MosesTheMarshmallow

Holy Mountain....it's catchy and I like the horns. The lyrics seem kind of silly and there are no guitar solos. :(

Very beautiful that Chris played Fly On!!!! Kind of sad that the band didn't join him though. Jonny's bird noises, Wills' vocals AND GUITAR are especially highlights of the song for me.

The band just seems to hate X&Y. :p I'd love to see some footage of the Asia shows - like AICTAIY in Tokyo. :D

I too am a big fan of UATW - Chris and Will are so perfect together on that song. Other good vocal melodies: -Strawberry Swing. I really like how Chris does a sort of falsetto bit of the "ry" of strawberry when he sings each line. -The chorus of Amsterdam in particular, another song where Chris and Will pair perfectly. On the album version I think there's a second Chris line or Jonny singing beneath Will's part and it really adds to the body of the chorus despite there only being piano. -ASFOS - there is some amazing falsetto in this song that I've always really liked.

OMG new album? I knew he was recording but I didn't know it was coming so soon! YES I am so happy Gem is back...he just has a way of playing that is less...heavy-handed? Same goes for Chris Sharrock vs Jeremy Stacey. Tim and Jeremy were very talented of course...I just feel they didn't quite complement Noel as well. While the setlists haven't required it so far, I hope Gem gets to sing! He has a good voice and sings on songs like Force of Nature and My Generation when played live. And of course he did some nice backups in Beady Eye. Now, to see if we get Jesus back!

Did the Hypnotised app get utilized at the Paris show??

There've been rumours of a live album for quite a while especially since this album is so driven by its liver performances. But this is probably the first "official" news we've heard of it!

^Weird. Are you using iTunes? Sometimes you have to follow instructions such as these: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH19609?locale=en_US I have so many thoughts about the whole EP...but I'll go song by song because I am gushing with love for it. All I Can Think About is You is amazing and it's all I can sing about in my head right now. The first time I heard the song, I was riding the train from Kyoto to Hiroshima while on holiday, and I had no idea that the 2nd half of the song was coming. Suddenly, beautiful piano and strings washing around, and then a mega guitar part by Jonny. The first half is great too - the drums have a nice drive to them and remind me a lot of the beat from Teardrop by Massive Attack, and the bassline reminds me of Come Together by the Beatles. I don't find any of that boring at all - the piano, guitar, and vocals vary a lot over the hypnotic bass and drums. The guitar line when Chris is singing "all I can think about is you" in the first half reminds me a lot of Everything's Not Lost, at the ends of verses. At first, I thought Chris's singing was sort of boring and flat in the way that things sing GS have been, but now I more fully understand the song as being underwater and reaching the surface - especially after watching the music video, which I LOVE. My only complaints would be that the guitar could still be a little louder at the end, the drums could be louder at the end, and the Birds-like ending seems kind of unnecessary when they've already done that with birds. Something more like the ending of Paradise might've been more fitting. Various highlights: -The chords in the 2nd half are very clever and are very unique in their progression because there's a lot of chromatic stuff going on (not sure the exact word), but what I mean is that the bassline sort of descends in semitones between jumps and it's cool. It's sort of like For You, Paradise, GPASUYF, and Atlas all got strung together. -Guy's bassline. I loved the way his bass drove Magic, so this is even more exciting! -Jonny's guitar. WOW. It's not quite a giant solo like Up&Up or HLH, but he has a really great melody that has bends and fast notes but is also actually fairly minimalist all at the same time. And the tonality is very interesting, as in, he plays some notes that you wouldn't think would be in key but actually are. Another cool thing is the brief chords he plays within his solos. Kind of reminds me of what he does in Paradise. Probably the coolest moment though, is in the 2nd repeat of the loud part (after "everything is falling all around you"), when Jonny's guitar and Chris's vocals are in exact time with each other on "all I can think about is you". The level of togetherness and harmony there is REALLY powerful to me. -Will's drum fills in the second half...they're very powerful and driving. They remind me of the MX live version of GPASUYF. -That little piano run at the beginning of the song, it's kind of like that figure Chris does in the 2nd verse of Everglow. It really adds character and makes it seem less like Chris is just playing chords or something (eg the Scientist). Also, I really like the lyrics. I know a lot of people are complaining about them being similar to other songs or silly, and it is true that we've had a lot of bird lyrics. But I think it works really well here. The song is thematically similar to how the Scientist came about - the world being messed up and broken, yet all you can think about is someone you're in love with (roughly paraphrasing a thing Chris said a long time ago). Many of the lyrics very cleverly allude to the broken state of the world - fish stuck on the ground, and most interestingly, "chaos giving orders." I think that line is way more clever than people are giving the band credit for...because chaos is the opposite of order, and we often have to do what other people tell us to do...but what we do creates disorder. And orders are given by people in the military, and conflict creates disorder. I'll admit the shoe line is kind of confusing and I kept hearing it as "parachutes" but I think it'll make sense in a year or two like "I'd rather be a comma than a full stop" (which I realized is brilliant about 18 months after MX came out). Anyways this song is most certainly in a tie with Hypnotised for my favourite song of the album, and of my favourite songs by the band. :)

Thanks so much! I indeed did get a download card, but the download came with the music video/non-EP mix of Hypnotised. Oops!

I'm not ready to post a full review but holy wow I LOVE All I Can Think About is You and Hypnotised. I really like A L I E N S too but I'm surprised it's overshadowing those 2 tracks in terms of hype. Either way, I love these 3 tracks and hope that they get enough love from the band relative to SJLT. Thanks! If you could indeed share that with me that would be wonderful. Since I've already purchased the EP on vinyl, I'm not fussed about whether it's bought/official, just that it's the real thing and not remixed...just so I can listen and compare the versions. :) Sad that there is this discrepancy - I've heard the EP mix on Spotify and quite like it!

Does anyone know where one can get an official-ish digital copy of Hypnotised (EP Mix)? I bought the vinyl and indeed There are some changes I would make to AHFOD's tracklisting in general that are reflected in this proposal: 1. AHFOD, Charlie Chaplin intro 2. AICTAIY 3. A L I E N S 4. Birds 5. AOAL 6. HFTW 7. Fun 8. Everglow 9. Army of One/XMTS 10. SJLT 11. Someone Special 12. Miracles 13. Hypnotised 14. Kaleidoscope 15. Amazing Day 16. Colour Spectrum 17. Up&Up ^As such, songs 12 through 17 would be a ridiculous high, especially since Miracles, Hypnotised, and Amazing Day are all very happy songs in F major. :D

Has anyone noticed that the Coldplay website shows the moon phase? Just a random observation. :)

It's possible that the crowd singing won't be present on the album version right? It might just be in there for the video - same as how the videos for AHFOD and Everglow are sort of adapted to the live versions compared to the not-live (AHFOD integrates crowd noise/singing/live stuff compared to the album version, Everglow is just Chris even though the "single version" has Jonny's guitar and backup vocals from Will). I agree that it'd be a bit much normally. I also agree that the video is good but not great. If the kid did something more interesting at the end then I'd be happy with it, since the visuals are otherwise really cool with the kid diving into the concert via kaleidoscope that's looking through, and the video itself has kaleidoscope effect. I guess if we treat it as a "band performs song in the video" type of music video then it's pretty good, but if we're comparing it against videos that have a good story like Strawberry Swing or the Scientist, then it's not as great. Jonny's guitar parts are more prominent which I too am happy about. :) It's a very MX-era sound that he has. :D

^I noticed that too. That gig was weird weird mix between Chris+Jonny+backing track/DJ person and Chris+Jonny acoustic. I doubt that that's at all going to be a common occurrence. The new live version has Jonny's guitar on top of the synths, not instead of. It's just a little more guitar-heavy. In a good way!

This probably isn't a big spoiler to anyone but I am excited for the live cut of SJLT because it will have more Jonny guitar and drums. In fact, there's an entirely new guitar part that he plays during the bridge after the 2nd chorus (2:40, at "where'd you want to go...") This might not change anyone if you're deadset on hating the Chainsmokers, but I think it will be an improvement over the single version. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2CPibXd3ZQ Mobile Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2CPibXd3ZQ

Noooo I was hoping for A L I E N S to be a 15 minute space opera. :(

I would love to see Chris's Flea/bass impression. :lol:

Thanks for the heads up! I'm in North Carolina but would love to win this lol.

Yep I definitely teared up a little. Partially from kicking myself that I didn't submit a video. :(

Thanks Stephen for your work! I've noticed a similar die-off of the forum and rise in Facebook use for Lostpedia, the site for all things Lost (the TV show). Though the Facebook use is more to connect with old friends on the forum in a more real-life way (some have married, some have met up, etc). I do believe forums deliver something social media doesn't - permanence of discussion. If we just had a Coldplaying Facebook group or just used the page, everything would be comments on a centrla post. This is ironically LESS social than the forum, where every single post counts equally (and is easy to search!). The viewing format allows for long-form posts, but without the writer and readers dynamic of a blog. This therefore allows much more in-depth discussions about things like, say, whether our forum is dying. :lol: The fact that Coldplaying has achieved it all and continues to fight on is a testament to our strength as fans! We have a great forum, wiki, Facebook page, multimedia within the forums... I'm only sad to say that I'm 5 years older than I was when I joined and real life has kicked in a lot harder, so I can't bring as much energy as I used to myself. :( I imagine others must be feeling the same, and it's been a year since the new album so of course it's a little dustier around. Of course there's also a component of some fans being negative, and I think negativity begets negativity. So we need to be positive! Unless you truly don't feel that way and in that case I apologize that you're not able to enjoy Coldplay the way I still do. :)

^One I Love, Everything's Not Lost, and a number of other songs in the early Coldplay days have a really nice funky groove to them. Another couple songs that comes to mind of that sort are High Speed and Shiver. Those songs are almost jazzy in their basslines, which is interesting of Guy since he's not in Jonny Goes Jazz. :p I'm not sure any recent Coldplay has had that style that I can think of. This may also be because the drums have shifted in nature, which means the bass needs to be different. Not that this is a bad thing, but an interesting evolution of the bass lines!

I'm a huge fan of Birds' bassline! It's very shuffly and dancy in a way that most Coldplay songs aren't. A long time ago Chris said AHFOD would make you dance a bit and at least for me, Birds is the song that really embodies that for me. :) Whoa I never noticed the bassline in this song - it's very groovy! More good basslines: -Paradise! I really like the distortion on the album version, and in general it's just a great melody. -Yes, during the instrumental bits Guy plays a very cello-like line. (I'm sure it's him though because in live versions he plays it and it sounds the same) -AIMH, during the instrumental part. Very prominent Guy line that works really well with Jonny's guitar and the strings and I love it!

TOO MANY TO NAME. -The second verse of Up&Up (on "how come people suffer..."), and the song in general. -The end of ETIAW -UATW - ultra simple line, but it's the climax of the song! -Speed of Sound

While I would certainly love a Brian Eno collaboration again, I do think some of the decisions made on VLV/MX weren't the greatest either such as: -Will's vocals are way too quiet in Us Against the World -The style of the vocals on Major Minus is questionable and polarizing -The drums at the beginning of Lost! are jarringly too loud Agreed that Stargate had more of a negative effect on things than Brian Eno or those two albums.....but I just want to note that nobody including Coldplay the band is immune from making some musical decisions we're not happy with.

My current ranking is as follows, but I'm mainly ranking based on the album as a whole, the message it sends, and the coherence of the songs. However I did let AHFOD get pretty high due to the presence of Up&Up which might be my favourite Coldplay song in general. 1# VLV 2# MX 3# AHFOD 4# X&Y 5# Ghost Stories 6# AROBTTH 7# Parachutes Best song of the album for you: Up&Up Worst song: XMTS (not because I don't like it but just because everything is better and it does feel a bit unfinished) Song that you like way more now: Hymn for the Weekend - the live version has really sold me on this song, where I more notice the guitar and piano, the interesting percussion, etc Song that you like a little less now: Army of One - I like this song a lot, but after hearing the live version, I now know where all the guitar parts are SUPPOSED to be, but realize they're very very faint on the album version, which is kind of a bummer.