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Post by glider on Sept 1, 2022 16:14:35 GMT -5
I was listening to X&Y the other day. It's a damn good album. Probably doesn't quite pack the same punch as A Rush of Blood and the songs are as tightly constructed but the languid outer space vibe along with the electronic influences of some of these songs makes it more of a vibe than the first two. That said, if I'm keeping it more of a vibe, I'd change the tracklist but only towards the ed. Only criticism is how Swallowed In The Sea made the album. It sounds like poor latter day Embrace so much that it sounds like Chris Martin taking the piss out of them - if Gravity was written for Embrace as a compliment to the band, then Swallowed In The Sea was written as an insult. 1. Square One 2. What If 3. White Shadows 4. Fix You 5. Talk 6. X&Y 7. Speed of Sound 8. A Message 9. Low 10. The Hardest Part 11. Things That I Don't Understand 12. How You See The World I 13. Gravity 'Swallowed' is certainly not one of their best songs but I do enjoy it. Think the hate is a bit overstated, especially compared to what they yet were to compose at that time. 'A Message' was always my least favorite song on there, very by numbers and formulatic. In an alternate universe this would've been the best possible tracklist with certain songs finished: 1. Square One 2. What If 3. White Shadows 4. Fix You 5. Talk (original version) 6. Pour Me (studio version - unreleased) 7. Speed of Sound 8. Ladder to the Sun (studio version - unreleased) 9. Things I Don't Understand 10. Low 11. The Hardest Part 12. Gravity 13. Til Kingdom Come (hidden track)
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Post by The Escapist on Sept 2, 2022 4:22:32 GMT -5
X&Y has never quite worked for me. It's so drab and uninspired; even on the band's other weaker efforts I get the sense that there was a vision they were genuinely excited about even if they didn't achieve it, whereas X&Y just seems to be them sighing, looking at the projected sales to save EMI, and going "Right, let's do a Coldplay album". The "space" theme mainly adds up to "Coldplay, but with a synth". The lyrics are dreadful and the ballads apart from Fix You are all so passionless and watered-down from what they were on A Rush of Blood to the Head.
I love the melody of Speed of Sound, Square One and White Shadows are bangers, Til Kingdom Come is gorgeous, and Fix You is a classic. Apart from that, nothing moves me. Bloated, drab, obvious, uninspired. I hate What If. Has to go, that tune. The best moment is when the band get a little more muscular - the aforementioned two bangers are fantastic, and the guitar breakdown in Talk is a career highlight in rock terms. My tracklist:
1. Square One 2. White Shadows 3. Fix You 4. Talk 5. Speed of Sound 6. Gravity 7. A Message 8. The Hardest Part 9. Low 10. Twisted Logic 11. Til Kingdom Come
That's a decent, if plain, third album. The messianic tone of the lyrics would still put me off, though; "My song is love, love to the loveless shown." Fuck off. "You see no meaning to your life, you should try." Fuck off. So many tracks are written in that second-person, "I, Chris Martin, vulnerable rock star, will solve your problems with my wisdom" vibe that I can't stand.
Funny enough, the song that I might have the most emotional relationship with from that era is this silly little tune. No bloat, no grandeur, no anthemic chorus or messianic lyrics. Just a nice little tune and a summery, folky, childish dreaminess to it:
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Post by The Escapist on Sept 2, 2022 9:39:02 GMT -5
(Swap Fun for Hypnotised and I prefer AHFOD to X&Y )
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Post by Lennon2217 on Sept 2, 2022 13:43:03 GMT -5
I was listening to X&Y the other day. It's a damn good album. Probably doesn't quite pack the same punch as A Rush of Blood and the songs are as tightly constructed but the languid outer space vibe along with the electronic influences of some of these songs makes it more of a vibe than the first two. That said, if I'm keeping it more of a vibe, I'd change the tracklist but only towards the ed. Only criticism is how Swallowed In The Sea made the album. It sounds like poor latter day Embrace so much that it sounds like Chris Martin taking the piss out of them - if Gravity was written for Embrace as a compliment to the band, then Swallowed In The Sea was written as an insult. 1. Square One 2. What If 3. White Shadows 4. Fix You 5. Talk 6. X&Y 7. Speed of Sound 8. A Message 9. Low 10. The Hardest Part 11. Things That I Don't Understand 12. How You See The World I 13. Gravity 'Swallowed' is certainly not one of their best songs but I do enjoy it. Think the hate is a bit overstated, especially compared to what they yet were to compose at that time. 'A Message' was always my least favorite song on there, very by numbers and formulatic. In an alternate universe this would've been the best possible tracklist with certain songs finished: 1. Square One 2. What If 3. White Shadows 4. Fix You 5. Talk (original version) 6. Pour Me (studio version - unreleased) 7. Speed of Sound 8. Ladder to the Sun (studio version - unreleased) 9. Things I Don't Understand 10. Low 11. The Hardest Part 12. Gravity 13. Til Kingdom Come (hidden track) They had played 6-8 new songs on the AROBTTH tour. Some of them were really strong (Pour Me, Ladder To The Sun, Sweet Marianne). I was shocked that none of those previewed songs made the album. I guess they had their reasons. Would love hear those studio cuts one day.
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Post by matt on Sept 2, 2022 15:11:56 GMT -5
'Swallowed' is certainly not one of their best songs but I do enjoy it. Think the hate is a bit overstated, especially compared to what they yet were to compose at that time. 'A Message' was always my least favorite song on there, very by numbers and formulatic. In an alternate universe this would've been the best possible tracklist with certain songs finished: 1. Square One 2. What If 3. White Shadows 4. Fix You 5. Talk (original version) 6. Pour Me (studio version - unreleased) 7. Speed of Sound 8. Ladder to the Sun (studio version - unreleased) 9. Things I Don't Understand 10. Low 11. The Hardest Part 12. Gravity 13. Til Kingdom Come (hidden track) They had played 6-8 new songs on the AROBTTH tour. Some of them were really strong (Pour Me, Ladder To The Sun, Sweet Marianne). I was shocked that none of those previewed songs made the album. I guess they had their reasons. Would love hear those studio cuts one day. These unreleased songs they played during the Rush of Blood tour probably just did not fit with their forward thinking mentality, they're always thinking anew and don't want to rely on older songs even today. Granted they'd only have been a few years old but being young, ambitious and in his prime, Chris Martin wasn't one to rest on his laurels. Hence why they have so much unreleased songs in their locker that they have no intention of releasing (unless they dramatically alter it as they did with Violet Hill, where the origins of that tune were already 10 years old by the time it was released). Regardless though, X&Y went through development hell because it's not a fully realised album - that electro/spacey vibe is there in spades but I wonder if it was the vision from the outset? I think it's fair to say they were indecisive and probably pushed any vibe/loose concept late on in the album sessions because a good chunk of these songs contradict that idea with traditional sounding Coldplay songs like A Message, Hardest Part and Fix You. Granted the album would be a hell of a lot weaker without those two latter songs which gave them the hits to sell by the bucketloads, but a more fully realised album may have opted against these songs being included (e.g. Viva La Vida rejected the sure fire hit Life In Technicolor II and relegated it to an EP track because it didn't really fit with what they were going for) Square One was one of the last songs to be developed which is indicative of what they ultimately wished they'd gone for from the outset but were too late to properly achieve. And there's always been discussions ever since that the band want to finish the album off, so by the end I think they'd hit upon a good idea but simply ran out of time.
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Post by matt on Sept 2, 2022 15:39:55 GMT -5
X&Y has never quite worked for me. It's so drab and uninspired; even on the band's other weaker efforts I get the sense that there was a vision they were genuinely excited about even if they didn't achieve it, whereas X&Y just seems to be them sighing, looking at the projected sales to save EMI, and going "Right, let's do a Coldplay album". The "space" theme mainly adds up to "Coldplay, but with a synth". The lyrics are dreadful and the ballads apart from Fix You are all so passionless and watered-down from what they were on A Rush of Blood to the Head. I love the melody of Speed of Sound, Square One and White Shadows are bangers, Til Kingdom Come is gorgeous, and Fix You is a classic. Apart from that, nothing moves me. Bloated, drab, obvious, uninspired. I hate What If. Has to go, that tune. The best moment is when the band get a little more muscular - the aforementioned two bangers are fantastic, and the guitar breakdown in Talk is a career highlight in rock terms. My tracklist: 1. Square One 2. White Shadows 3. Fix You 4. Talk 5. Speed of Sound 6. Gravity 7. A Message 8. The Hardest Part 9. Low 10. Twisted Logic 11. Til Kingdom Come That's a decent, if plain, third album. The messianic tone of the lyrics would still put me off, though; "My song is love, love to the loveless shown." Fuck off. "You see no meaning to your life, you should try." Fuck off. So many tracks are written in that second-person, "I, Chris Martin, vulnerable rock star, will solve your problems with my wisdom" vibe that I can't stand. Funny enough, the song that I might have the most emotional relationship with from that era is this silly little tune. No bloat, no grandeur, no anthemic chorus or messianic lyrics. Just a nice little tune and a summery, folky, childish dreaminess to it: It is without doubt a flawed album, for me they've got five better albums than this but none more nostalgic. This album represents a particular time and place for me. My brother got this album towards the end of 2005, and the music you listen when you're 14 as I was then is the most impressionable in your life. For some reason, I started to have existential dread from that time on, and to this unpoetic mind, a lyric like 'I'm so scared about the future and I wanna talk to you' resonated so much. While some see it as uninspired and dreary (and no doubt I'm sure the band see it that way), I actually like the album for its meandering pace and symbolise it with some kind of loss and isolation. I can properly imagine a space walk to some of these tunes, in the darkest of outer space. Every time I think about this album, it sounds like the dark winter that I first listened to it in. We're talking far north of Scotland, and it was in howling rain and wind and power cuts that I listened to it on a portable CD player. That's melodramatic I know, but it's a soundtrack that fitted perfectly with how I felt and where I was. I didn't have the means to articulate how I felt so that album in its sounds, its melancholy and scattered lyrics summed up how I felt. Some may say the electronics are synthetic to cover up a lack of ideas to what are conventionally structured songs, but I like the coldness and isolation it adds and think it complements the overall mood of the songs. And I've never been one for nihilism or hopelessness, and I've always been sentimental, so there was comfort in Chris Martin's messianic tendencies (though thankfully reigned in after this album) and sentimental melodies. I don't know whether that album's aimlessness is artistic bankruptcy that the band felt or subconscious genius that seeped through in trying to find something in those songs, but I'd go for the latter because it struck a chord with me at the perfect time. An extremely flawed album but for the same reasons its flawed, it is also one that is deeply personal. I feel everything I've written can be encapsulated in Talk, which again is not close to being the best Coldplay song, but is maybe my favourite - I completely agree the guitar breakdown in the last minute is one of their best moments.
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Post by The Escapist on Sept 2, 2022 16:32:48 GMT -5
X&Y has never quite worked for me. It's so drab and uninspired; even on the band's other weaker efforts I get the sense that there was a vision they were genuinely excited about even if they didn't achieve it, whereas X&Y just seems to be them sighing, looking at the projected sales to save EMI, and going "Right, let's do a Coldplay album". The "space" theme mainly adds up to "Coldplay, but with a synth". The lyrics are dreadful and the ballads apart from Fix You are all so passionless and watered-down from what they were on A Rush of Blood to the Head. I love the melody of Speed of Sound, Square One and White Shadows are bangers, Til Kingdom Come is gorgeous, and Fix You is a classic. Apart from that, nothing moves me. Bloated, drab, obvious, uninspired. I hate What If. Has to go, that tune. The best moment is when the band get a little more muscular - the aforementioned two bangers are fantastic, and the guitar breakdown in Talk is a career highlight in rock terms. My tracklist: 1. Square One 2. White Shadows 3. Fix You 4. Talk 5. Speed of Sound 6. Gravity 7. A Message 8. The Hardest Part 9. Low 10. Twisted Logic 11. Til Kingdom Come That's a decent, if plain, third album. The messianic tone of the lyrics would still put me off, though; "My song is love, love to the loveless shown." Fuck off. "You see no meaning to your life, you should try." Fuck off. So many tracks are written in that second-person, "I, Chris Martin, vulnerable rock star, will solve your problems with my wisdom" vibe that I can't stand. Funny enough, the song that I might have the most emotional relationship with from that era is this silly little tune. No bloat, no grandeur, no anthemic chorus or messianic lyrics. Just a nice little tune and a summery, folky, childish dreaminess to it: It is without doubt a flawed album, for me they've got five better albums than this but none more nostalgic. This album represents a particular time and place for me. My brother got this album towards the end of 2005, and the music you listen when you're 14 as I was then is the most impressionable in your life. For some reason, I started to have existential dread from that time on, and to this unpoetic mind, a lyric like 'I'm so scared about the future and I wanna talk to you' resonated so much. While some see it as uninspired and dreary (and no doubt I'm sure the band see it that way), I actually like the album for its meandering pace and symbolise it with some kind of loss and isolation. I can properly imagine a space walk to some of these tunes, in the darkest of outer space. Every time I think about this album, it sounds like the dark winter that I first listened to it in. We're talking far north of Scotland, and it was in howling rain and wind and power cuts that I listened to it on a portable CD player. That's melodramatic I know, but it's a soundtrack that fitted perfectly with how I felt and where I was. I didn't have the means to articulate how I felt so that album in its sounds, its melancholy and scattered lyrics summed up how I felt. Some may say the electronics are synthetic to cover up a lack of ideas to what are conventionally structured songs, but I like the coldness and isolation it adds and think it complements the overall mood of the songs. And I've never been one for nihilism or hopelessness, and I've always been sentimental, so there was comfort in Chris Martin's messianic tendencies (though thankfully reigned in after this album) and sentimental melodies. I don't know whether that album's aimlessness is artistic bankruptcy that the band felt or subconscious genius that seeped through in trying to find something in those songs, but I'd go for the latter because it struck a chord with me at the perfect time. An extremely flawed album but for the same reasons its flawed, it is also one that is deeply personal. I feel everything I've written can be encapsulated in Talk, which again is not close to being the best Coldplay song, but is maybe my favourite - I completely agree the guitar breakdown in the last minute is one of their best moments. The colourless, crisp vibe of the album giving it a sense of isolation is something I haven't really thought of before; next time I listen to it, I'll have that in mind and see if it gives the vibe something that I haven't picked up on so far. That's how I feel about the lightness of Ghost Stories, the other Coldplay where we're at opposite ends of enjoyment, so maybe I'll find something new in that idea. Ultimately, I'm in debt to X&Y, because if not for that and the reaction, my favourite album of all time would never have been made.
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Post by glider on Sept 2, 2022 16:37:34 GMT -5
X&Y was a significant turning point for them. Their enitre outlook (or, just maybe Chris) on the music industry changed from the process of creating the album and at that point the guitar driven rock, post-Britpop and American soul influence phase they had enjoyed since their inception had completely ended. If the album was made in a way that was satisfactory for them at that time, we could be talking about a completely different kind of band today.
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Post by The Crimson Rambler on Sept 3, 2022 9:11:24 GMT -5
I've posted it before but seeing as we're all doing X&Y playlists here's mine. To summarise:
- 'What If' comes in too early and ruins the flow hence why it's been pushed back a little further into the album. - A couple of weak tracks have been omitted which keeps the hit rate up whilst producing a somewhat more concise runtime. - 'Til Kingdom Come' doesn't really fit stylistically but 'A Message' works very well as a closer. - Flow wise this works flawlessly if I do say so myself.
1. Square One 2. White Shadows 3. Fix You 4. What If 5. Talk 6. X&Y 7. Speed Of Sound 8. Low 9. The Hardest Part 10. Gravity 11. A Message
55:45
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Post by The Escapist on Sept 3, 2022 9:27:50 GMT -5
Shocked how many people are keeping What If. Sounds like a parody of an Oldplay song, to me.
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Post by Lennon2217 on Sept 3, 2022 19:04:17 GMT -5
What If sucks
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Post by The Escapist on Sept 4, 2022 4:20:26 GMT -5
I feel when we agree on a Coldplay take then any dissenters must just melt into sunbeams lol
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Post by Lennon2217 on Sept 4, 2022 12:07:52 GMT -5
They had played 6-8 new songs on the AROBTTH tour. Some of them were really strong (Pour Me, Ladder To The Sun, Sweet Marianne). I was shocked that none of those previewed songs made the album. I guess they had their reasons. Would love hear those studio cuts one day. These unreleased songs they played during the Rush of Blood tour probably just did not fit with their forward thinking mentality, they're always thinking anew and don't want to rely on older songs even today. Granted they'd only have been a few years old but being young, ambitious and in his prime, Chris Martin wasn't one to rest on his laurels. Hence why they have so much unreleased songs in their locker that they have no intention of releasing (unless they dramatically alter it as they did with Violet Hill, where the origins of that tune were already 10 years old by the time it was released). Regardless though, X&Y went through development hell because it's not a fully realised album - that electro/spacey vibe is there in spades but I wonder if it was the vision from the outset? I think it's fair to say they were indecisive and probably pushed any vibe/loose concept late on in the album sessions because a good chunk of these songs contradict that idea with traditional sounding Coldplay songs like A Message, Hardest Part and Fix You. Granted the album would be a hell of a lot weaker without those two latter songs which gave them the hits to sell by the bucketloads, but a more fully realised album may have opted against these songs being included (e.g. Viva La Vida rejected the sure fire hit Life In Technicolor II and relegated it to an EP track because it didn't really fit with what they were going for) Square One was one of the last songs to be developed which is indicative of what they ultimately wished they'd gone for from the outset but were too late to properly achieve. And there's always been discussions ever since that the band want to finish the album off, so by the end I think they'd hit upon a good idea but simply ran out of time. You say forward thinking mentality but tunes like “What If”, “Hardest Part”, “A Message” and “Swallowed In The Sea” are extremely safe and easy. I’d much prefer more moody works like “Pour Me” and “Sweet Marieanne” make the album. “Ladder To The Sun” would have made a terrific closing song in an alternate past. The space-rock idea is mostly just: Square One White Shadows Low Speed of Sound Talk I wish the entire LP was more in that theme from top to bottom. Loads of cool sonics.
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Post by matt on Sept 4, 2022 13:25:21 GMT -5
These unreleased songs they played during the Rush of Blood tour probably just did not fit with their forward thinking mentality, they're always thinking anew and don't want to rely on older songs even today. Granted they'd only have been a few years old but being young, ambitious and in his prime, Chris Martin wasn't one to rest on his laurels. Hence why they have so much unreleased songs in their locker that they have no intention of releasing (unless they dramatically alter it as they did with Violet Hill, where the origins of that tune were already 10 years old by the time it was released). Regardless though, X&Y went through development hell because it's not a fully realised album - that electro/spacey vibe is there in spades but I wonder if it was the vision from the outset? I think it's fair to say they were indecisive and probably pushed any vibe/loose concept late on in the album sessions because a good chunk of these songs contradict that idea with traditional sounding Coldplay songs like A Message, Hardest Part and Fix You. Granted the album would be a hell of a lot weaker without those two latter songs which gave them the hits to sell by the bucketloads, but a more fully realised album may have opted against these songs being included (e.g. Viva La Vida rejected the sure fire hit Life In Technicolor II and relegated it to an EP track because it didn't really fit with what they were going for) Square One was one of the last songs to be developed which is indicative of what they ultimately wished they'd gone for from the outset but were too late to properly achieve. And there's always been discussions ever since that the band want to finish the album off, so by the end I think they'd hit upon a good idea but simply ran out of time. You say forward thinking mentality but tunes like “What If”, “Hardest Part”, “A Message” and “Swallowed In The Sea” are extremely safe and easy. I’d much prefer more moody works like “Pour Me” and “Sweet Marieanne” make the album. “Ladder To The Sun” would have made a terrific closing song in an alternate past. The space-rock idea is mostly just: Square One White Shadows Low Speed of Sound Talk I wish the entire LP was more in that theme from top to bottom. Loads of cool sonics. These are the type of songs that sell the record though, so bear in mind there's always that commercial mindset there too. It's just that this album had an imbalance between that space rock vibe and the bland MOR tunes.
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Post by Lennon2217 on Sept 4, 2022 16:14:54 GMT -5
You say forward thinking mentality but tunes like “What If”, “Hardest Part”, “A Message” and “Swallowed In The Sea” are extremely safe and easy. I’d much prefer more moody works like “Pour Me” and “Sweet Marieanne” make the album. “Ladder To The Sun” would have made a terrific closing song in an alternate past. The space-rock idea is mostly just: Square One White Shadows Low Speed of Sound Talk I wish the entire LP was more in that theme from top to bottom. Loads of cool sonics. These are the type of songs that sell the record though, so bear in mind there's always that commercial mindset there too. It's just that this album had an imbalance between that space rock vibe and the bland MOR tunes. Two songs drove the massive sales. Speed of Sound Fix You
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Post by Lennon2217 on Sept 5, 2022 7:08:51 GMT -5
I’ll make an alternative track list for probably the 900th time. Why not? Why me?!
Square One White Shadow Fix You Talk Pour Me Speed of Sound Things I Don’t Understand A Message Sweet Marieanne Low Ladder To The Sun Til Kingdom Come (unlisted)
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Post by The Escapist on Sept 5, 2022 8:51:15 GMT -5
Stuff from the latest interview:
- Next instalment of MOTS is on-schedule but the next "phase" will include a musical/film that may take a while.
- Making the current tour more green was a big financial strain.
- Chris has an edited version of X&Y on his laptop but doesn't think Will would allow it to be released.
- It's still the plan to retire from albums but not touring in 2025.
- He wants the band to be remembered for "freedom".
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Post by Lennon2217 on Sept 5, 2022 11:05:13 GMT -5
Stuff from the latest interview: - Next instalment of MOTS is on-schedule but the next "phase" will include a musical/film that may take a while. - Making the current tour more green was a big financial strain. - Chris has an edited version of X&Y on his laptop but doesn't think Will would allow it to be released. - It's still the plan to retire from albums but not touring in 2025. - He wants the band to be remembered for "freedom". After hearing Volume 1, not sure I have any enthusiasm for Volume 2. It just all feels so bandless. That’s was my fav part of Everyday Life, the 6-7 full band tracks. Wish it could feel like that for an entire album. Oh well.
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Post by glider on Sept 6, 2022 19:00:46 GMT -5
- It's still the plan to retire from albums but not touring in 2025. Interesting.
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Post by The Escapist on Sept 7, 2022 3:50:32 GMT -5
- It's still the plan to retire from albums but not touring in 2025. Interesting. I think they've always said that they'll never stop touring full stop, that's their favourite bit of being in the band. "Done with albums" is the idea. The interviewer asked "What if you wake up and write the best Coldplay song ever?" and Chris said that it would need to be something that good to get them to come back to releasing music.
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Post by mahsteve on Sept 7, 2022 8:35:35 GMT -5
Stuff from the latest interview: - Next instalment of MOTS is on-schedule but the next "phase" will include a musical/film that may take a while. - Making the current tour more green was a big financial strain. - Chris has an edited version of X&Y on his laptop but doesn't think Will would allow it to be released. - It's still the plan to retire from albums but not touring in 2025. - He wants the band to be remembered for "freedom". Where is this interview from?
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Post by The Escapist on Sept 7, 2022 9:07:24 GMT -5
Stuff from the latest interview: - Next instalment of MOTS is on-schedule but the next "phase" will include a musical/film that may take a while. - Making the current tour more green was a big financial strain. - Chris has an edited version of X&Y on his laptop but doesn't think Will would allow it to be released. - It's still the plan to retire from albums but not touring in 2025. - He wants the band to be remembered for "freedom". Where is this interview from? Coldplayxtra, on Twitch.
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Post by mahsteve on Sept 7, 2022 10:49:27 GMT -5
Where is this interview from? Coldplayxtra, on Twitch. Thank you. Just had a listen. Sounds like X&Y was their be here now
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Post by Lennon2217 on Sept 7, 2022 10:54:29 GMT -5
Thank you. Just had a listen. Sounds like X&Y was their be here now It was on so many levels. The big difference is Oasis never had a Viva to follow it.
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Post by matt on Sept 7, 2022 14:14:47 GMT -5
Stuff from the latest interview: - Next instalment of MOTS is on-schedule but the next "phase" will include a musical/film that may take a while. - Making the current tour more green was a big financial strain. - Chris has an edited version of X&Y on his laptop but doesn't think Will would allow it to be released. - It's still the plan to retire from albums but not touring in 2025. - He wants the band to be remembered for "freedom". What year are we talking about regarding the next album/instalment? Very soon or the usual 3/4 year cycle?
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