Rainy Day

NEW SOOOONG TIIIIIMEEE!

Spotted: Gwyneth is in attendance. Wonder if they'll show her again? (unimportant, but interesting to see anyway)

I definitely don't mean to come across as someone who wants any discussion at all to be stifled. It just seems to me that it would be more productive to keep it relevant and not repetitive. If it's been said more than two or three times, it's probably time to either move on or wait for something new to come along. And as jc90 said above, minus the all-caps, it's okay not to post sometimes. It never hurts to just reflect upon what has been said to yourself and then report when there is something new to report. There isn't anything wrong with commentary concerning what has been reported, but does it not make sense to hope for calculated, well thought out commentary rather than irrational, reaction-driven remarks? I like a proper discussion as much as anyone, but there comes a point when the same thing can be said so many times before it becomes mundane. Perhaps the most difficult part of interacting in a news, speculation, and facts thread is being patient enough for there to be news to report, solid details to form rational speculations, and facts to be discussed. :P

I'm right there with you and Batman, both. I came in at some point during the Viva era and have been wading through non-essential information ever since. One out of every 50-100 posts seem relevant to the actual topic (the new record), and even some of those few posts are absurd (e.g. I heard that the new single is going to sound like older singles "A" and "B"; therefore, this new single, "C", is going to be rubbish. I hate the new album already.). Some of the relevant posts, however, are pure gold (or spot-on), and it is because of those posts that I hang around. As long as I have been here, as you can tell, I haven't commented very much. The reason for that is either because I have nothing to add to what anyone else has said, or because I have no new information to offer. It's for that reason that my post count is so low, and I don't think that's a bad thing. Too many people post to say nothing at all, and while I don't mean that as a personal attack, I do think it is proper to actually be considerate of the forum and its dedicated topic and try to keep discussion relevant to it. TL;DR I 3rd your notion (or 4th, or 5th--the order is irrelevant). Keep discussion relevant and focused. Disregard discussion better suited for a different sub-forum.

Welcome aboard! Nice to have you here! Enjoy the discussion. (:

Oh, it was great! The updates were a blast, not to mention they were very well-written. Prospekt would give just enough details to lead you onto what was happening, but not too many so that everything was obvious. The lead-up to the album release was also spectacular, particularly when he unveiled a list of potential tracks for the record. His writings, I'd say, were a little better than Roadie #42's, likely due to their style and length, but that's not to say that #42's were bad (they were great!). Alas, as Draco said, it would have been better for these posts to have started earlier on in the process of the album being written and recorded rather than at the end, but I wouldn't mind a simple nod to our desires by a single blog update from either Prospekt or Roadie #42 to tie us over a little longer. Oh well. I will be patient with everyone else, for there isn't much more I can do!

It is our wishes for Coldplay to bring back the Viva-era journal writer, "Prospekt," to give us studio and recording updates on the new record. Prospekt allegedly died in a tragic accident, which is why we want them to "resurrekt" him. Hah! You should go to the Coldplay Timeline and find some of his entries from the Viva era!

Also, I've made my contribution to the #ResurrektProspekt project (projekt?). I think that if enough of us could go and bombard Coldplay with it, maybe we could at least garner a response on the matter. Even if we didn't get Prospekt back, it would still be pretty cool to get a reply, would it not? :P

I'm firmly convinced that an album produced solely by Hopkins would be GORGEOUS. Perhaps we will see something like that one day a few albums from now.

Oh nooooo!!! That's weird. Well, I gave instructions in the post above the video so that anyone who wanted to find it on Facebook could, so give that a shot and see if that helps!

*inserts obligatory "In My Place" reference*

Right there with you. That "#1" was super-misleading. I would have done (almost) anything for at least one more!

Sadly, I couldn't find the animated one. It seems to have been deleted (or hidden?); however, I did find this one! Trapezes: [video=youtube;LU5fk8i30Lg] [Edit] JK, I found it! It was hiding in the Timeline on their Facebook. If you ever decide you want to go and find it on your own, you're going to want to go to 2011 in their timeline and shift it to "All stories" instead of just "Highlights," and then you'll scroll (for what will feel like the rest of your life) down to the 30th of May. Enjoy! And finally...: [video=youtube;qSWPg9DGCHw]

Oh, and as for the animated one, those were part of a group of videos Coldplay shared which were made private to only select users (ones who checked the video through the link they provided). I'll go and see if I can find them or if they still even exist.

Both videos coming right up! Studiofeed #1: [video=youtube;1zTqklX4p40] Xylophone video: [video=youtube;pwTS2RKPHN8] Enjoy! ^_^

It always seemed important to me, interestingly. I wasn't sure what it could possibly mean (though the October 10 argument was fairly compelling into the Oracle shut it down), but it was intriguing. I was fully convinced, however, that it had to do with the album title when the first video came out of "Princess of China" being performed live. In the artwork that was scrolling by on the big screen behind the band (which happened to be the whole big painting from which the album cover art would be taken - Doh!) as they performed the song, one of the panels from the artwork had "Mylo Xylobrites" painted on it, and I immediately knew that it was significant. I mean, most of the title was given to us right there! Take off the "brites" and add on "to" and you have "Mylo Xyloto," the album title! Sadly, some people scoffed at my Xylobrites suggestion. :P You're so right about the icons making sense. Everything just clicked, and it all made sense. What a moment that was! It took between two and three weeks, if I remember correctly, for the art to be revealed. Interestingly, it was more than just the cover art that was being revealed on the Viva website. It was also all of the album artwork that you can find inside the sleeve. There was this one grand painting that had ALL of the album's lyrics painted onto it around and inside this massive smearing of paint. It was so cool! Those were the best of times. Perhaps we will, but we'll see. If they just drop the album on us and that's it, then it may not be quite the experience that we've enjoyed for the past three records. I know they won't let us down, though, even if we don't get quite the interactive experience this time around. The Ghost Stories unveiling wasn't really all that interactive, but I think that matches the overall aura of the album, though--sombre, simple, and personal. Perhaps the reveal for AHFOD will be the opposite!

I think that's right. They didn't explicitly reveal the album title, though we did get "MX" out of it, as well as a couple of song titles. So, it would make sense for them to be out around the time of the ETIAW videos. I also remember the backlash very well. Older fans were LIVID (though not all). Newer fans enjoyed it. I've been a fan since the days of X&Y, and I thought it was a pretty nice tune. Different (for Coldplay), but also festive (as it was intended to be). You're totally right. The whole buildup to the album was brilliant. The clues, the website, the Hyponfeed and the Studiofeed #1 (I'm still sad there weren't more studiofeeds, because that was AMAZING), and getting new tracks during the festivals. It was all really, really fun (though I don't want them to play that many new tracks again from an unreleased record for a very long time). I think the buildup to Viva la Vida was just as fun, particularly because of the Prospekt journal entries and the interactive website they released that had little games you could play to help reveal all of the artwork for the record. GOSH, that was so cool! I miss those days! I hope we get another album release experience like those again sometime in the near future.

Yes! I remember that appearing on their iTunes page. Of course, I also remember them tweeting/Facebooking gifs of some of the lines from ETIAW where each letter would flash by very quickly, making it difficult, but not impossible, to put together each word. Though I don't recall if we got photos from their photoshoot first or the first single, but it was fun either way! I remember the song title reveal came from the animated video that gave us the last line or two of the bridge to the chorus and played the sub-bass synth for the track while it played. Very exciting times, they were!

Another detail from the GS era worth noting was how they even changed their Facebook page to start reflecting the new record. First it was the cover photo and profile photo, then came Midnight (which was released at midnight in Ulan Bator, I think). Their website changed with Midnight, though only to an intermediate stage to show off Midnight. If I remember correctly, everything else changed with the release of Magic. So, I guess that unless they pull a Radiohead (see what I did there?) and just drop an album out of nowhere, we'll know for sure when the record is coming by how things start changing either on their social media pages or on their website (or both).

I think there is a decent chance that this is a clue as to how the first single will be revealed. Does everyone remember how "Violet Hill" came to be introduced to the world? That's right. One morning we woke up, and there on their website was a little note with a link to download the track for free. The music video came shortly afterwards. That was a glorious morning! I remember throwing it onto a CD so I could listen to it in my car on the way to school. So, perhaps the first single for the new record will be released similarly to the way "Violet Hill" was released--suddenly and without any pomp or circumstance. I'm also willing to wager that if they are going to tease us like that with a potential clue, then it can't be too far away!

We can hope? [emoji23][emoji24]

Maybe they'll pull a shocker and do a Tuesday release to throw us off-guard?

Perhaps we will have news in no more than 3 weeks. If they are truly so close to being finished with everything and all that is left to be done is final recordings and proper mixing/mastering, then there is no reason why we couldn't at least have word of either the new record or a new single by the end of the month. I would hope for sooner (this week would be great!), but I'm not going to get my hopes up too high for anything immediate. I'm fairly certain we'll have something new (whether album art, a single, a tracklisting, or substantial news on the progress of the record--more than just "we're almost done, everyone!") by the month's end. Here's to hoping for the best!

My body is ready. And my ears... :P