Coldplay

Originally Posted by Dr Cheese

They're just so insipid, all the media fawning and ass kissing baffles me, they just fill me with inertia and their name-checking of The Bunnymen all the time is pissing me off!

Originally Posted by Deranged

They are two completely different things...

Originally Posted by Dr Cheese

The Bunnymen are one of the greatest bands

Originally Posted by Dr Cheese

Yeah, The Bunnymen are one of the greatest bands of all time and Coldplay aren't.

Originally Posted by Dr Cheese

What the hell do you know, you like Keane for god's sake!!!

Originally Posted by Ilúvatar

Ignore the inane ramblings of Cheese and get the album. It's very good.

Read this from Observer Music Monthly for a more balanced, honest review:


"It's exceptional, it will sound even better after they've honed it on stage - and the lyrics make some kind of sense.

Two summers ago, I spent some time with Coldplay in America. Before Chris Martin became a husband and father, before the band spent more than 18 months in five different countries in a frenzy of writing, re-writing and dumping songs in a quest to make a perfect third album.

At the time, Coldplay were playing those really big American venues such as Red Rocks and Madison Square Garden and the likes of Brian Wilson were turning up to show their respect. The band, it seemed, were cool in America. Yet there Martin was, dating an Oscar winner, doing his funny dance at Red Rocks exactly 20 years after U2's legendary performance ... and worrying.

He apologised for being over-exposed back in England. He agonised over a backlash. Then he was defiant: 'We are going to make such a bonkersly brilliant next record that I don't care. Everything apart from the music is bollocks. So I don't care if people think I have sex with badgers.' And, as it turns out, Martin was right on two counts. Who cares if his sobriety and public school education make him the anti-Liam? What counts is the music. And Coldplay's third album is exceptional.

It is almost - not quite but almost - flawless. And it will probably reach a state of perfection when performed live, because, after years of learning to get it right, this is where Coldplay now excel. But for now there is the record. X&Y is a fantastically confident collection of songs.

Once again, love, life and death are Martin's inspiration, only this time round it is almost impossible not to think of Gwyneth Paltrow as his muse. Lyrically, Martin actually makes sense pretty much for the first time, while musically the band have perfected the art of contrast: over and over again, there is the rush of guitar and drums followed by the singer alone at his piano, with falsetto vocals and a questioning heart.

X&Y opens with a statement of intent. With its refrain of 'it doesn't matter who you are', 'Square One' is a beautiful, multi-layered soundscape, a nod to Pink Floyd and David Bowie. This is an album that sounds very much like Coldplay but owes a debt to others . 'Talk' borrows a sample from Kraftwerk's 'Computer Love' and it works brilliantly, while 'Low' is a U2-inspired epic.

Thankfully, Martin's status as a secure family man hasn't made the self-doubting nature of his lyrics vanish. The title track may or may not detail his relationship. Either way, it is a glorious love song, Jonny Buckland's inventive guitar accompanying lavish strings.

Martin's favourite song on X&Y is 'A Message', a tender acoustic song he wrote naked in the middle of the night. 'I'm nothing on my own/ I love you, please come home,' he sings, sounding like he's been up all night crying. Or maybe he's just very good at sounding sad, and sad songs are always the best.

As Noel Gallagher himself recently noted, 'Coldplay aren't rock'n'roll but I'm havin' them.' Well, they may not be rock'n'roll in the sex and drugs sense of the term, but X&Y proves Coldplay are a great rock band, and while they may not have sex with badgers, they are bonkersly brilliant."

Originally Posted by Ilúvatar

And you don't like Keane, so I think I'll continue to laugh at your sillyness.