the_escapist

Coldplay Official Webpage Has Changed! I told ya! The design is the same! But the timeline is back! Check it out!

Maybe reading the Rolling Stone review you will like a little bit more the album 4 stars out of 5 Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard is the poet of a particular purgatory — the holding cell in your head that's filled with failed relationships and wrong roads taken. Death Cab's most memorable songs contain snapshots from its walls: Gibbard has sung about an incriminating kiss in a photo booth, discovering forgotten pictures of an ex in his glove compartment, and an especially bleak Kodak moment from a doomed marriage. On "Cath . . . ," from the band's new Narrow Stairs, he finds a girl "in a hand-me-down wedding dress," and the details feel like knife twists: "As the flashbulbs burst, she holds a smile/Like someone would hold a crying child." That sort of heartbreak defines Narrow Stairs. But where Death Cab's past records made it easy to empathize with Gibbard's narrators, the group's second major-label release zeros in on characters who are often more creepy than cuddly. The result is a dark, strangely compelling record that trades the group's bright melancholy for something nearer to despair. Death Cab's previous album, 2005's Plans, played to the impeccable craftsmanship of producer-guitarist Chris Walla, who has also made records with indie colleagues the Decemberists and Tegan and Sara. Plans was the sound of a band standing in open space, every note articulated. Its characters dreamed of flight, reveled in sunlight and saw endless possibilities. In one song, Gibbard imagined opening his arms to span the length of Manhattan, and musically, that's exactly what the band did. Narrow Stairs does the opposite. Elaborate multitrack recording has been replaced with the sound of a band in a room: drum hits elbowing through overmodulating bass lines, feedback squalls obscuring piano and vocals, clotting the air like smoke. The sense of claustrophobia even extends to the breaks between tracks, which are nonexistent or fleeting; songs are cut off by noise bursts or begin with the lurch of a tape-machine capstan. This fits the material — the album is as dark as anything the band has done. The most glaring example is the single "I Will Possess Your Heart," which begins with nearly five wordless minutes of midtempo groove-building before becoming a love letter from a stalker. "You gotta spend some time with me," he sings with a trace of menace, noting his reflection in his beloved's window as he cruises by, "and I know that you'll find, love/I will possess your heart." Restraining order, please! It's playing against type for a guy with one of rock's purest voices — a vibrato-less, bell-clear high tenor whose choirboy quality only throws the darkness here into relief. "No Sunlight" documents the death of an optimist over a perky New Wave backbeat. The feedback-spiked "Talking Bird" portrays a passive-aggressive lover whose devotion seems tinged with loathing. And "You Can Do Better Than Me" — where a man decides to stay in a troubled relationship "out of fear of dying alone" — comes across as a jaunty, Pet Sounds-style organ-rock stroll. Who knew timpani and sleigh bells could sound so unnerving? But the most indelible moment is "Grapevine Fires," a minor-key processional framed by churchy organ and electric piano. In it, a man brings his lover and her daughter to a cemetery, where the couple watch the girl dance against a backdrop of brush fires like those that ravaged Southern California last year. "I knew . . . everything would be all right," Gibbard sings, with an angelic chorus flaring up around the last word. But any certainty is wishful thinking. By the song's end, firemen "worked in double shifts." Whether they succeed or fail remains a mystery. There are some heavy-handed moments. "Your New Twin Sized Bed" ("With a single pillow underneath your single head") and "The Ice Is Getting Thinner" are love eulogies whose metaphors feel a little too easy. But Gibbard's indie-rock blues still plumb emotional depths with remarkable literary detail. The songwriter has spoken about the influence that Jack Kerouac's end-of-the-road narrative Big Sur had on Narrow Stairs, especially on the opening track, "Bixby Canyon Bridge," a tribute to a Big Sur landmark. That song's narrator makes a pilgrimage to the sacred spot but finds himself "no closer to any sort of truth" than when he began. Still, by the end of this haunting record, Gibbard has gained a deep understanding of lovelessness and the way people live in its quiet wreckage. WILL HERMES (Posted: May 15, 2008)

this is a poll for non - indecisive people! :laugh3:

Mine is Violet Hill - I don't know if it's the sound quality - but I don't find A Spell A Rebel Yell is good song. Violet Hill is a great song both, lyrically and on music terms What do you think? Don't forget to vote! Cheers!

THANK YOU!!! :D

Not so long ago I saw a signature of a coldplaying member that had a long description of Coldplay fans made by Chris Martin I think!!! It was something like: "Coldplay fans are the best in the world. If you like Coldplay then you're obviously very intelligent and good looking and all-around brilliant (...)" Somebody recall who he or she is, and more importantly what does the signature says!!!??? thank you cheers

Chris Martin: "Not everyone will like the new album" - Don't be sad 'cause the band's style has changed - be happy because of the songs they left when they had their old style!

soldier reference on the lyrics again - coldplay has gone very political indeed!

i am positive about the radio guy cutting the song abruptly!!!

good song! it's more coldplayish! can't wait to hear the new album!!! or we will get "42" before June?

listeling live now!!! yeahhhhhhhhh!!!

don't worry - lol - violet hill isn't new anymore? although I have heard it more than 200 times! it's still new to me!!!

Zane Lowe's show starting!!! Hopefully he'll go directly to the Coldplay exclusive!!!

VIOLET HILL + A Spell A Rebel Yell = 2 new coldplay songs! cheers!

from today - no one new song from Coldplay! but TWO!!! Cheers!!! Another great day for Coldplay fans around the world!:cool:

PLEASE RECORD AND POST! ;) I'll be at my job and therefore unable to hear the song live at Radio 1!!!

Sweet! More new music from Coldplay!!!! Hopefully I'll be home at that time like I was when Violet Hill was played!!! Thanks for the info! You rock! (like on Guitar Hero)

Apple loves daddy! Simon Pegg upsets Apple Simon Pegg made Chris Martin's daughter cry. The British comic star playfully strangled Coldplay star Chris when he was visiting him, but the musician's three-year-old daughter Apple didn't see the funny side. Chris' wife Gwyneth Paltrow revealed to Britain's GQ magazine: "Simon is hilarious. When he was over the other day, he pretended to break Chris' neck and she (Apple) burst into tears. It was really funny though!" Gwyneth insists Apple usually loves seeing Simon - who is her godfather - because he always lavishes her with gifts. The actress - who also has a two-year-old son Moses with Chris -added: "He brings her birthday and Christmas presents, and when they get together they really talk." Gwyneth is currently starring as Pepper Potts in new film 'Iron Man', while Chris is preparing to release Coldplay's latest album 'Viva la Vida Or Death And All His Friends' on June 12. Simon can next be seen in 'How to Lose Friends and Alienate People' which is released later this year.

sorry - i didn't knew about the death cab thread! that's exactly what I thought! No highlight songs!!! Being Death Cab a possible contender for album of the year - and the result being so dissapointing - I am sure Viva La Vida will be it!

This makes more sense since Viva La Vida is about life and death! I agree on the comment that you can find endless things involving the band that have the 42 on it - Just like that movie Number 23 - rubbish by the way! cheers!

Finally Death Cab For Cutie's new album, Narrow Stairs, leaked on the internet (Like I hope Viva La Vida will very soon). After hearing the album, I think it is not the half better than 2005's Plans. What do you think?

congratulations! 'cause your drawing is on the coldplaying homepage!

what about the pictures somebody allegedly found of the video some days ago? are they already posted? can't wait to see the video! my favorite coldplay video is The Hardest Part!

The new Death Cab For Cutie's album NARROW STAIRS

i am gonna fight them all a seven nation army couldn't hold me back they´re gonna rip it off the white stripes - seven nation army