MosesTheMarshmallow

Bit late to reply to follow-ups on my last post, but wasn't trying to call out anyone individual or imply anyone was saying unreasonable things about Obama. I'm just really defensive about AHFOD because I think it's a perfectly decent album, and as the US plunges into Trumpmania I do want to be positive about Obama. :) I too would love to see the other three get lead vocals! They all have such unique voices that do work well together on songs like Fix You and Violet Hill. Up&Up would've been nicer if it didn't have all the kids and Beyonce and it could just be the 4 of them going at it. The song Gone But Not F. Cotton is great because you can really hear Chris and the other 3 sing out loud. Will's voice is amazing and in some ways technically better than Chris's so I would love to hear that in particular. I'd also love to hear a song that's a duet between Chris and Jonny again, like Politik, Daylight, or Don't Panic. (or similarly, Chris and Guy) That's one thing I miss about the X&Y era, which is that in many live performances, it's Will AND Guy providing a lot of backup vocals - most evidently in Speed of Sound. One thing I'll throw out there is that it wasn't until Muse's 6th studio album that they put Chris (the bassist) on lead vocals for two songs. I did a quick search and I think the first song that features the Edge on lead vocals was on Rattle & Hum, the 6th U2 LP. So Coldplay would only be 2 LPs behind that mark to get him in there. :p The Nappies oddly has a really similar synthesizer part to Talk, so.... :D :D :D

My hopes for this EP remain high. :) I'm surprised about the negativity surrounding the last few albums because I can't help but enjoy and embrace so much of the new material. I could go on for ages about what I like, but I will say some of the negativity is a bit of a turnoff for me. But I'll just spurt out one thing I'm feeling positively about: Up&Up is an AMAZING song (and a single). It is catchy with big anthemic choruses, it has great uplifting lyrics jam-packed with interesting imagery and cultural references, there are TWO excellent guitar solos (the first one possibly being one of the best solos in a Coldplay song besides Hurts Like Heaven), there is also atmospheric guitar by Jonny (which people are always clamouring there should be), and a PERFECT music video. I'll also throw in a couple possible things that are "offensive" about Coldplay is the music videos to Princess of China and Hymn for the Weekend. I'm not 100% in the boat that they're offensive, but I do think things could've been done a bit more sensitively (eg in POC, not mixing up Asian cultures and using Rihanna, a non-Asian actress; in HFTW - featuring ONLY "primitive" images of India and not any of its interesting modernity and development). Also, I can understand some of the discomfort with Coldplay/Chris, but like others have said, it's a bit of a narrow judgment to consider Obama solely on the basis of drone strikes. I believe Obama would've been much better if it weren't for a Republican congress shackling him as well as the inheritance of so many horrible problems from the Bush era. The reason there are drone strikes is because 1. Bush and presidents before Bush helped create terrorist movements and 2. Bush started two giant wars and while drone strikes are horrible, there IS a calculation we have to think about in terms of the human life that would be lost from other forms of welfare when there are perceivably threatening people running around. Do I agree with this - NO. Of course I would wish Obama would pursue more diplomatic and peaceful foreign policies. But I do think what has ended up happening is a result of his constraints rather than his evil intents. We've also seen from him, which I believe will make many people's lives better and increase peace in the future: -Significant expansion of access to healthcare under the Affordable Care Act (not perfect, but BETTER than before). -Legalization of same-sex marriage -The Paris climate change deal -Iran nuclear deal -Normalization of having a black president. It doesn't fix racism but it's a step in the right direction. Obama is not perfect but he is trying REALLY hard to fix the horrible problems in America. And if you consider the actual moment of his used in the album - that's him singing after the Charleston shooting, standing with the families of the deceased and the African American community. That's the whole name of what Coldplay does - finding happiness and hope in the darkest of times. In my mind, they captured that perfectly by featuring Obama in this way.

These songs were great! Heartfelt, stripped down, but big nonetheless. Will's voice is amazing and much appreciated. And it indeed sounds like Will was playing acoustic guitar for just the end of the first half of Christmas Lights, which is different than usual. :)I would love to hear the other songs though, esp Violet Hill where there are not a lot of acoustic performances of that song.

Holy wow thanks y'all for posting these soundchecks. They sound AMAZING. :)

Wow what an amazing cover of Coldplay by Chris Martin! :p ;) The loop pedal is fantastic, though to Chris's credit, he does use the loop pedal in shows already - such as at the end of the acoustic section before Amazing Day.

I can't answer for sure but... 1. Jonny often uses a Les Paul for live performances on Violet Hill and it's very crunchy and great. 2. Achieving the effects is as much about the effects as it is the guitar --> figure out the right combo of overdrive, reverb, and delay to get to what you need. For instance, running most anything into a Boss RV5 reverb on its Modulate mode is highly likely to get you close to Lovers in Japan. 3. Jonny also uses a Fender Stratocaster for much of MX and the MX tour, and the Edge uses the strat a lot (such as on Where the Streets Have No Name). Not sure how a Start compares to a PRS or Les Paul, but it's just something to throw in there for your consideration.

Found a video of Life on Mars? on Youtube!!

My guess is the Micro Pog since that gets used on Violet Hill in the live version. Though I also wonder if he's using some kind of envelope filter kind of thing...it almost sounds like certain guitar solos from Muse where I have a feeling Matthew Bellamy is running some kind of synth-generator or envelope filter. I haven't been able to figure out exactly either though. :)

Found a video!

Actually, he is using a loop pedal that records a snippet of guitar and plays it over and over. That's how he's able to create several layers of acoustic guitar sound before entirely not playing at all and then just turning the volume down. If you want a very thorough demonstration of how the loop pedal works, check out this video of Chris performing Clocks:

Yeah only two-day passes are being sold at the moment. :( I'm sure Rihanna is great live but I don't want to pay $162 for a show where I mostly just want to see Coldplay and not anybody else.

Thanks so much! I thought it was a great performance, though I think Guy and Jonny's entry seems mistimed or something. Not sure why Chris insisted on running from one piano to another. :lol:

Vids or it didn't happen!!!!

Great interview, though I do hope Chris isn't serious and they do play some b-sides this Sunday at Glastonbury. :p

Though we have had a number of repeats, and I'm sad too about IMP as a request song, you can't disregard: -Green Eyes -UATW -The Hardest Part -Speed of Sound -Shiver -Strawberry Swing Not to mention the variation on the B and C stage songs with many other almost-rarities. I think they were mostly joking though. We've heard in past interviews that Guy's not a big fan of Shiver or Talk, but I think each member has their own songs they dislike, and even those preferences get overridden. Chris once implied Guy and Jonny don't like the Hardest Part at the beginning of the VLV tour (hence the Chris-Will acoustic version) yet it's been played a few times this tour. Chris says he really doesn't like Speed of Sound but that's been played quite a few times especially in the MX tour as well as this one.

Aw you should do it! Jonny uses a metal slide on AHFOD and Up&Up. The one big example I can think of where the glass slide is really important is on the live version of Spies. Before getting a slide, a bandmate and I used a shot glass as a slide and it works great! Been using a Pyrex slide ever since. Metal is nice and brassy though. My advice is to get one a metal one first and maybe a glass or pyrex one later (pyrex is very resistant to breaking). It's easy to improvise with any glass item. :D Regarding volume pedals, you can do soundswells on guitars by 1. starting with volume off, 2. plucking note(s), 3. using your hand or just your pinkie to turn the volume up. This is especially easy on Stratocaster-style guitars. A volume pedal frees up your hands to do what they want though - and it's what gets utilized for the very ambient slidy bits on Up&Up.

I imagine they're only playing the 2nd night of this festival, ie play Santa Clara, then catch red-eye flight to East Coast the next day.

^I read it's a festival curated by Jay-Z, which totally explains everything. :lol: Thanks - that's a good guess! I suppose looking at Big Weekend, they played Raspberry Beret which is pretty freaking cool. Useful to know since this might be my best chance to see them since they don't seem to be touring in Southeast US. :(

Are they likely to play a full/interesting set? (in case anyone has been to this festival again perhaps you might be able to speak to that) Thanks!!

I've been wondering the same, and they actually played the full version of the song before the tour started during promo appearances like this: I believe some setlists have actually said "Everglow (Single Edit)" though I may be wrong about that. In any case they have indeed been shortening the song, IMO, for the worse. I really like those lines, and the piano-guitar interlude in the 1st verse is very nice. The shortened version is rather abrupt of a transition. So the reasons to perform this version might be: 1. Shorten the set-time. But this only saves a minute, and people won't know the difference between a 1:58 show and a 1:59 show. 2. Don't get too personal. Maybe Chris doesn't want to think of Gwyneth every time they play the song. 3. They just like it better this way. They ALWAYS play live the single edits of AOAL (cutting out half of the first verse and some of the quiet bit), POC (cutting out half of the quiet bit in the middle) to name a couple. But is there really a reason to play these songs this way?

You can listen for yourself but it for my full nerd's answer - it sounds quite similar to the GS Tour version, with the lush strings and all. The only noticeable difference is that Jonny plays a different guitar part during the 1st verse with more distinct and different notes than the album/GS Tour version. Ink has had similar modification for Jonny's guitar parts, where certain bits are less atmospheric and more clear - possibly to not overload the B/C-stages with too many guitar effects and make it seem more stripped back (or perhaps there may be a technical limitation/decision - maybe these things require a pedal that Jonny only has one of, and needs on the main stage). All that is to say - it's a fun level of variation that we've seen with both AIMH and Ink that still keep the souls of those songs, and an all-around pleasant surprise.

Underneath the storm an umbrella is sayin'....

A Moon Shaped Pool of Dreams?

Oh wow I didn't even know that collaboration was in the works. That would've been cool. :( Still hoping for a Noel Gallagher+Beyonce rendition of Up&Up though, or Tove Lo for Fun. :) I'd also love to see Muse and Coldplay collaborate. Imagine Matthew Bellamy doing a guitar solo on GPASUYF!

Maybe they'll release an EP to fuel tour part 2? <3