coldplay: x & y
 

This album is brilliant. Best of the year so far.

I love the Rush of blood... album. I need to chk this one too :)

it's a good one :D I like it

got 5 out of 5 in the mail review sectin yesterday. can't argue with that.

I'm picking it up with don't believe the truth on monday.

To tell you the truth... I don't see the big deal about this album... Speed of Sound is my favorite song... I don't think it's my style.. I don't understand! LOL

Ryan

It's already out?

duh.

takes a bit to get into if your not originally a coldplay fan i must admit... but after a few listens its sensational

Good. I can't wait to get the album tomorrow. They performed SOS, In My Place and Fix You on Jonathan Ross on Friday night. Fix You was awesome :)

well you've got to look at it from the perspective that a band with as much commercial success as coldplay and with as much a reputation for being "wimpy students playing coffee table music" having a critic give them the top mark they can get in a review is a bit of a statement.

they just did a thing on mtv showcasing the new stuff. most of it's good. alot more in the clocks, politik direction from rush of blood.

not everyone will like it and to be honest they could bring out the best tune in the world and there'd still be people that would hate it simply because it was coldplay.

Its pretty good but I wouldnt give it 5/5. Alot of the songs sound the same to me but there a couple of classics on there.

It didn't get a good rating at all from the NYTimes music critic - he hated it. Below are a couple of paragraphs of his review.
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"X&Y" is the work of a band that's acutely conscious of the worldwide popularity it cemented with its 2002 album, "A Rush of Blood to the Head," which has sold three million copies in the United States alone. Along with its 2000 debut album, "Parachutes," Coldplay claims sales of 20 million albums worldwide. "X&Y" makes no secret of grand ambition.

Clearly, Coldplay is beloved: by moony high school girls and their solace-seeking parents, by hip-hop producers who sample its rich instrumental sounds and by emo rockers who admire Chris Martin's heart-on-sleeve lyrics. The band emanates good intentions, from Mr. Martin's political statements to lyrics insisting on its own benevolence. Coldplay is admired by everyone - everyone except me.

It's not for lack of skill. The band proffers melodies as imposing as Romanesque architecture, solid and symmetrical. Mr. Martin on keyboards, Jonny Buckland on guitar, Guy Berryman on bass and Will Champion on drums have mastered all the mechanics of pop songwriting, from the instrumental hook that announces nearly every song they've recorded to the reassurance of a chorus to the revitalizing contrast of a bridge. Their arrangements ascend and surge, measuring out the song's yearning and tension, cresting and easing back and then moving toward a chiming resolution. Coldplay is meticulously unified, and its songs have been rigorously cleared of anything that distracts from the musical drama.

Unfortunately, all that sonic splendor orchestrates Mr. Martin's voice and lyrics. He places his melodies near the top of his range to sound more fragile, so the tunes straddle the break between his radiant tenor voice and his falsetto. As he hops between them - in what may be Coldplay's most annoying tic - he makes a sound somewhere between a yodel and a hiccup. And the lyrics can make me wish I didn't understand English. Coldplay's countless fans seem to take comfort when Mr. Martin sings lines like, "Is there anybody out there who / Is lost and hurt and lonely too," while a strummed acoustic guitar telegraphs his aching sincerity. Me, I hear a passive-aggressive blowhard, immoderately proud as he flaunts humility. "I feel low," he announces in the chorus of "Low," belied by the peak of a crescendo that couldn't be more triumphant about it.

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Not a great recommendation.

Kathleen

BBC Radio 1 is broadcasting live the Coldplay gig at London's KOKO club tonight at 21.00 (UK time).
You can listen it here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/alt/coldplay2005/

Radio 1, are also streaming the conert on their website for a week.

just picked it up

I'll give a review once I get all the way through it but it's shaping up to be good.

X&Y

K I’m writing this overall thing after going through it track by track and doing reviews. There’s a coupla things I’ll say. By the track writing you’ll probably see a change over the course of the record of my opinion. I think that’s mainly because I realised I was being really pedantic and holding it up to much higher standards than I would an album I’d picked up at random or based on a single or two. This is for 2 reasons. First I’ve been looking forward to this for so long that I had this hyped up to the point where I was expecting Morning Glory for this decade, secondly because it’s Coldplay and Rush of Blood and the resulting incredible stuff they’re went onto has set them up for much more scrutiny.

The 1st half I seem a bit disappointed because I was wanting to listen to this and go **** this totally blows my world or have a song make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. To be fair, the killers and Damien rice are the only records in the past 3 years that have made me go **** me and Coldplay’s the scientist did make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up the 1st time I heard it so I’ll give them credit for that.

Anyways I’m ranting on. What I’m getting at is that this is an incredibly good, well polished and realised album. 99% of the bands out there could release this and it would be regarded as the absolute pinnacle of what they’re ever capable of, be loved by critics and the public alike, as this is Coldplay, they have to withstand a lot more scrutiny and as you can see, even I’m guilty of that.

Long story short, it’s a brilliant album and you should be objective when listening because if I’d picked up Maximo Park’s album that was sitting next to this on the shelves but it was exactly the same I’d be phoning my mates right now telling them to get their ass over to Asda and pick up the record because it was incredible.





SQUARE ONE: The 1st thing you heard in Rush of Blood were the drums pounding out the beat and it sinks in immediately, this has volume swells and synth pads in the intro. Not that it’s a bad thing but a tune that grabs you by the balls from the go is always a bonus. That’s about the only fault I can find. The drum loop is fairly insignificant but still adds to the rhythm section in the verses. Chorus is good, not incredibly memorable but still really good non-the-less. Similar production to politik, lots of reverb and little guitar and synth parts in the background all adding to the sonic landscape and done a lot more subtly than Bloc Party. 8/10

WHAT IF: Starts off sounding like it’s going to be a morbid attempt to recreate Imagine. The lyrics sound pretty contrived and simplistic or lazy but coming from a writers’ point of view, to be genuinely sincere, you do write like that instead of trying to write some sort of poetry for art students to debate. This kinda sums up this album in one song, most bands couldn’t write a song anywhere near as finished and good as this if they tried but because it’s Coldplay and so much is expected, it just seems like a good song, on any other bands record it would be a standout track in my opinion. Maybe not the best choice for a 2nd track. 7.5/10

WHITE SHADOWS: Strong intro, Bloc Party meets the Killers. Great guitars all over this track. Their man manages to be very basic and use delay and reverb to fill out and fit the songs while remaining tasteful, something the Edge kinda left out of the equation. Great chorus IMO. Would be incredibly if Martin could scream or sing it the octave higher but as the critic said (which I’ll give him credit for) he does sing pretty close to the top of his register so sometimes that means when the song needs to go one better, he can’t and this is a prime example. The chorus is sung lower than the verses. Most objective folk probably won’t bat an eyelid but from a musicians point of view it just sticks out a mile away. Again I’m just nit picking on these songs, it is a brilliant song.. For people whinging about speed of sound being clocks 2, they’ve got the progression from the scientist in the outro J 8/10

FIX YOU: Stand out song. Brilliant progression, brilliant arrangement. Again the same “contrived easy lyrics” but they’re not really. Yellow had similar lyrics amongst lots of their other stuff. I know I already mentioned the progression but I absolutely LOVE the instrumental / 2nd half progression to the point that I’m going to nick it for one of my songs. Bah I’m actually considering giving this a 10, because after listening again it’s absolutely incredibly, easily the best track off the album and the best song that’s just stood out to me since The Street’s Dry Your Eyes. 9.5/10

TALK: Not weak as such, just not very strong compared to other tracks. Probably down to the really basic melody on the chorus (which is hard enough to make out in the 1st place, could do with the vocals higher in the mix) and the 2 chord (3 if you want to be pedantic) progression. Guitar lick is the best hook on the song. Middle 8 sounds like it’s going to lead to a great crescendo-ing ending, like Politik but it never really gets there. Still good, not great. 6.5/10

X&Y: Plods along nicely in the verses. Doesn’t really grab you in any way. You can tell it’s been wrote on a piano. Pretty much most of this record has but this just screams piano progression and not in a good way. Too many suspended and augmented chords to make it memorable in my opinion. The album is supposedly split into 2 sections (X&Y) which the only reason for this I can see is a line between the tracks on the back of the record but it does sound like it’s supposed to be the end of something, they just don’t really make it clear what that something is. 5.5/10

SPEED OF SOUND: Clocks mk2 apparently. To be fair the 1st time I heard the piano part I was like **** they could’ve at least done it on a guitar or something to make it not totally obvious they’d ripped off clocks but the more you listen to it, the more you see it as a separate song. Doesn’t grab you like In My Place did as the 1st single from Rush of Blood but it’s still a fantastic track. Great bridge and chorus. 9/10

A MESSAGE: Acoustic to begin with, nice. Nowhere near near as much acoustic guitar on this than rush of blood, which is a good thing. Doesn’t lead to them churning out drivel like God put a smile on your face. Kicks in with the delayed guitars and synths at the chorus making up the background noise. I like it. It’s a grower. 7/10

LOW: Kicks in from the intro (bout time guys J ) Could be seen as a bit of a throwaway track. This is mainly because the rest of them all build up from the very basics where as this is a lot more like traditional rock in its approach. Goes in the opposite direction from most of the other songs getting more spacey near the end. 6

THE HARDEST PART: Kicks in from the start too. Not as hard as Low. Nice bouncing along song with a great progression. Everything just seems to fit in like it was meant to be there. A great pop song and by pop I don’t mean he’s going to be busting moves like Justin onstage, I mean it’s a perfectly crafted 3 minute piece of music that people will want to listen to. Think Tom Petty with less guitars. 7.5/10

SWALLOWED IN THE SEA: Back to the usual formula, Synths and Martin himself to begin with building up, the melody on this is more grabbing than the other ones I’ve said are kinda throw-away tunes. The verse morphs into the chorus, which isn’t a bad thing. One of the memorable choruses on the record too. You can actually envisage the people singing along at Glastonbury when they stop and let the crowd keep singing. Seems kinda short but that stops it running on and just getting tired. 8/10

TWISTED LOGIC: Again another “finish” song that shouldn’t actually have finished the record. I dunno it just doesn’t do anything for me. Can’t see it getting played out live. Good time to have a fag or chat up the good looking bird standing next to you if they do. 5/10

HIDDEN TRACK (For you I’d wait????, Wait for me????): Not very hidden. Only takes about half a minute before it kicks in. Nice acoustic and piano verse. They just drive the song. Been listening to Paul Simon recently and listening to this I’m thinking, it’s Paul Simon back to basics, if you’re not acquainted with the basics of Mr Simon then this is a big compliment. Builds up nicely at the chorus. Just an absolutely fantastic tune, 2nd favourite on the record.

The hidden track is called "Til Kingdom Come".
It was written for Johnny Cash, but he died before he could record it.

I really, really like this album. It's no better than Parachutes or A Rush Of Blood To The Head, it just fits in perfectly alongside them. In my opinion, Fix You, Talk (that guitar riff is catchy stuff) and Swallowed By The Sea are great stand out tracks. I also think that the opener is strong. For me, it's the best album of the year so far.

WOW Jim thanks for the detailed review...I can't wait to listen to all the cd. There was a special last Sunday on MTV about the new album and when they played "What if" I liked it straight away.

yeah i thought it's kinda like rush of blood is half of the journey between parachutes and this, not better. not worse, just part of it. or something like that.

cheers for the praise van jovi I very rarely write anything here more than: this is brilliant pick it up now but I thought I might as well give it a good review since there's so much to write. Apologies if it's a bit too focused on production and subjective with regards to the songwriting and overall sound at times.

its a album that grows on you alot i think. Its #1 in 22 countries at the moment.. including America

Yes, it's a fantastic achievement. X & Y hasn't been out of my CD players since the release date.

...just bought x&y yesterday. After a few listenings (3 to be axact) all i can say is, that i´m quite disappointed. All in all, it got some nice songs on it (Speed of sound or Swallowed by the sea) but the rest seems quite similiar to me & the album ends up to be quite boring. Well, I´ll give it a few more listens but Don´t believe the truth is by miles better :D

I love white shadows cant stop listening to it!!!

It's an excellent album. I still have to listen to it a few times to rate it vs the previous ones but it's at least a good imo. Even if some songs do sound the same at first (that is tipical of Coldplay anyway), I'm starting to think there is more diversity and evolution from the band on this album than between the first two.

There is something with this band that works very well. In totally different styles, their evolution in their music and popularity remembers me of U2's. That's all I can wish for them.

Can't wait to see them live here on August 3. And U2 on November 28.

Jim, great review.


Ponrauil

I'm the same. At first it was just 'another track'. But, I ended up getting addicted to it.

ok, I am confused. I thought you were being sarcastic here:

No sarcasm there. I worship this album. However, it has been taken out of my CD player and put back on the shelf. KISS - Destroyer is in now.