posted
Anyone else have this yet? In all honesty, I think it's Coldplay's best effort since A Rush of Blood to the Head. Sure, there aren't really any "Clocks"-class songs on here, but "Lovers in Japan" is almost that good, and the album has an excellent overall atmosphere. It's a lot more solid than X+Y.
What was your reaction?
Posts: 292 | Registered: Jun 2006
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posted
It's not very good. It is better than X+Y, but it's just a band trying to be experimental that doesn't have the chops to do it, so it sounds like they're stretching it pretty thin.
They're good at pop songs. Violet Hill is a decent example of a pop song that isn't like (as much) what they've done before.
Posts: 368 | Registered: Aug 2007
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At least they're trying to do something different. Brian Eno's influence has at least managed to push them in a direction that varies from their Yellow/Clocks/Speed of Sound repertoire. Sure, it's not the greatest thing I've ever heard, but then again, it's only their first attempt to do something different. Maybe the next album will push them further in the right direction.
Much as The Unforgettable Fire had to precede The Joshua Tree. It's kind of the same situation.
Posts: 292 | Registered: Jun 2006
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quote:Originally posted by 777: At least they're trying to do something different. Brian Eno's influence has at least managed to push them in a direction that varies from their Yellow/Clocks/Speed of Sound repertoire. Sure, it's not the greatest thing I've ever heard, but then again, it's only their first attempt to do something different. Maybe the next album will push them further in the right direction.
Much as The Unforgettable Fire had to precede The Joshua Tree. It's kind of the same situation.
The difference being that U2 is a supremely better band.
Posts: 368 | Registered: Aug 2007
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I haven't liked anything they've done since Parachutes. Will this make me change my mind? Because I like to think my mind can always be changed. To me, after Parachutes, they began to sound very, very generic. The piano went into the background and the theatrics and stadium-pop-rock stuff all started happening.
I've listened to all of their albums, but unless some good people vouch for this one, I probably won't even chance it.
Posts: 2267 | Registered: May 2005
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quote:To me, after Parachutes, they began to sound very, very generic.
I always had trouble explaining this to people without them immediately calling me an elitist for only liking them "before they were popular".
I love that first album, though. High Speed and Everything's Not Lost are probably my favorite tracks. I sang all of those songs at the piano back in college.
Posts: 1314 | Registered: Jan 2006
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Parachutes and Rush are barely discernible. I would actually argue for Rush being better, because they aren't all that convincing as an affecting, intimate band, and when they adopted their whole stadium-softcore sound it suited what they were trying to do.
Even in the context of Coldplay, though, Viva La Vida is very different from both of those albums. It just isn't all that good.
Posts: 368 | Registered: Aug 2007
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posted
I've heard a couple of the new songs off this record. They sounded much better and more interesting than previous songs I'd heard by the band.
But it's still not quite my cup of tea. I'm going to stick to the new song by The Human Abstract as well as the new Showbread records. And The Fall of Troy. And the new He is Legend songs.
But if Coldplay continues to experiment like this and take a more rock-oriented approach to their songs, I may find myself buying a record by them in the future.
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