I don't think Chris could write an album as bad as Richard's recent output if he tried. Genuinely. Too much of a natural melodist. Even the worst Coldplay albums contain Fix You and Up&Up, Square One and Adventure of a Lifetime, White Shadows and Birds. I'm with matt on this one. Big difference between a genuine pop Svengali with the ability to stay relevant and smash charts consistently for two decades, and a talented rock songwriter who needs a band but has convinced himself that he's a solo hurricane when he's more of a light breeze. And it's not as if Ashcroft has lost listeners by being too out there. This is more rock 'n' roll than anything he's done for years:



Anyway, it's another top five smash for Coldplay. We'll see how Richard's covers of his own band does.

Coldplay just put out a ten-minute track more adventurous than anything Ashcroft has thought of for decades. And they can do that while remaining globally relevant to multiple generations, because it's not an age gap - it's a talent gap. I made a friend this year, eighteen years old, from China. Never heard of The Beatles. Never heard of Queen. Coldplay? A Sky Full of Stars is her favourite. My Universe is on her playlist right now. U2 don't get that, Ashcroft certainly doesn't. You can't do that with cynicism - only with a genuine love of pop, and an ability to write it no matter the zeitgeist. And to do it while also making songs like Coloratura and Arabesque, two decades into your career, generations after bands went out of fashion? That's the kind of talent that Ashcroft thinks he has. 

In any case, I do agree that Coldplay can write insipid stuff, just that My Universe is not an example of that, and at no point are they even close to being as creatively bankrupt as Ashcroft. Stuff like Fun and Amazing Day from A Head Full of Dreams shows Coldplay at their worst - colourless, schmaltzy, cheap. Same with the lowlights from X&Y, their other big mis-step. Thankfully, this era hasn't contained anything like that so far. This feels like an era where they're free to follow every artistic impulse - be it progressive, pure pop, metal, or ambient. Of course, not every one of those genres will appeal to you, but the contrast between that and the rut Ashcroft is in is stark. 

I loved Arabesque when it came out, but I actually think Orphans is the better song. Actually I think that's their best single since Strawberry Swing.



It's catchy for a start, but it took me a while to realise the song was a tribute to a young girl who really was Rosaline that was killed in US/UK/French bombings of Syria. This is another tip to Bono and co - if you want to write a political song these days, be a bit more original in your protest. This song focuses on the victim and their character, and the sense of loss and yearning with it. It gives the song so much empathy and compassion to victims with what was lost. Just a much more sincere, humane and devastating anti-war tune than a generic 'fuck the US/UK' angry proclamation.

It's really upbeat on first glance but a really sad song when you dig deeper. Great song, one of their very very best.

Sunrise

It's the most powerful form of protest, highlighting the human side of things. A reason why I love Bruce Springsteen because much of his best work is the stories of human beings corrupted from society. Doesn't bang the drum with wild sloganeering, just more subtle in its despair at the impact of politicians. And because you care, it makes you more angry.

I think the Russell T Davies perspective is spot on. Even learning about history, the personalised take on it is the emotional pull you need to learn about it. Just recently, I knew absolutely nothing about the Japanese occupation of Singapore in the second world war, but a novel I read called How We Disappeared was a fictionalised account of the plight of a Singaporean women who was forced into sex slavery (something which was rife during the occupation which I was unaware of). All based on fact, and all the more catastrophic thinking about the consequences of military/imperial might, where most of what I learnt in school really only focused on the strategic and geopolitical consequences over anything. And of course, the 'human aspect' when taught just resorts to stats (i.e. numbers killed). It's where art and culture really plays such a significant part in our awareness of such things.

I'd have probably assumed Chris Martin to be with all that shallow sloganeering sort, purely thinking it was a vanity thing. But listening to his lyrics recently, it's all about insight into just being human. Compared to say Travis, who I was listening to recently and they had a song called Peace The Fuck Out. A song berating politicians around the Iraq War . There's nice lines in there ('your mind is crooked/But your tie is straight') and I don't disagree with it, but the song reveals nothing you don't already feel. The best music uncovers emotions or feelings dormant in you, makes connections with abstract things that you otherwise didn't give consideration to and Chris Martin goes the right way about it in terms of his 'protests'.

I dig that Travis album too, especially Re-Offender but I just use it as an explicit example of political protesting. Chris Martin did similar with Politik - great great song, but as he's got older, I think his approach to it has matured.

I love All That You Can't Leave Behind but I don't think its an age thing - I don't see Coldplay similarly writing bad songs like U2 have been doing (You're The Best Thing I just despise). It's about staying true to yourself and U2 haven't done that. I have no doubt that Chris Martin is staying true to himself - his music tastes were always a lot more poppy than U2, so its his natural forte and you can tell that in their songs. He said in the early 2000s he ideally wished Coldplay were more like N-Sync! I think he has grown Coldplay into the band he always wanted them to be. U2 never aspired to be with the pop kids, in fact, Bono scorned them when they released Achtung Baby so their career trajectory has become somewhat hypocritical in their current state.

In fairness to him, he's tried to be them too. I think that just sums up his attitude towards music in general. He has an encyclopedic taste in music.

The irony is that the one time Coldplay haven't been "true to themselves" isn't A Head Full of Dreams, it's X&Y.

That was where they had sales in mind, that was where they put out something they wouldn't have done with more freedom, that's the record that they all regret. But that was a guitar-based album, so obviously that doesn't count; when people say they want the band to be more "true to themselves", they mean, "make music in the genres I enjoy". I still remember people on here writing theories about how Chris must have been bullied in high school because they'd rather invent some kind of personal trauma than face the idea that rock isn't inherently superior to pop. Weird. The good news is that I don't think there are many bands in the world as true to themselves as Coldplay are right now. Every muse, whether it's danceable anthems with BTS or heavy jazz-rock bangers, is there to be followed completely. People used to say every Coldplay song sounds the same, now they might be the single most varied act in the mainstream. It's been a long journey, but they got there.

I'd say X&Y is as much of a mis-step as A Head Full of Dreams. Rock fans will chose the former, pop fans the latter, but really, they're both albums that go for a sound and succeed when they follow it through, but collapse into blandness when they fall back on old tricks. X&Y has the highlights, but it's also much longer, and horrifically written. The lyrics are by far the worst Chris has ever delivered. Every track feels addressed in the second person, constantly cloying the listener with lines about how "you" feel, often with this smug messianic feel where the song thinks it can, well, "fix you". You see no meaning to your life, you should try. Cheers, Chris, didn't think of that. And then you have tracks like Swallowed in the Sea, The Hardest Part, A Message, and What If. They feel like a parody of Old-Coldplay, like A Rush of Blood to the Head dumbed down to sell records. And, really, that's what the album is. A cool space-rock album bloated to save EMI. AHFOD also has rubbish songs - Fun, in particular, is sonic vomit - but at least it's concise and joyful and doesn't feel designed against the artist's will. It's a 50/50, to me. Which one I prefer depends on my mood. But the point is that X&Y is Coldplay not being true to themselves, more than any other album. If you want to hear the sound of Chris writing with sales in mind, listen to X&Y.

Genuinely have no idea what you're listening to, to think A Sky Full of Stars sounds like Orphans. 

There is so much X&Y that I really like and still dig 16 years later.

Square One
White Shadows
Fix You
Talk (still like the March 2005 leak more)
Speed of Sound
A Message
Low
Til Kingdom Come

Even some of the b-sides deserved a better look for album consideration: Pour Me, Sleeping Sun, These Are Things I don’t Understand.

Till this day no idea what happened to Ladder To The Sun, Solid Ground, Sweet Marieanne, etc.

My point being when people use to say all Coldplay songs sound the same they meant darker and sad. Naturally Yellow, The Scientist or Clocks don’t sonically sound the same. That is comparison to the lighter more upbeat tunes being released as singles now. It’s not just me saying they sound the same these days it’s people I know and work with. Some of the songs you mentioned weren’t heavily pushed singles like the ones I listed and are in rotation for the masses to make those generalizations.

I mean at the end of the day they still do care about sales, charts and cater to parlaphone. Their record company basically told them on Everyday Life they need a big single and that a song ear marked for “Spheres” was pulled into the EL orbit. The band could have kicked back saying we are going with an Orphans less EL but didn’t. This happens a lot. Look at Noel and DBTT. Record executives said we need a single(s) and he tossed in Lyla and Idle very late into the game. Imagine that album without their two big and last #1 singles? Geez!!!!!