iamamusicquack

By the way, I didn't realise there was a section for music geekiness! Do point me there please :). Great that this is for fan raving :D - I guess I should have expected that everyone would post that they like the song also. It'd be interesting to hear from those who really don't - esp after the above posts - and those who do, but disagree with the thoughts articulated above. All in the name of healthy debate!

Thanks guys for the replies. filiprasmusson- thanks for the kind welcome. Yes, I am new here. It's a very fun forum to be a part of. And, yes, having a varied and variable setlist is very important - for Coldplay's sanity, if not for the fans' sake! Comicforce - apologies for being so geeky about music. Thanks for putting up with it. Sometimes "musicians" have a tendency to over-analyse. Although, I never thought about paintings in this way before. That's intriguing. I guess you are right, in that a picture tells a thousand words, but that is not any more than a glimpse of an episode in someone's story...music doesn't need to have nice, neat endings either. For fear of getting geeky about music again: typically, in theory, certain chord sequences should follow certain patterns in order to feel "complete". You know, when you feel the sequence ends naturally. Politik ends in, what is in music, technically, an incomplete manner. But I think this is consciously by the writers to emphasise the unresolved plight or desperation of the writer(s). I think that it works in this piece but would not always prefer music to end that way. And, thank you comicforce for your kind comments. Thanks Frisby. Now you mention it, that's a fair point. I'm gonna trawl through my sheet music :) . I do think that there is an underlying sense of desperation to the lyrics or the delivery of them. He's asking for something to be given but there's no hint that that's imminent or that he even believes it can happen. "give me love...over this" almost sounds knowingly hopeless. Again, prob over-analysing. And, coldplaymom, me neither, since deciding I like the song!

...As indeed criticism..!

Comments welcome!

Politik: Review and Analysis. Comments welcome! Hello all. Awesome site here. Really excited about the variety of the forum; there's a great sense of vibrancy to it which I appreciate. Thank you also for clicking through to this post, whether that's because you were actively searching for this topic or similar (hope I can spark some debate!) - or, through idly browsing the forum (probably procrastinating when there's something important to do -like, reading that flower-arranging book your aunt thought "you'd just love". No? Just me, then.). Anyway, I thought I'd take the opportunity to share with you some thoughts on one of the most interesting - in my humble opinion - tracks on an album in itself full of interesting songs. I don't usually like single song "reviews": I find them too hammy, self-indulgent or uninformative. So what better than to be guilty of the very sins I condemn! Maybe because I am feeling more moody than usual, lying in bed, sick as a dog, or maybe because I've had a moment of inspiration. Or, yes, maybe because I am just hammy/self-indulgent/vapid myself. But, we're here now - and, like the point of no return when you're telling a story that's supposed to be funny but, for some reason, only as you reach the punchline you suddenly realise there and then it was nowhere near as hilarious as you first remembered (too late now) - so here goes... I used to skip through this song when listening to the AROBTTH album: for some reason, the plodding, two-note, stabbing intro just didn't do it for me. I felt it was (gasp) a bit monotonous at the start. But call it becoming mellower, more tolerant, or the song just plain growing on me, I've developed an admiration for it that renders this song one of the best on the album in my view, and the best opener to a Coldplay album. That plodding, two-note stab of a start is one reason. It's simple yet wonderfully adept for that now commonly-recognised Coldplay trope, the Great Musical Build-up (aka "The Climax" aka "The Swell". Yeah. Not, really. But you know what I'm referring to.). The alternation between the major tonic seventh and the minor (minor!) fourth in intro, verse and chorus (yes, it's the same sequence throughout, if you haven't noticed) is deceptively simple and combines well with lyrics that effectively repeat themselves in later verses, albeit with vocal variations, and drives the song along, quietly and steadily towards a more layered chorus (again, based on the same two-chord pattern). By all accounts, this should just be boring. And, admittedly, I thought for some misguided time that it was. But the combination of all the above serves a purpose. There's a sense of desperation and urgency to the lyrics that matches well with the understated nature of the verses. The chorus always hints at more promise, musically, but after it's first iteration instead takes you back to the understated drive of the verse. This is patient build-up. And it makes that desperation, that urgency, that soul-seeking, all the more gripping. Let's go back to that minor fourth chord. It's a perfect foil to the tonic major. The tension from the major, played with a leading seventh, resolving into a minor chord, which itself requires resolution but instead returns to that major seventh, creates an uneasy backdrop to the understated delivery of the verses. It's what secretly gives the song that intangible impetus. Try setting the verse (and indeed chorus) to a sequence of major seventh (Cmaj7) to major fourth (FMaj) and you tell me if you don't get a jingly, jangly, quasi-folk jig. Not the effect Messrs Martin et al were aiming for! And once you get the chorus for the second time, you sense that the song really has to deliver on its promise, musically - and lyrically. The pay-off, that gradually-building refrain three minutes in that everyone knows, combined with some wonderful lyrical simplicity and ambiguity, is well worth it. The reason why it feels that way? Well, the structure of the song (a simple intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus-based on the same two chords with only dynamic and slight instrumental variation providing the much needed nuance that prevents many of this song's fans from realising the musical simplicity of it), for one. That "trick" typically can make the most straightforward refrain feel fresh. And, secondly, the way that structure lends itself to tension and the subconscious feeling of a pay-off or climax being imminent but, up until that stage, not delivered: the rising and falling from understated verse to more guitar-driven and forceful chorus, and back again, etc, generates uncertainty, and makes those lyrics in the verse all the more compelling. And, finally: the well-constructed nature of the refrain. I mean, it grows, and surges. It also follows a different chord sequence to what came before, which will naturally make it stand out. It fits well with the unresolved sense of what came before, though. There's a quiet sense of reflection when it kicks in, that develops into a swell. The chord sequence: F min, C# Min, A flat Maj, E flat (sus) Maj, E flat Maj (and repeat), is full of unresolved transition after transition, building and building. The lyrics on top are necessarily simple (but meaningful and hauntingly delivered - "and give me love over, love over, love over this. Ah...'", letting the chord sequence do the talking, so to speak. And that intricate, yet lush instrumentalisation providing variation with each iteration. I mean, ultimately, it's a cliched chord sequence, typically used for dramatic effect (see any Historical or Fantasy 'Epic' blockbuster, as the camera zooms in on the hero in the slow motion throe of having an emotional epiphany, staring into middle-distance across golden fields, before his troops suddenly erupt into action behind him...), but used here - and relatively sparingly - and as a "shock" climax, it's exquisite. As the layers of instrumentalisation build on this change of chord sequence (a motif that features repeatedly, to varying effect, in other Coldplay songs), the need for musical and lyrical resolution builds and builds to, dare I say, an almost unbearable level. This is why the lyrics are often recognised in this song, despite the straightforward nature of them. Indeed, read them, without the music and forget about the song, and you'll see they are rather ham. But simple lyrics with some emotional flavour is enough to achieve the right highs, if accompanied by such soaring chords and melodies. Going back to that point on resolution. Perhaps it's musically, and lyrically, appropriate that there...isn't one. The song never technically resolves itself. It hangs on that E flat (sus) Maj / E flat Maj to F min sequence at the end, until the sounds all fade out into the ether. There's no lyrical resolution either (which is never a problem in my book). Is it an issue not to resolve music? No. Some liken it to ending a movie abruptly or with a sudden fade to black scene, before cutting to the credits, without providing an ending (sad or otherwise!) of some conventional form. Personally, I love the ending here (although I admit I've maybe thought about it a little too much). I feel it couldn't be more fitting for a song, whose protagonist yearns, to paraphrase, for "strength, reserve [and] control". L.