Rainy Day

Rainy Day by Coldplay

Okay you know how I'm more fascinated with Coldplay than just about anyone (not they can't just be good, I have to look at them at every angle possible). There is good Coldplay (this is the Coldplay that sells out arenas and tries to be U2). There is sucky Coldplay (see: X&Y). And there is wow, this band can write really good songs that take some chances (see: Shiver).

This song falls into the wow, this band can write really good songs that take some chances.

I'm not sure what it is about this song, maybe it's the chorus with the strings and Martin singing "I love it when you come over to my house". I guess this song is sort of cheesy, but at the same time it seems so honest.

But I'll just face the music. I love the chorus. It's simple, it's lovely, it's hopelessly romantic, yet totally realistic. That moment when someone comes over... that's just so great. The woman/man you love at your place, on your couch, in you bed... that's how it should be.

"But I love it when you come over to my house, I love it when you come over to my house"

NOTE: sorry about the month off, but I fried my laptop and it took forever to move my songs from my old hard drive to the new one. And yes, it is that hard to do this on an iPod. So I just waited until I could actually get a good shuffle.

#3 -- Best Songs of 2008

Viva La Vida by Coldplay

I could write about Coldplay for a long, long time... and I have like when I attempted to figure out if Coldplay was the most obviously unobvious band of all time. I'm never sure what to do with them. Take this song. The string arrangement is sweet. The vocals are nice, the song is well constructed and builds to something. It sounds good. You want to hear it again. The lyrics are oddly charming and give great imagery. The song sort of pumps you up. It's a great song right?

But it is so obvious. I feel lame for even putting it on the list... because it's so obvious. Everyone knows this song is good, but it's by Coldplay so intellectually there is some problem with the song. But I can't downgrade the song just because Coldplay does it. It's like this song should be better almost...

And then there is the issue that they stole the rift from Joe Satriani. But here's the thing—Coldplay does it so much better. And even though musically they don't take any chances, they make better music because they're really good musicians. Think about how great a Coldplay best of album is after only four records? Who wouldn't buy that CD?

#3a -- Life in Technicolor ii by Coldplay

Going back to the obviously unobvious idea... the frustrating thing about Coldplay is that Viva La Vida is a really good, but unadventurous song when compared to the opener off of their underwhelming album, "Life in Technicolor". But LiT doesn't do enough to warrant a place in the top 25...

And then came the release of the Prospekt's March EP. And even though the lyrics don't add anything imo, it puts "Life in Technicolor" over the top. THIS is an adventurous and beautiful song. And this is what Coldplay should be doing (along with, arguably, Lovers in Japan).

These two songs sum up the frustrating thing about Coldplay: they are better musicians and can do things better than most other musicans (ala Viva La Vida) but it isn't all that adventitious even though it sounds really good. BUT then they do something adventurous and different and it's better than nearly everything else out there.

Coldplay is stuck in some weird spiral... I won't say they're as talent as say, Radiohead, or even U2, but it's not like they're all that far behind at the same time. But unlike both bands Coldplay ALWAYS plays it safe. They could write an album of "Shiver" and "Life in Technicolor"... but they play it safe... it's like they're scared to try and fulfill their potential. They're like the anti-indie band in many ways. Which is a bummer... I'd love to see Coldplay go though a strech like U2 did in the 90s.

Finally... why is this Life in Technicolor and not Life in Technicolour?

Violet Hill

Violet Hill by Coldplay



Is Coldplay the most obvious unobvious band ever? On the face of it, just raising this question seems inane—the number of bands who are marketing creations would seemingly bump Coldplay out of contention right away. But think about it, Coldplay wants to be U2, they act like U2 in commercials where they're trying to look like U2. Coldplay is copying a band who set out on being the most obvious and pretentious without being pretentious band over 20 years ago. The only time that U2 didn't do something obvious was probably in the late 90s when they stuck with the whole "Pop" era stuff. Both 'shifts' in U2's career were actually fairly obvious:
1) Achtung Baby was really not all that big of a musical shift when you listen to the album. The biggest difference between Achtung Baby and previous U2 ablums is that Bono didn't try to write any obnoxious, yet lovable, songs like "Pride" or "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".
2) All That You Can't Leave Behind was really the only album U2 could make after "Pop". Call it a return to U2's roots or just call it an album that hasn't aged well AT ALL even though it was released less than 8 years ago.

Right after (or right when) All That You Can't Leave Behind came out, Coldplay struck it big with Yellow. A one hit wonder they were not since once one heard "Shiver" you knew Chris Martin and friends weren't going away. They had talent. And they backed it up with their second album which while maybe not as good as some fans claim, it's not as bad as some critics claim either. On their third album, Coldplay tries to sort of do what they did on their first two albums, only they don't, and aside from the bridge on "Speed of Sound" the album has more throw up moments than anything else ("My song is love" the first line of "A Message" is the worst line in music history and I will not argue this, even with Bill Simmons).

So what does Coldplay do to follow up? They hire Brian Eno to produce their next album—I'm not even making this up. Hiring Eno was the most unobvious obvious move a band like Coldplay could make. The thinking must have been, "If we hire U2's producer he'll make sure we don't sound like Coldplay!" Instead what Coldplay told the world was: "We're a poor band's U2, only we don't cover U2 songs and we never talk about Jesus." (BTW, I'd pay good money to see Coldplay cover U2 songs for two hours. It's also pay good money to watch Oasis cover Beatles songs. And I think it'd be awesome if Jet actually covered the songs they ripped off on "Get Born").

Anyway, back to Coldplay, their fourth album, Viva la Vida something and it goes on, is completely and totally underwhelming. Why? Because it is so friggin' unobviously obvious that it can't be any good. If it was obviously unobvoius I might be able to take it, but it's the other way around, and therefore I'm left listening to the same four tracks.

And good tracks they are. This song is surprisingly good, maybe it's because I totally relate to the song, always dangerous, but true at the moment. "So if you love me, why'd you let me go?... If you love me, won't you let me know". Sometimes love just doesn't go the way it's supposed to go. As U2 sang, and the Beatles too, pride can be a very very bad thing and unfortuntally gets in the way of love.

Fix You

Fix You by Coldplay

Classic Coldplay... a good song, it builds and builds and then explodes near the end.

When I lived in Alexandria, travel to and from DC was a hike. Often times when I went out on the weekends in DC, I'd bring my iPod with me to distract me during my trip to and from the King Street Metro. Sometimes when I would had a bit too much to drink, I would turn this song as I walked home... and like in the video, when the guitar kicks in around the 2:30 mark, I'd take off running down the street.

It was a lot of fun.

Watch:

Clocks

Clocks by Coldplay

The BBC played the intro or outro to this song roughly 29,387 times a day between programming. And still today, I am not sick of this song. This, frankly, is amazing. I hear those first few notes and I'm immediately flying, about 100 feet above London, down Tottenham Court Road and then Charing Cross Road, though Leicester Square, around Trafalgar Square and down Whitehall passing Whitehall in the process. I finally come to Westminster and Big Ben and Victoria Tower. Or I'm walking along the Embankment and there is the Thames on my left... or better yet I'm atop the hill in Regent's Park. In other words, if I ever want to go back to London, I just put on Clocks. The beautiful piano takes me there just like that.

Listen:

Shiver

Shiver by Coldplay

Oh, Coldplay… you frustrating group of guys you… Let's see, Chris Martin bagged Gwyneth, I apparently lived down the block from where they lived when they went to UCL when I lived in London which means I probably drank in the same pubs that Chris Martin did. They've produced some absolute crap lite rock and they've also wrote some great songs. And this is a great song. I wish they wrote this song more often. I'd argue that this is the best Coldplay has to offer, Martin's vocals are good, the hooks are nice, the guitar work is interesting, and the lyrics are true. And interestingly enough, despite the greatness of this song, no one comes to mind when I hear it. I guess I haven't met her yet.

Listen: