dieselbenz

Exactly, I think the sentiment is lovely and the melody gets it across just right. And it's definitely more the kind of collaboration I can enjoy ... the female harmonies are a nice touch and don't feel forced.

Fun is another one I'd put in my on-the-fence grouping ... that songs seems to get a lot of hate but it's one of the few newer ones that really moves me a lot on a deeper level. Like most of my favorite of their songs from this decade, I wish I could have heard it live.

This is very true. Parachutes and AROBTTH came out when I was in college and at the time they not only just grabbed me like no other music had, they did so at a time I really needed something to grab me. X&Y came out right after I graduated and got my first job and moved away from home for the first time. So all three of those albums, I had struggles at those times but they were also exhilarating and full of possibility. It just felt like I was lost a lot but finding my way and Coldplay was by my side the whole while. It was the right music at the right time. There's definitely a little of that with VLV/PM for me but it's not quite the same, as much as I love the album. Some of it is that the music on the first three was just perfect to my taste, but some of it is just as you said, the period of my life it landed in and how well it clicked with my world at the time. I have a lot of vivid memories like the ones you describe, driving somewhere and listening to AROBTTH or X&Y, and hearing them I can go right back to that moment.

I'm not any kind of music expert so this is subjectively just the songs that feel to me like "my" Coldplay, even if in some cases the sound is a bit different. In order of release: Moving To Mars Us Against The World Atlas Always In My Head Oceans O Ghost Story Miracles (the first one, not the one that just came out) Everglow single version All I Can Think About Is You ALIENS Hypnotised I'm on the fence about some others, like DLIBYH, Up With The Birds, True Love and Amazing Day, that I just really love but I wouldn't say have that much of the older sound. Hard to put my finger on.

Oh sweet, I didn't know this set was anywhere to listen! This was the first time they ever played in Philly (closest big city to me even though it's an hour away). They played Electric Factory the next day which is a pretty small venue. It's kind of depressing to look at the shows I could have seen if I was doing shows back then, but also cool to hear it and look back and see where they played. I wasn't home anyway since I was in college but I remember shows being promoted on the radio and stuff. Thanks for sharing!

Mercedes 300SL Gullwing. I mean, I should probably say Ferrari 250GTO, because I could enjoy it a while, then sell it and buy basically every car I ever wanted. But I don't know if I could part with something that pretty, and that's SO valuable I'd be afraid to drive it anywhere. If I couldn't pick the gullwing this is a hard question. My other dream car is a Mercedes W113 SL, or a Citroen SM or DS, and I've recently gotten obsessed with Lotus Europas, but I feel like I should pick something I could never afford, and those aren't that out of reach. So ... McLaren F1 would be awesome. Or, a Tucker 48! Lamborghini Miura or Countach, Ferrari Daytona is a gorgeous car or the BBs. Or maybe I'd try to find the Jaguar XK150 DHC my dad sold before I was born (if he even knows the serial number of it). I feel like I would lose my mind because there are so many awesome cars. If I had to buy something brand new, I don't know ... not much new interests me as much but I'd probably pick a Mercedes AMG GT C. Honestly my dream car is actually finishing the restoration on my car and driving it again. :joy: Edit: or maybe I would buy this, it was up for auction recently:

I felt the same way, but then I kind of thought about it and I don't know, I could see being pretty into a band and having missed a few B sides. I considered myself a huge Keane fan for years but there have been a couple early releases I just heard for the first time like 3 years ago. And honestly there might be Coldplay demos I either haven't heard or don't remember or heard only (relatively) recently. But then again ... those are bands I got into before Twitter, YT and Spotify were a thing. I dunno, I never want to say people can't be a big fan if they didn't catch every song a band puts out, probably because I could see myself getting criticized if anyone knew me 10 years ago. I guess the part that bothers me is that it's 32% which is a huge amount of people ... for a third of the fans not to have heard that song is more than just a few people who happened to miss it. I'm also especially fond of it, it was one of my first favorites, so I feel personally offended. :joy: Agreed about both PM and the X&Y B sides. Personally the X&Y era takes the cake for that for me (or AROBTTH), but I think the thing that really stands out with PM was how cohesive it was and how well it flowed with the LP. It was just like we got a whole extra serving of the album just months after it. There are so many gems on that EP and all in one place. That was an awful time in my life, awful, but I still look back on it fondly because of the music and what a wonderful time it was in that regard.

One of the most important songs in my life ever, it helped me through so much then and still now. I Ran Away is a great song too.

Yes I really enjoyed The Wave, so good to hear Tom's voice again. I was hoping he would tour more, when he was in NY in winter he implied he was planning to come back again this year but I guess it didn't pan out. Fingers crossed he comes back next year and maybe hits some of the areas of the country he missed. Also for those who don't know, Tim and Jesse's side project, Mt. Desolation, is also working on an album now ... good to know Tim is back to writing. I'm hoping they do a US tour or maybe at least support someone here.

I feel like they'll eventually do at least a reunion show, though as time passes I get less and less hopeful. I really hope they will. I'd travel practically anywhere just to hear them play again. Their setlists at the two shows I saw were amazing and balanced ... despite not going to shows early on I still got to hear a lot of those songs because they were still playing them in the set later, which I really appreciated. If they just came back and did a greatest hit set for a show or two, I'd be thrilled with that.

Adore Keane. For many years they were my second-favorite behind Coldplay, and always remained a favorite. I got into them a bit after Hopes and Fears was released, as soon as I heard Somewhere Only We Know I was sold. Under The Iron Sea is one of my favorite albums ever and most important in my life, and A Bad Dream is one of my favorite songs ever written (like top 3 with Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb, and The Scientist). Tim's songwriting was phenomenal and Tom is the best rock vocalist I've ever seen. Like Coldplay, unfortunately I never went to concerts or was a very involved fan most of the years I was into them, but I listened to them so much, and like Coldplay, they helped me through more than I can say. i was lucky to finally go see them in 2010 and again in 2012, when I actually started going to concerts. By that time I'd gotten obsessed with some other bands and I put my earlier favorites on the back burner. I was going to see Keane a couple times in 2013 and for a variety of reasons ended up not going. I regret that forever because it would have been my last chance. It absolutely crushed me when they broke up; I just didn't see it coming, and I didn't realize how much I depended on them until they were gone. It was kind of a wake-up call to me not to neglect the things that have been with me a long time in favor of new obsessions. But, I'm forever thankful and glad for all the music they left behind. Strangeland was a brilliant album and kind of reassuring at a time Coldplay had changed so much, and I was worried about Keane too after their Night Train EP which was a little iffy. I was glad Keane came back with some that was more "me" and right at the perfect time (Keane had great timing with album releases and my big life events). But yeah, if you like earlier Coldplay (or any of their more melancholy, angsty stuff), and you haven't heard Keane, do it. My other favorite songs are Strangeland, Love Is The End, Perfect Symmetry, Nothing In My Way, Everybody's Changing, Try Again and Bedshaped. Plus about 50 other songs haha.

This, times 1,000. I've had a few moments like that that brought me comfort lately ... like, nothing will ever take away the feeling I get when I listen to Trouble. Whatever they do, however much they leave me behind, it doesn't change what they gave me back when I needed it so much. As much as they've changed that's still what I think of when I look at them. How lucky to have a band just churn out material I related so well to for a decade. That it didn't last forever doesn't make it any less special. I'm lucky I still enjoy a fair few songs and there are even a few I've truly adored recently, and I don't really hate anything. But I think even if I did I could never undo the affection I have for them. Also on a side note I have had I Ran Away stuck in my head a lot the last few days, not sure why. I always liked it but wouldn't say it was a standout favorite, but for some reason I'm just really feeling it now, haha.

Definitely true and that's why I can't stand it even when people do it to fans of bands I don't like (not counting jokes, I'm always up for friendly humor). It's strange and in some ways fascinating how people need to dismiss others' tastes to bolster their own identity. Some people seem to be as enthusiastically against things as they are in favor of other things. I remember at one Arctic Monkeys show in 2014, my friend and I were talking to a couple of teen girls next to us and we asked what other bands they liked. They seemed really sheepish and apologetic as they said they loved One Direction and I thought that was so sad. I guess they were used to people looking down on 1D fans. We tried to encourage them, that they should just love what they love and the people who judge it are the ones who really have problems. But you're right, in the end, headphones on, turn up what you love, rock out.

This makes sense, the one forum I did go on in those times was a car forum, and it was a goldmine of info, enthusiasm, civil debates and tip-sharing. It's pretty quiet now, all the old-timers are gone or just visit infrequently. People had families or careers or whatever and drifted off, got rid of their cars for newer, or just use FB for car talk. Probably the same for bands. Most band message boards are relative ghost towns now. One more reason I wish I could go back to the oughties. I can't put down my smartphone now that they exist, but I would love to go back to my little flip phones and their cutting-edge polyphonic ringtones and do that era over and take advantage of the simpler and more thoughtful social opportunities that existed then. Good old days for sure.

I had wondered if the MX-era was full of drama and figured that would have been a turning point for the old guard -- in some ways it was for me, and unfortunately timed exactly with when I came out of my shell socially. I joined in 2011 or maybe 2010, because that's when I finally decided it would be neat to talk to other fans of bands I liked ... I got into Muse in 2009 and met some other Muse fans online and it made sense to go back and do it with Coldplay with a new album coming. I knew this fansite from earlier lurking (though I really don't even remember exactly when or how much I did ... and didn't the band site have its own forum? Am I hallucinating that? I might have some of CPing confused with that). My initial excitement to join the anticipation for the album sort of fizzled when MX material started coming out so I never posted. I always felt really guilty that I didn't like MX, on top of the fact that I really just dropped my favorite band of 10 years overnight and suddenly decided Muse was the love of my life. Not that you can't change favorite bands, but I wish I could say I was more loyal. Anyhow, I just never had the heart to jump in and criticize the album. But I seem to remember it being pretty booming in terms of discussion volume. I did usually pop in for info on TV appearances or livestreams and whatnot. The attrition since then makes sense to me, even if it's unfortunate. I wish I'd come on to the community earlier and had the memories you guys have, but then again maybe I just would have been troubled by the drama when it hit. I'm glad to have memories of the music and the general times that went with them, and that this place is still here with some nice folks to wax poetic with. I also like seeing people excited over newer stuff, it reminds me that I actually love a lot of it too and to lighten up a little. I don't really find Twitter to be a good place to connect with other fans, it just makes me feel old and boring. To be fair, I mainly use it to complain about car problems and post pictures of electronics I took apart for no reason, so I might be a little boring. :joy:

Someone at Firefly Fest saw mine and was like "yeah, Coldplay!" and chatted about how great the show was ... pretty sure it was during Busta Rhymes haha. It's always exciting when someone gets a non-explicit band reference you are wearing. It does feel like some secret language. :joy:

Yeah exactly! ... this should sort of be the harbor from all that crap Coldplay fans have had to deal with for years. And I don't mean it has to be a "safe space" where no one can say anything bad or feel disappointed, of course ... but people should feel like they can share their love of the music the band is making without being made to feel silly or unwelcome for it. If I ever reach the point where their music is so offputting that I feel angered to read others speak of it positively, I'm the one that needs to move on; not the people celebrating a thing on a forum about that thing!

I thought it was so sweet the care that went into the package, not just some buttons thrown in a box. That's a good idea putting them in shoe laces! Mine would probably fall off. Though I was going to try soldering the end of a couple to make them solid to put on a necklace or something. That would probably work for shoes too!

This exactly. Even though I'm in the camp with mixed feelings about how they've changed the last three albums, I'm glad that my feelings are based on my wild emotions and that I don't feel the need (or have the capacity) to analyze things technically. Sure there might be a time I don't (or do) like a particular effect or treatment of a song, but it's just ... I like how that feels in my ears or I don't. And I agree it's nice to have something for different moods. I enjoyed a lot of sunny days last summer with the windows down listening to AHFOD songs. Sometimes Hymn just hit the spot. I always find this troubling and also a little ironic. Because I remember during X&Y or Viva times listening to other music fans (and occasionally critics) crap all over Coldplay and how boorish and vanilla anyone who listened to them was. I hated that and thought it completely missed the point of music, and it made me feel like I had to apologize for something that meant the world to me. I can remember when people asked me what music I liked and I'd answer with "don't judge me but...". So I'm not really going to feel right turning around and doing that to others, over the same band, just because they're moved by different things than me. I mean, yeah, sometimes just sharing an opinion about a song or album might inadvertently make someone feel bad but that's different from bashing something, directly talking down to people or making generalizations about what sort of people like this or that. But unfortunately I think there's always going to be some of that, in any group of fans of anything ... people's egos get really wrapped up in things and for some people that's how they validate themselves.

Maybe I misspoke on the civility in my above post, but I must have come in right after the war. It doesn't seem so bad now, though I'm not super active. I do admittedly notice a big difference in traffic and activity since I used to lurk in older days, but I assumed some of that was due to other social media. Message boards in general don't seem to be that popular with younger generations and the fanbase is getting younger. Partially because of the change in music but also partially because a lot of 30-somethings aren't that involved with fandoms on the internet in general. It just happens. Normally there's ebb and flow but now the flow isn't coming back to forums, it's going to Twitter etc. Or maybe the ebb is. I'm not a tide expert.

This is pretty much sums up my feelings too. I think this is the thing that keeps me around but also makes it tough for me to accept how much they've changed. I really have on some level but there's always this longing for anything pre-2011 to the point it haunts me a little. It didn't bother me quite so much a few years ago because fortunately when MX came out it was right around when I'd gotten into Muse and Frank Turner and a couple others bands, so it just felt like I'd sort of moved on and it was OK. Those newer obsessions have sort of faded now, though, even though I really enjoy a lot of music ... and more and more I realize nothing has or will ever carried me more than Coldplay's first decade of music. It just sticks, it's always there when other things fade. The only other band I'd put up there is Keane, and well, they broke up. Once Keane broke up I couldn't help but think how godawful it will be when Coldplay does, because I go back even farther with them than Keane. So I've more and more crawled back to Coldplay. I never want to be that person that hangs out in a fandom way after they're "over" the band and goes to 10 shows on a tour only to bitch about them. I never want to be bitter about things that bring others joy or act like the world revolves around me. I went to several shows because I enjoyed them; I knew what I was going to get going in and loved it for what it was. Even the songs I don't care for, it gives me some happiness seeing how happy those things are making others (including the band), and gives me some perspective. But I'd be lying if I said I don't agonize over how much I wish I could go back and go when they were more "mine". I'm not mad at the band but mad at myself, because I really blew that. What the hell was I doing in my 20s? Well, crying and listening to Coldplay alone, and pursuing an ultimately failed career. But I wish I occasionally took a break from that to go to those shows. or maybe tried posting on the forum then, making friends. It always crossed my mind to go to a concert but was too big a hurdle to achieve and the thing that never occurred to me is that one day Coldplay wouldn't be the same Coldplay ... it was just like, whatever, I can see a show when my life is a in a better place 10 years from now. Looking back that seems stupid because I now know bands change ... they all do, at least a little. I just didn't imagine then they'd ever make something that wasn't like it was written for me; I didn't appreciate how rare that was. I'm really glad I managed to go to one in 2008, and don't get me wrong, I'm really thankful for the ones I've gone to this tour. It's not lost on me how spoiled I am and how many people would kill to be in my shoes. It's just weird, I've got this awful fixation on the past and how much I miss it, and all the things I used to lean on that are going away, and I think since Coldplay's music was such a constant and they're still here, I really obsess over what I wish I could still get out of them. It's not just the songs that are gone from the set, but the tone, the aesthetic, the focus on more difficult emotion rather than dancing and lights and bright colors. Much as I love the energy, it is obvious it physically compromises Chris vocally and restricts the setlist and that's started to bother me a little. There's so little room for the melancholy and catharsis that really move me. But anyway, to circle this ramblefest back to your point, the thing I've come to realize is no matter how many bands I love, no one is going to duplicate the perfect click between me and Coldplay's first four albums. Not even Coldplay. That's the hard thing to accept, even though I can still really enjoy them and that's something. And as you mentioned they do throw us old-schoolers a bone now and then. Music is a huge part of one's identity and especially so when it's particularly sentimental music like Coldplay's was. It's hard to let go of that and let it be part of someone's else's. They don't make music for me anymore, they make it for someone else. I don't think those people are any less worthy of that than I was (and in some cases more worthy ... I mean I stole Parachutes off the student-share server and never went to their concerts or bought a shirt), but it doesn't make it easier. Maybe Oldplayers come off as angry or overly critical but I think a lot of us just feel left behind by something that used to always be there for us. Personally I'm pretty impressed by how un-nasty people are, both old and new, despite some clear divides over the band's catalog. I also think it's fine for people who want to throw constant heaps of praise on everything they do now to go for it ... shit, enjoy that while you can ... how exciting when you feel that way about a band. Sometimes I feel like a jackass for joining the forum seven years removed from when I was really obsessed with the band, instead of when I should have ... I sort of don't fit with either old fans or new, because I wasn't "in the fandom" or did anything else relevant back then, and now I'm sort of out of touch with the music and just everything generally. But, people are pretty nice and it makes it a pleasant place to share enthusiasm about the things I'm still super hyped about, or discuss old favorites or nostalgia or vent a little about frustrations. So I hope the venting isn't a huge downer for people on here who are thrilled with the new stuff. Sorry, that was long and not particularly useful, I just felt like spewing some thoughts and I really related to some recent posts in this thread.

I'm with you here. I really appreciated the sentiment and the moment of unity but the song felt a bit thrown together lyrically and musically a bit like a rebadged Charlie Brown. I'm not sure what I was hoping for, I mean I knew they weren't going to pull out some melancholy heavy ballad for this occasion haha. I guess I've just got my thing and this wasn't it. But, it wasn't for me, so I'm OK with it. I hope it brought a moment of joy to those in Mexico who needed it. I also hope there's a studio version, maybe it'll grab me more. Either way I will for sure buy it nonetheless.

Not sure if this was previously posted but I've not seen it before, great photo of Guy and Nick Mason from April, with Nick's car and a new Ferrari. I have not been able to find this article or the video the IG poster mentions. I think it's probably the same one from when Jason Barlow posted a picture with himself, Guy and Nick very early in the year as Barlow writes for the Ferrari magazine. I have no idea where to get a print edition of this ... afaik you get it if you buy a Ferrari or pay quite a lot for just the magazine. Anyone been able to find it? [MEDIA=instagram]BTJPJ9AD4Qt[/MEDIA] Mobile Link: https://www.instagram.com/p/BTJPJ9AD4Qt/

You did a great job on one of my favorite songs. I only wish I had been there to see it in person. You could tell Chris was genuinely impressed. It takes a lot of courage to do something like that, but pushed through and did a beautiful job.

Ordinary man or not, your works are extraordinary and I'm sure they would genuinely enjoy seeing them. Especially since I would imagine musicians are very attached to their instruments, they would appreciate these mini versions of something special to them. I hope any idea to let the band see them works out! :)