MosesTheMarshmallow

jaja not to split hairs but I think Atlas actually has no vocals on backing track based on the London performance - both Chris and Will forget to sing during the second half of the guitar/piano solo and there end up not being vocals at all. Whereas at iTunes and thereafter it looks like they're working pretty hard to do the singing. [though admittedly there's backtracked vocals in Magic during the maa-aaa-aa, Charlie Brown, and maybe Fix You..to name a few] What does trouble me though, is that Jonny sort of "pretends" to strum the acoustic guitar part in ASFOS - if you watch the Glasgow performance you can see that. This worries me because it makes it seem like they're trying to pretend they're not doing backing tracks or something. I might be overthinking that though. DAAHF and DLIBYH are two other songs that only have a small amount of backing track but sound great and big. :lol:

Ghost Story quite sounds like the following two songs... [video=youtube;oQZQ5MHehes] [video=youtube;rPQBhM55K7c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPQBhM55K7c I love the song - great guitar lines, and an era-transcending feel. :D

While I generally like GS less than the other albums, I don't think the album is indefensible. Regarding Jonny: 1. Jonny contributes some good riffs/atmospheres in AIMH, Fly On, Oceans [especially live], Magic, AA. The bird noises he does on Fly On are pretty neat! 2. Good solos (though not as good as VLV/MX I'd say except for True Love) - on True Love, AA, ASFOS. Jonny's contribution on ASFOS is clever because it unisons with a synth melody to create a unique guitar-synth tone. Similar to what he does on POC. Not many non-EDM artists are able to make EDM-like things the way Coldplay have done with this song while keeping it relatively organic. I love Jonny's guitar part in the outro of ASFOS by the way. Slight U2 influence with the delay but in a good way. 3. Non-guitar contribution: Midnight's keyboard, Magic's piano, Oceans' strings. Regarding electronic drums....I think they fit the mood better. Heartbeat like and weirdly minimalist. They sound cool no doubt. I actually like the beat in True Love a lot (though I think that song is too strings heavy). And some of the songs aren't blatant electronic drums like AIMH, AA and instead contain a nice mix between acoustic and not (which is more evident live, admittedly). Regarding the lyrics - for every bad lyric I think there's a good one. Fly On, Midnight, Oceans, AIMH. I think Magic's lyrics are decent. I actually quite like the vocal delivery in Magic - the "no I don't no I don't" thing is cool and reminiscent of R&B in some vague way. Which some people don't like unfortunately.

People seem to forget MX has good lyrics because of Paradise. :( UATW has great lyrics as do most of the other songs on that album. I feel like the lyrics there have the same sophistication as Viva but generally tend towards other subject matter relevant to that era that some people might not fancy fully. ETIAW would be an example of that. I actually kind of like the "your body on my body" line. Something quite visceral about it. The only song I genuinely cringe at is Ink. It's just so...literally about what it sounds like it's going to be about.

Actually, unless I'm hearing it wrong, Atlas has a tiny bit of backing track for the few subtle things at 1:18, 1:31, and 2:22 - high pitched noises that correspond to the recorded version. But your point certainly still stands - Atlas is a song 99% driven by the sound of a piano, guitar, bass, and drums. That is absolutely NOT true for a song like True Love (or Viva la Vida). Other songs that have 0 backing track that prove that Coldplay can just make loud music however they want without too much pre-recorded happenings: -Everything's Not Lost, Life is For Living's live version, Spies [well nothing on Parachutes had backing tracks anyways] -GPASYUF -Amsterdam

Strongly agree with this assessment (besides your comment about MX :lol:). Be Here Now, SOTSOG, and Heathen Chemistry have good individual songs but they don't hold up as cohesive 45 minute pieces of music the same way that VLV, MX, Ghost Stories do. I think Beady Eye made a great move by working with Dave Sitek on their most recent album BE (which came out the same year as AM, suspiciously :p). With that album I think they really separated themselves from the Oasis sound and brought in some new elements of atmospherics and alternative that Oasis rarely had. Second Bite of the Apple, Flick of the Finger, and Start Anew in particular are standout tracks that have great composition and production. Though Coldplay has influenced music in their own way - I think a lot of altrock/indie bands secretly want to sound like them but don't really openly admit that. But that's just a theory. I still find it hilarious that Coldplay turned the Olympics down (where they would've played 1 song) to get nearly 2 hours of screentime at the Paralympics complete with Jay-Z and Rihanna. What a great move... That Union Jack guitar...*drool*

Is it me or does MB look a bit like Christian Bale...

Indeed - X&YII would be brill! I kind of go on this rant a lot but I think Moving to Mars and Atlas both do a great job of synthesizing every Coldplay era in a very nice way in a guitar-piano rock with slight electronic elements and moreover kind of space-like tendency - be it the lyrics and out-of-this-world guitar solo in MTM or the "carry-your-world" and electronicky noises and again, great atmospheric guitar + guitar solo in Atlas - that only X&Y has really achieved (I'd say Speed of Sound, X&Y, A Message, and Twisted Logic also do a great job of having that vibe).

I could see songs like Don't Look Back in Anger and Wonderwall being done in an AROBTTH way. Coldplay kind of "came from" the Britpop that Oasis and Travis were making back in the day. Well, at least there's this: [video=youtube;UtWMOEEnuR0]

Guitar driven would be cool. I'd like them to follow their "let's be like Muse" instinct a little more. In an interview they said GPASUYF was inspired by Muse. I also feel like How You See the World is very Muse-inspired. [video=youtube;Qbuj7JKEzDM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qbuj7JKEzDM The end of that^ seems like the end of thisv. [yes, HYSTW came first, I'm just comparing the two to say "Coldplay may be capable of similar things."] [video=youtube;XGlRtAsWJe4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGlRtAsWJe4 So bigger guitar, bigger bass, bigger drums, bigger piano. But with the English modesty that Coldplay's music has, and Muse's generally lacks.

Waaaaiiit. I didn't see this thread till now. Can I still contribute?!?!?! :( :( :( X&Y means a lot a lot a lot to me and I'd love to put in my two pence.

Indeed this is the most optimistic one. :p

I love lamp.

Interesting. That would've been fun since they don't normally do stuff like that. :(

What was going on at the end (I only had audio) with Chris trying to get everyone (the band as well?) to sing Fix You? It seemed kind of disjointed in the way he was leading the crowd.

"I'm in a glass case of emotion, both physically and metaphorically." Great Anchorman reference. :lol:

I like how Will probably didn't realize Chris was going to stop singing, so there's a few seconds of just Will singing the chorus. :D

Come now Chris, don't need to apologize for slow songs. UATW was HUGE at T in the Park 3 years ago...

Omg new guitar bit from Jonny before the solo on True Love. Brilliant!

As it should be! ...this gig is really reminding me how good the MX era was. Hope for some obscure songs though!

What is he drinking?

@US folks, there's a "Listen on BBC1 radio" link in the upper right of the page - the video stream doesn't work for us but we can listen!!

"Sixty thousand people on Glasgow green!"

On this link (in US) http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ep3g9r/live/cdvg9r I'm getting "This content doesn't seem to be working." What's up with that?

It's kind of like a fine wine or something. Gets better with age but you don't actually drink it that much.