mark55

Listening to Paradise, I'm waiting to hear that cringe-inducing yelp of Timbaland in the background.... I have been a fan ever since I saw them perform "Yellow" on TV ages ago. I can recall thinking, "Who is this?" and started to become a fan of theirs after that point... It wasn't really until A Rush of Blood to the Head came out though, and I listened to the album and instantly said, "WOW" to myself. It completely blew me away. After that point I fell head over heels in love with Coldplay. I honestly think AROBTTH is one of the greatest rock albums of all time, and it made me fall in love with Parachutes so much more. I remember that summer very fondly, finally falling in love with a band that was all "mine" and not the Beatles or another band that had disbanded decades ago that I would never see live... As soon as I heard the buzzy synth bass and electronic snare on Paradise today I was like, "Oh Jesus". I gave it a shot and listened to it a few times through, soaking in it's repetitive chords over and over again. I think if you showed this song to the guys back in their Parachutes/AROBTTH era and told them they were going to write this a decade later, they would have laughed at you and said they're not trying to be the Backstreet Boys. THIS IS WHAT COLDPLAY SOUNDS LIKE NOW? I realize not all their songs are going to sound like this -- the other new stuff they released so far is ok. Not anywhere near as good as their early days, but still ok. This Paradise song makes Every Tear Drop A Waterfall seem like "I Am the Walrus" in comparison to how generic this is. Funny how "Moving to Mars", their most "classic Coldplay" sounding song out of the 3, didn't make the cut . I've pretty much given up on Coldplay. Have they lost their minds? They're always going to have a special place in my heart, but ... they've let all their original, longstanding fans down. And what's with all the people saying, "Oh stop hatin, this song is a 10/10", trying to defend it and make us look like fools. You do realize they were an amazing, deep organic sounding band before you discovered them last year on your NOW THIS IS WHAT I CALL MUSIC VOL 245 cd, right? That we have been listening to their beautiful melodies for years now and this simply does not hold up whatsoever to classics like, "Everything is Not Lost", "Amsterdam", "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face", "Spies", "Clocks", "Trouble" and so on. Someone in a previous post said they have regressed in songwriting, using Amsterdam as a comparison (I 100% agree) and someone said, "No, they just changed their sound" and to get over it. You're trying to tell us that a song like Amsterdam with that mind-blowing ending and lush, deep dark piano chords that are cleverly written, is not a MILLION miles above this repetitive tween crap? It's just average for a pop song anyway; it's no man's land in terms of its appeal. If I didn't know them and I heard it on the radio, I would just change the channel. It makes me sad to say that, because I've never done that to a Coldplay song before. I would kill to go back to the days of X&Y. Everyone made fun of that album but it still was Coldplay and organic. It's strange because I love Eno but he somehow totally destroyed this band's sound and essence. Viva La Vida had some cool parts in it and some lovely songs but it felt cold, soulless and overcompressed and overproduced. Coldplay's music used to remind me of laidback foggy mornings in the countryside. Now they remind me of Glee marathons or music that should be played during an ABC Family montage. And yes -- I KNOW bands change their sound and grow. I grew up with Radiohead too. This is not growth. This is regression, like the other person said. This is not better. Coldplay opened up a whole new world with me when I learned their early songs on guitar and all their unique chord progression and endless weird tunings. I got all their chord books and was blown away by how clever and original their songwriting was. I bought the Viva La Vida songbook and all the chords stared becoming predictable, no alternate tunings, and it's come to a full stop now. The majority of their new songs lack any of that slightly dark, mellow, humble beauty that the old Coldplay songs had. I've always felt that Coldplay has done a horrible job of looking at themselves as a band, objectively & subjectively. Their B-sides like Animals, Murder, I Ran Away, 3.16, One I Love, Ladder to the Sun, Help is Round the Corner, Poor Me, Gravity, How You See the World, etc were all absolutely BRILLIANT and should have been included on their respectable albums. I feel like these songs got cut because they probably felt like they were too "outside the box". Which they aren't at all. But I felt like they knew the labels/mainstream wouldn't like them as much and cut them off. I always try to show people the Coldplay b-sides because it shows a cooler, darker vibe from them. I feel like if they had showed off more of these types of songs, it would have given them more of a mainstream-Radiohead-esque type of approachability and charm...instead of always choosing the most poppy, predictable songs to make the ends of their album cuts (a la "The Hardest Part")... they just come off like they're always trying too hard to please everyone. On top of that they let the negative criticism get to them too much after X&Y. They got so popular people started belittling them (NY Times article calling them "most insufferable band ever") and then Chris Martin said "We won't be seeing you around for a while" at that awards show, with his tail tucked between his legs. He should have told them all to fuck off and stuck to his guns. I remember reading interviews of them after that point, talking how they were embarrassed and didn't know what to do with themselves... and then they hired Eno. Rest is history. Funny how they were embarrassed after X&Y, but aren't embarrassed to wear these silly matching outfits with the cheap-looking decals ironed onto their clothes, looking like a poor man's version of Sgt. Pepper, singing trite songs like Paradise. What happened to the UK blokes that wore jeans and just cared about making beautiful music? Oh yeah, I forgot, they got money. That's not to say being rich makes you a bad musician, however as we've seen throughout history over and over again, a lot of times the passion/originality is never the same. Well that's my rant and I could give two shits if you don't like it. But I'm sorry, Coldplay are a joke of what they used to be, and what their potential during their early days had been. You see bands like Radiohead, who write music the way they want to, no apologies, and the fans flock in droves...Coldplay could have had that, but instead they sold out for Top 40 collaborations with Rihanna (are you serious?) And finally, let me add, I don't mind pop music. I love synths and certain electronica music and sounds, and i'm not really against Coldplay meshing that in. I loved the drum synth playing underneath Chris Martin's piano chords during Animals. It sounded unique, classy. This just sounds vacuous and generic, and the chords are boring. You can write pop music and still be original, avant garde, new. Coldplay have never been the best lyricists, but at least they had great song structures and melodies. Now they have none of that. Even as vague as some of their early lyrics were, it still had a symbolic prettiness to it. Their lyrics are getting cheesy here. I used to have a few friends that loved Coldplay in highschool along with me... now most are too embarrassed to even admit they used to like them. I'm always the one defending Coldplay from those who call them boring, whiny, etc but now it's at a point where I don't even know how to defend this anymore.... I know this'll never happen but they should just get back to the basics. Mark