nvdmm

Birds, Army Of One and Up&Up are potentially the better songs off the album. I also hope Up&Up isn't messed up by the production because I see it as their best closer since DAAHF. It really is that good! I can't say anything about the rest until we hear more.

It would be premature to judge an entire album just by the snippets. We still have to reserve final judgments until at least two weeks after the release. But so far I get the impression it's very much Mylo Xyloto 2.0. Apart from AOAL all tracks are way way overproduced. Can't say much about the lyrics or the instrumentation with a 10 second snippet but the production and melodies are all too reminiscent of MX, albeit a more poppy MX. Birds and Up&Up sound promising but I cannot fathom why they would overlay the guitar solo on Up&Up. The solos were what I was looking forward to the most and I sincerely hope they haven't ruined it by the messy production. Will's drums are also replaced by electric ones on the studio versions of both AHFOD and Up&Up. Again I don't understand why!

Not a Coldplay song. Although GPASUYF and Violet Hill are very much the perfect songs. 'High Hopes' and 'Violence' are 10/10 for me. So are 'Pulled Under At 2000 Metres A Second' and 'Machine Gun' and of course 'Echoes'. AND 'A Simple Mistake'. That would be some of the stuff on Dig Out Your Soul and Don't Believe the Truth.

Absolutely astonishing album. She just leave you breathless. I don't want to go on a rant about why and how great this album is so I'll just quotes a couple of people from Guardian live: Let me just also say the boundaries of irony are surpassed when you see someone on a Coldplay forum criticizing Adele!! I guess originality and artistic integrity aren't majorly significant nowadays.

I will reserve my final judgment for when the album is out. But first impressions: AHFOD: The instrumentation and production is excellent. But the lyrics and all the ooooh aaahhs ruin it for me. Overall it sounds like a bad U2 song. And not U2 at their best but rather during their All That You Can't Leave Behind days! 5/10 Up&Up: Again the instrumentation is superb. Noel and Jonny's input are the highlights for me. I really like the song but there is a major flaw in that it's trying too hard to sound like Oasis, and again not Oasis in their prime but when they were experimenting with silly britpop stuff. 7/10

This is a joke right?!

I am not offended or disheartened at all. I find it exhilarating that you have so much passion for the band. I applaud your frame of mind and positivism.

At this point some of us are so apathetic we don't even bother with expressing content about anything. The aggression and animosity directed at individuals who criticize the band also serve as a deterrent for people like myself. But all forums, much like the general fandom itself go through transitional periods; of which this place has experienced many. I think in the future it'll be a more united and unmixed crowd where everyone agrees with everyone else and all people love everything. A bit like one of those Disney movies with penguins and cute kittens.

They're a pop band for fuck's sake not the GIGN! Let's look at the band and how they work/live in the grand scheme of things. Realistically they lead an extremely easy and sumptuous life and their effort-reward balance is ridiculous compared to lets say teachers or soldiers fighting terrorism. So if we're pragmatic about people's lives in the real world, it's not a miracle that a pop band have stayed together. They also don't "rock people's socks off"!! Coldplay have as much rock factor in them as a can of beans.

HEEEHAA GOD SAVE 'MERICA!

Let's not beat around the bush here. The US government and its voters have committed horrendous atrocities across the world for the past few decades and have brought abject misery, destruction, death and hardship for millions of people. The naivety displayed by a huge number of people who associate the Obama administration with peace and equality is beyond belief! And how anyone could affiliate themselves with such group of murderous psychopaths masked as libertarians is baffling to me. In this instance I don't think Chris is fully aware of the world around him. The other day he said in an interview Rumi was an "Afghanistani" poet!!!

It is indeed. Not mainstream enough I'm afraid. A bitter shame to not witness what Coldplay could have become.

Despite my initial disapproval and disappointment towards Amazing Day and the whole upcoming era, I'd like to honestly admit there are a few positive aspects I currently like or look forward to: 1- The album cover is tremendously creative. I know I ridiculed it at first but I've grown to really like it. I love it in fact. So much so that I would rate it on par with VLV/Prospekt's March as their second best cover after A Rush. 2- Because of my parents and before I develop my own tastes in music my early childhood was consumed by Bee Gees and Abba, so as shocking as this will sound coming from me, I now think AOAL is actually okay. The more I listen to it the more I appreciate the melody/production/groove and how it resonates somehow. I also don't see anything wrong with the lyrics and think they fit perfectly with the song. 3- The track-listing is superb! Apart from Amazing Day, the album has their best titles since VLV in my opinion. 4- The rest of the band are very much shining through again which is a positive step in the right direction. 5- Inclusion of Noel Gallagher. This guy is nothing short of a god for me! I'm hoping Up&Up turns out to be this era's Ghost Story or Major Minus. So it's not all doom and gloom on my end. I try to be fair and constructive in my criticisms and sometimes justifiably ruthless. But if I really like something then I like it. Overall I feel like this album has the potential to be better than MX.

They aren't. I don't think Coldplay have a particularly solid fandom. The perfect term to describe Coldplay fans is "buoyant". Being a generational band and following mainstream trends leads to people becoming interested and disinterested almost constantly. I know people who were mad about the band around 2004 or around VLV but don't even buy the band's records anymore. Personally MX was the last album I purchased and VLV the last tour I watched them live. So it's not so much that people are forgiving, but mostly, contrary to what you experience with LP Underground or U2 fandom for example, with Coldplay people don't hold interest for very long. And I cannot tell you how much I love Gravity. One of the most breathtaking pieces of music ever written. I really love the nostalgia we get here :)

Look who's back! We've missed you old friend :)

Quite the keyboard warrior aren't you? I'd be happy to help you indulge in your superiority complex with my future posts.

As I sit here typing away I ask myself why I'm still on the forum when I could clearly do better things than write about music that absolutely does not connect with me on any level, but I feel like I owe it to this thread to voice my honest opinion. My review of the new song would be so damning I thought it's best to avoid posting on the LP7 and AOAL threads. I also believe the song is not even worth writing about, suffice it to say it is utterly dreadful, unimaginative, uninspiring and possibly one of the most drab pieces of music I have ever heard. I could say this sort of stuff is potentially ruinous for a band like Coldplay but I'd be wrong because they've already fucked themselves over many times since VLV. In fact this is pretty much the few recent albums all over again, except it's worse. I sincerely hope Coldplay end it after this. I couldn't care less what they do since I can just ignore their output but because I still very much like them as human beings, it's best for them to discontinue immediately. The only positive outcome of this whole affair is that Adele's album will be untouched, which is great news for anyone who's genuinely interested in music and artistic integrity.

Right now this could go either way. I really like Jonny's part and obviously Will dropping at the end, but I'm also getting a very strong dance music vibe which is very annoying. So it's either another ASFOS or it's Paradise meets HLH. What I find particularly interesting is the video and the inclusion of all four of them as kids.

I wasn't aware the band had chosen their children to do their artwork.

It has already happened. You have to remember this has been a very gradual process and it began right around when they were working on VLV. All bands' erosion and descent into irrelevance is a continuous degradation and not a sudden change in sound or style. But some manage to bounce back and go on to make even better records. Unfortunately, Coldplay isn't one of them. I obviously haven't heard any of the new songs but I don't have to if I were to conclude how it might and will sound. I already know I'm gonna fucking hate it. The clothes, Amazing Day, the video shoot in India, the artwork poster, the name of the album, the band's comments and Chris's personal state of mind all provide us with enough hints as to what to expect. Generally speaking my personal preference is for the band to call it quits after AHFOD while some of their dignity is still intact. But I very much doubt that's going to happen. Another option would be to take a 5 or 6 year hiatus, but that wouldn't necessarily result in a better output years later.

As I predicted about 3 months ago, the album is not finished and it won't be finished anytime soon. It's not even been officially announced yet! My original prediction on album release still stands; Q2 2016 at the very earliest. I know you guys are all extremely excited and speculation has always been part of the pre-release phase but I find your waiting for the album to be released "any time now" particularity exhausting and torturous. I'd invite everyone to be patient and just forget about it until official announcements but then I'm in no position to tell anyone what to do. But if you don't want to go insane with the waiting game just remind yourself we're still a long time away.

Because when Coldplay came about I thought their music was somehow more emotionally engaging than my favorite bands. Obviously I was also fascinated with the melodies and the production and of course Chris's voice. Things have changed drastically though so if I was introduced to Coldplay now I wouldn't even bother.

Absolutely. Elizabeth Fraser and Loreena McKennitt are also my top favorites.

It's difficult to put into words quite how she makes me feel listening to her music since the very beginning. I think all that needs to be said about her has already been discussed a million times. I consider her to be the best female vocalist of the past 20 years (it's difficult to admit this since I'm a huge Winehouse and Amy Lee fan). And Hello is everything I ever want from her; emotional, breathtaking, heartbreaking, intelligent, well-structured, well-produced etc. For Coldplay to work with someone like Rihanna instead of Adele is beyond disappointing. But then again she most probably will ignore the band if asked.

[video=youtube;4LaZOVB3pvI] I remember back then this was so shocking! But now it all makes sense.