mooseaka

After two listens I'm not a fan. There are some nice moments, but the album is too jaunty, over-produced, and when in doubt it leans towards pop music. I love Brian Eno - I love his solo stuff, and I love what he did with the Talking Heads back in the early 80's and his work with U2 as recently as No Line on the Horizon. But I think he has totally scrambled Chris Martin's brains - giving him mixed messages of incorporating pop music mixed with electronica into every song. Not a bad thing by any stretch, but it seems like they are trying way too hard with every song. Coupled with their bizzaro rule about 4 minute songs and a 42 minute album, they are killing themselves instead of trying to blossom. I know the boys are still stinging from the critical reviews of X&Y, but writing a bunch of radio-friendly wall-of-sound music is not the answer. They need to take a deep breath - relax - study Buddism, break out the sitar, or something. Go back and listen to the utter rock brilliance of the bridges in "Bigger Stronger" when Johny was literally shredding his guitar while Guy's bass bounced around. Songs are allowed to be more than 5 minutes long. Then listen to High Speed again - a psuedo-electronica song that puts you in a warm vibe, without relying on gimmics or pop guest stars. Songs can meander, and not have to be "up-lifting." I can't imagine these four rich 34 year-olds writing songs about being on the ledge, tied to a noose anymore. It's more petty fantasies about being a kid, nightmares about losing your riches and fame, or the cliched power of love. Crap, that is a mess of a review. Sorry. I'm just bummed.

I guess I'm too old for Coldplay now, which is ironic since Chris Martin is two months older than me. Pure Top 40, just like ETIAW and Paradise. Funny - the first song I heard from MX was Major Minus and I was so excited that they were moving away from pop-friendly stuff. Sooooo wrong..... Can't wait to see what they have in store for their 2014 album. Auto-tune? Samples? Lionel Ritchie cover?

It almost sounds like they are starting from scratch every time they "return" to the studio. What would you pay to sit in on that jam session?

This is great - I love the live version of High Speed in the 2 Meter Sessies - shame they haven't played that song live since before A Rush Of Blood To The Head. Very intersting to read how they recorded so much of Parachutes live - it makes sense in hindsight, but it also reminds me of how much the band has changed in recording style since then. Personally, I hope they go back to this more organic sound (being an old fart of 33 years old).

This was intended to be a very tongue in cheek post, but I do think that there are some very strong similarities: -The lighting, particularly the darkened corners -The low, yellow-cream colored couch -The lead singer's legs are crossed

Not sure how old this promotional photo of the band New Found Glory is, but I saw it in a recent ad for upcoming shows in my area. Looks a little familiar, no? Anyone know which picture came along first?

Good for NME. I've been baffled by the universal praise this tour has gotten. I saw the VLV tour in three cities (in two countries) and got more disappointed at each show. Would it kill them to change the set list once in a while? Play a b-side or more than a handful of non-singles? And don't even get me started at the amount of pre-recorded instrument tracks they have been piping in lately. After watching Elbow pull off "One Day Like This" and "Tower Crane Driver" 100% live with two violinists, I don't know how anyone can clap or cheer after Coldplay does a karioke version of Viva La Vida. I hope Chris Martin tapes a copy of this review to his bathroom mirror and reads it every morning. Time to become a rock band again, boys.

At least Radiohead didn't use any pre-recorded music during their Grammy performance. 15 Step was utterly brilliant compared to another canned version of Viva La Vida. Plus if it weren't for Radiohead, there wouldn't be a Coldplay (Chris has said so himself about 100 times), so she should be more than happy to introduce them.

This is pure Eno. Sounds like it came from the "Wrong Way Up" album Eno did nearly 20 years ago. Nice job. Much better than what I was expecting from the descriptions.

Cemetaries sounded brilliant. The prospect (prospexk?) of seeing them play it live might get me to buy a ticket to the 2nd Philly show. What an awsome song.

It's a song that Brian Eno wrote the music for, and David Byrne (Talking Heads) wrote the melody and lyrics. Here is an explanation of their recent collaboration album and that particular song. http://davidbyrne.com/music/cds/everything_that_happens/index.php You can also listen to the whole album at this link for free. There is another thread in this message board with a link to a Rolling Stone article that explains that Eno had also presented this music to Chris Martin who wrote his own "song" on top of Eno's music.

Agreed - 90 minutes is too short. For the price that you pay to go to a Coldplay show, you should get two hours at least. They play almost all of their songs at the exact running length of the album tracks (which are short to begin with), play less than 20 songs, and they ignore the pleas of fans to come out for additional encores no matter how crazy and loud they get. They seem absolutely shackled to their playlist, which is frustrating because I'm sure they could play Trouble or Shiver in their sleep. 90 Minutes is not standard for a headlining rock band. Maybe at a festival, but not at an arena tour. Pearl Jam plays 150 minutes almost every show. U2 about that. Radiohead over two hours. Coldplay has the catalog to play for two hours easily, so that is not an excuse. I won't even get into my other complaints (expanding use of pre-recorded music, set lists that never change by more than 1 or 2 songs, and of course "they didn't play my favorite song"). I will note, however, that the addition of colored magic balls, lasers, confetti, side stages, and "in-crowd performances" actually makes the length of the concert more frustrating to me. I would trade all of those things for an extra half hour of music. Anyone with me on that? Guys - I love you but please start acting like a rock band and not a coreographed boy band.

The solution to the set list problem is simple: they need to play longer shows. If the show is only 90 minutes, including encore, then they pretty much only have time to play most of the new album and their biggest hits to satisfy their fans. If they actually played 2 hours or more, like every other self-respecting rock band, they would have time to play some of the deeper cuts off their albums to satisfy everybody. Personally, I never need to hear Yellow, The Scientist or In My Place live again (six times is enough, thanks), and would kill to hear them play killer live songs like Shiver, Daylight, AROBTTH or Low again live, but it's just not going to happen this tour. As much as I love Coldplay, their tour is clearly designed to sell the new album and please as many people as possible. As such if you haven't seen them live yet - expect a lot of VLV (not a bad thing at all), and lots of singles (a bad thing for me, but not for most of the world apparantly). PS - Love your avatar DJR. Go McNasty!

Cooky, unfortunately the Wachovia Center is in the sports complex where there are not too many dining options. The closest option would be McFaddens at Citizen's Bank Park (where the Phillies play), but there is also a Phillies game that night, so the bar will be packed already. A little further up Broad Street is a place called Chickies and Petes (http://www.chickiesandpetes.com/). It will also be mobbed, but probably less so than McFadden's and you are about a 15 minute walk back to the arena when you are done. If you are in town early enough, another option is to park in Center City, where you have unlimited dining options, and just take SEPTA's Orange Line (Philly's mass transit system) down to the stadium, which drops you off right outside the Wachovia Center. That's what my wife and I are going to do. As for a cool areas of the city where you can find lots of restaurants and bars, there is Old City (2nd and Chestnut), the South Street area (South Street from Front Street to 6th Street) or for something a little more "metropolitan" there is the Rittenhouse Square area (18th and Walnut Street). The possibilities are endless because Philly is an awsome restaurant town. If you are driving to the sports complex and want to make the show on time - leave very early to make sure you get a parking spot, or have time to walk to the stadium. It can be a real mess down there when there are multiple events happening.

It's pretty obvious why they don't play it live - it's too hard to synch up the pre-recorded music to the live stuff to try to perform it live. Kidding aside, I do think this is a challenging song to play live with only four band members. There are keyboards/acoustic guitar and electronic guitar parts all playing at the same time, which means they would need to trim one part or add a player to the stage (that will never happen). Plus the hand claps that really drive the second half of the song also occur while the band has their hands full playing their respective instruments. Shame because it is far and away my favorite song on the album. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised when I see them Friday.

Siiiiiiggggghhh..... I love Chris, I really do, but come on man. Play your instrument, mate. If you don't want to drag a little string quartet on the road with you (understandable), fine, but at least sit at the organ and play Lost! instead of dancing to it. Frustrating....

Anyone have any comments on the amount of pre-recorded music they used? Did Chris play the organ on Lost or did he dance around? What about Lovers in Japan? Did he actually play the piano or did he start to play then dance around? Was the music already playing before they picked up their guitars on Life in Technicolor? And I'm really interested in Yes (did they pipe in strings for the bridge, or did they they improvise that part?). Not to be a downer, but I am really hoping they cut out some of the pre-recorded stuff for the actual concert. What did you guys think?

Glad to see I'm not the only one who was (mildly) bothered by the abundance pre-recorded music. Now, please flame on Mr. Rock like you did for me...

My wife and I danced to Green Eyes as our "First Dance". It was nice because most people there thought it was a slow song but we got a big cheer when it sped (I somehow managed to spin her with out messing it up too - and I'm a clutz!). Till Kingdom Come is obviously another candidate, and you could probably get away with The Hardest Part during dinner. An acoustic version of A Message is always nice too (there is one from a Toronto Radio show you should get your hands on). Strawberry Swing would be great too.... It's such a perfect day.... wish that song was out at the time of our wedding.

I was on the side and they were in the way for me, blocking Chris on and off as they went up in down. It wasn't too much of a bother, but I did think it was odd to block the stage. Also, there is no screen in the background until the encore, so the only closeups you get of the band are on the balls early in the show. It's a little frustrating if you sit far away because the balls look like a fisheye camera lens.

That's what started this thread - a very poor "gay" comment by the original poster. Once the official tour starts I'm going to keep an eye out for some threads about pre-recorded music, though. I came up with analogy that I think explains how frustrating it is: it would be like if Mario Batali (a celebrity chef here in the US) invited you over for dinner at his house and instead of cooking fresh pasta sauce, he just took some frozen sauce out of the freezer he made 6 months ago and heated it up in the microwave. It still tasted good and it was better than anything you could make at home, but you can't help but be a little dissapointed. I think that sums up why I came away from the free MSG show a little disheartened. Obviously it was a great experience, but just a very puzzling choice on the part of the band to "re-heat" old music for the live show.

By the way, my eyeballs would explode if they played Daylight. That's in my Top 5 all time for Coldplay songs.

Personally, I don't need to hear Yellow, Fix You, The Scientist, or In My Place live ever again (5x is enough for each). I never cared for them as singles, and I can name about 30 other songs and b-sides I would rather hear first. But let's be realistic here: The Rolling Stones play Start Me Up and Brown Sugar every show. Although us die-hards love to hear new stuff live, Coldplay will always play to the masses.

This might put your mind at ease. Check out last night's performance of Lost! on the Daily Show. (there is a link in other threads or on the Comedy Central website) It actually starts with Johnny (!) playing the keyboard part, then after the first chorus he switches to guitar and the organ drops out until Chris comes back at the end. It works very nicely, although I still don't understand why Chris doesn't just play it himself.

Well put. I raised the same concerns in my review of the MSG show (and got beat up about it too). I know at this stage they are still tinkering with ways to recreate the sound of the album live, but they went to pre-recorded music way too many times in concert and I hope they move away from this trend at the tour continues. If you want to do it for one song (say Viva La Vida, where you obviously don't have a full orchestra - although it wouldn't hurt), that's fine. But when you choose not to play the organ on Lost! and instead just dance around the stage, I feel like I am being cheated out of actual live music. Likewise on Lover in Japan where he started the song by playing the piano part, then getting up and walking away. It's not only corney, but it only reinforces the negative image of Coldplay as a pop band rather than as the talented musicians that they are. While I have no problem whatsoever with Chris running around dancing (it's great on a song like In My Place, where there is only one guitar part), I do have a problem with him choosing to run around and dance on a song when the instrument he is supposed to be playing is being piped through the speakers. I don't think it's entirely unfair to feel this way.