the likes of Us Against The World and Charlie Brown make very little sense to me. It's a shame because it all seems a bit rushed and sloppy to me, and I really wouldn't have minded waiting a few more months for them to really sit down and straighten everything out. So in short, my feeling is that they potentially had a really decent album here, perhaps equal to / surpassing Viva in terms of quality; and in the end they had to go and make it a mixed bag by including songs they could have released as b-sides, and leaving top notch material off in favour of uninspired pop-filler. Get rid of: E̶v̶e̶r̶y̶ ̶T̶e̶a̶r̶d̶r̶o̶p̶ ̶I̶s̶ ̶A̶ ̶W̶a̶t̶e̶r̶f̶a̶l̶l̶ P̶a̶r̶a̶d̶i̶s̶e̶ Flesh out / Revisit: Up In Flames Major Minus Resurrect: Moving To Mars ...and already they'll be well on their way to having a really decent 'concept' album with a good mix of pop tunes and more 'classic' sounding tracks.

Exactly.

Yeah, as much as I like AROBTTH, I voted for Parachutes. Apart from Yellow and ENL, I always found the rest of the songs to contain some of Chris Martin's most mature lyrics to date.

One of my favourite videos on this topic: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y57nkL7Ucak&feature=related]Important Word - Fuck - YouTube[/ame] Start at 1:20.

Yeah I might have been a bit too quick to judge there, I missed your reply above mine, sorry about that! No hard feelings I hope. I'm glad you can see both the good and the bad in these songs, and there's definitely quality material from this era - just not as much as I was hoping for (so far).

EDIT: Post was no longer relevant, so I removed it.

Posted this in another thread, but it seems more at home here. More of a rant than anything else, but I've I'm all out of restraint today and I think the current state of affairs warrants it somewhat. This whole "Is it pop or is it not?" argument is just a strawman. It's a distraction to keep people arguing over semantics, rather than addressing the REAL reasons why people aren't happy with some of new material. Just like the "they aren't going to make another Parachutes, get over it!" argument, it completely misses the point. Hate to be this direct, but most of these arguments are made by people who don't have the capacity to accept the possibility that the quality of band's music may be on the decline. Coldplay aren't infallible, and if you find yourself going to all sorts of lengths trying to defend everything they do, then you probably need to start thinking about whether you might have a completely unrealistic image of them in your head. Honestly, scrolling through some of these threads nowadays is like witnessing a discussion between religious fanatics and secular rationalists. Whether the songs people are complaining about can be classified as pop or not is neither here nor there. Lazy songwriting / shallow lyrics / lack of inspiration are what people are ACTUALLY concerned about. And these things are really not that hard to notice if you haven't put Chris Martin on a pedestal. And so what all of this really comes down to is FEAR OF DISAPPOINTMENT. Are you being honest with yourself when you share your opinion here? Or do you find yourself taking offense to genuine criticism that wasn't being aimed at you, but at the band? Also, ask yourself, why would four multi-millionaires need to be defended anyway? Is it because they are incapable of taking criticism without being offended? Come on now. The reality is that there's a whole bunch of disappointed people on here split down the middle, with half of them admitting their disappointment and writing about their frustrations, and the other half attacking those people because they can't stand to admit that their favourite band might be letting them down a bit. I've never seen so much insecurity on display here as I have over the last few weeks on the forums, and I think that speaks volumes. Sorry if this derailed the discussion a little, I just get a little tired of people getting so defensive over stuff like this. If you love the new stuff that's great. If their marketing decisions don't bother you, that's fine too. But the lengths some people go to to convince themselves and others that Coldplay are untouchable and that everything they put out is nothing less than mindblowing, is quite frankly embarrassing.

This is going to be cheesy as hell. :uhoh: I agree that Mat Whitecross was so much better, wasn't a huge fan of the official Viva video personally.

Hey, cheers! If I were to rate what I've heard so far, it would probably go something like this (subject to change, obviously): Excellent: N/A Very Good: Moving To Mars Us Against The World Hurts Like Heaven Charlie Brown Good: Major Minus Princess Of China Average: Up In Flames Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall WTF: Paradise :P What about you?