Over at spamnet, there's a great link from scenestars for streaming the entire new Coldplay album X&Y, at good quality.
Now Ive watched Coldplay for a while, and knew they would be much bigger than many in Britain expected, simply because they knew how to make tracks that didn't only rely on catchiness and simpleness to engage the listener. In other words, they could make clever music. They wrote clever songs. And, as they became bigger and bigger, their music took on the power and dynamic it had promised on earlier tracks. The understanding of the group to embellish and express the tunesmithery developed fantastically, and the media, especially here in Blighty, were made to eat their words. [They were known here as 'bedwetters' after a comment made by well known drunkard Alan McGee, allegedly.]
Sadly, I cannot report that their third album is a triumph. It sounds like the usual dismal exercise in trying to 'appeal to the American Market' that pervades the British Music Scene. Producers and Marketing are to blame. Sure, the songs arn't up to the standard set by the other records, but that's not really the point. The fault lies in the pressure to release the album AT ALL COSTS. No time now for writing more tunes, or developing a sense of the album's direction, just GET IT RELEASED NOW, DAMN IT!
And of course, you can just visualise the green tinge of greed in the eyes of all the exec's can't you?
Many of the dance fraternity in Britain laughed at Coldplay when they first appeared, saying 'that sort of music was dying out', yet it is they who are now consigned to the sidelines of the music scene, and poor old Coldplay are left to rescue what's left of the industry, after all the ego-driven DJ's have cost millions and made nothing.
Yes, it's a duff album, not unlistenable, but groaning under the weight of musical and financial expectations - I don't think many would want to be in C. Martin's shoes just now.
