TS: Thom Yorke vs. Chris Martin

I think Chris is.

Which is better? Who knows.

Besides, Chris Martin seems like a po-faced bore. Thom is pretty goofy.

Besides, Chris Martin seems like a po-faced bore. Thom is pretty goofy.

P.S. Where the fuck is the levity in Coldplay music/lyrics, anyway?

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He's poisonous. He's utterly banal.

THAT'S RIGHT!

Something that has already been invented doesn't need reinvention. What already exists and works perfectly should still be used for more.

OTM. Coldplay has always been harmless/ignorable at worst and pleasant at best. Thom still wins of course, but how can someone really hate Coldplay? If you say you do, you are lying. How about that, eh?

Geir: Interesting point re:songform... However, would you agree that any given form over time will lose its viability for original creative exploitation as the most succesful permuatations are expended (ie- it gets harder to make something both good and original without changing the template- all the 4 chord patterns and simple melodies have been taken- wondeful as they are). Hence those who keep mining the same template get lucky on ever less frequent occasions...

Are you kidding?

Theoretically, you are right. But that moment has yet to arrive for hundreds of years still, as evidenced by all those brilliant songs bands like Coldplay has brought the world lately - songs that may stylistically sound like songs that have been written in the past, but which still contain competely new brilliant melodies with new hooks that were not written before.

Also- as a man who apparently likes melodic complexity, I don't really get that with Coldplay- catchy yes, but not surprising.. not intricate, and thats down to the predictable 4 chord loops they build their songs on...

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soo OTM. so i'll go with Martin. I mean, I hate top 40 radio as much as the rest of you, but if I have to hear it in a car I want to hear something written with heart + sincerity.

but it's tough to snub Thom Yorke. what an evil question.

But honestly- music with heart + sincerity? Well I agree in principle, but what definition of heart and sincerity- not Chris Martin's! Thom Yorke tho a miserable bugger puts more heart into his work I think (i don't really like radiohead anymore, i have to say, but all the same...).

Compare: Radiohead interviews where they're kind of shady about influences and then pull out some vaguely krautrockish manuevers VS. Coldplay's "WOO, KRAFTWERK!" song that exists despite the band making ridiculous claims ("Kraftwerk are like the original Gorillaz since no one knows what they look like" leads me to believe Martin never saw an album cover).

Melissa, I think Creed's been superseded by Nickelback as the "rock band" of choice of adult contemporary radio.

Yellow: I-V sus4add6-IV major7-I

Clocks: I-v-v-ii

Fix You: I-iii add6-vi-V sus4

Speed of Sound: I-v-v-IV

Talk: IV-IV-vi-I

The Scientist: iv minor7-IV-I-I sus

one thing that's interesting is that:

Yellow, In My Place, The Scientist, Speed of Sound, Fix You, and Talk (basically every hit of theirs besides clocks) ALL have choruses which begin on the four chord.

More than anything Coldplay could be accused of copying themselves, but I don't think their chord progressions could be accurately described as "3rd hand" or cliched

You mean "Computer Love"?

The beginning on the fourth chord, (or turning the last chord of the verse into the beginning of the chorus) trick is to save time having to think of some more chords! Its pure laziness... all those plodding 4 chord progressions, or reaching towards obvious resolution... its utterly utterly moribund.

Maybe they should switch bands.

Also, I think Talk has an original chord progression, just the riff is taken from kraftwerk.

Talk takes its chords directly from the synthbass on the original...

I lioke what Radiohead attempt to be even if I haven't liked their actual music from Amnesiac onwards... (too half arsed, not weird enough, not angry enough) and their fans are cunts, tis true, actually walked outof the last one of their gigs i went to cos the fans were pissing me off too much...

Coldplay are extremely conventional, on their last album Martin is frequently flat especially on his falsetto, and their lyrics are bilge to an incredible, risible degree. Guitarwise they exist entirely within a U2 / Bunnymen matrix. Dull dull dull, achingly, bedwettingly, prematurely ejaculatingly, flacidly dull. I know rubbishing them is almost as dull, but just cos they're an easy target doesn't mean they're not a perfectly valid one.

(Um, not that there isn't definitely a cunt contingent.)

A verse or a chorus may build on a 4 chord loop, but if the rest of the song does not (like the bridge, for instance, most of their songs have a somewhat contrasting bridge, which is also a sign that they know something about classic quality songwriting) build on the same 4 chords, then the entire song isn't based on a 4 chord loop even if part of it is.

Interestingly, though, the most harmonically repetitive Coldplay songs often tend to be rhythmically "interesting", which is why a lot of ILM'ers not very into Coldplay may pick exactly those songs as their favourite ("Clocks", for instance, which IMO is among their weakest and most repetitive songs)

ah, mr. snrub. you appear with the tedious inevitability of an unloved season.

Okay, so I never thought I'd see a Moonraker quote on here...

i am clearly lurking on alternate-universe ILM today.

You belong with me
Not swallowed in the sea
Yeah, you belong with me
Not swallowed in the sea

Mmmyes, well, I'm touched.

I don't listen to lyrics much, so I had no idea they were *that* bad. Jesus.

I am aware of this, but that doesn't mean it's a valid reason to dislike something. Just ignore it. Reminds me of high school and kids who "just think ugliness is like, really beautiful in a way, you know?"

Emily - I had been meaning to ask and keep forgetting with the distractions - where did you see Radiohead and Coldplay? Just curious really. Were Colplay tickets a lot more costly in the last few years?

Just a bit uncool though that you faked being the moderator or if you are the moderator that you are so biased... the latter being the less likely scenario anyways given you would have wiped me off of here by now.

pscott - sorry you got sucked into this. Tim Action, given he has a few different names on here, seems convinced we all do that and can`t stand on our own just as he can`t and as a result he is starting to be a bit defensive...

But anyways yes this is all in good fun but I wish we stuck to the topic here - this is really getting tiring...

that's ok.

sorry i ahve never seen either band live.

do you think echo and the bunnymen, sigur ros or stump are the most important of coldplay and radiohead's shared influences?

Sigur ros - has a bit of their sounds but you know who they actually sound like to me? The Flaming Lips... as to who influenced who there - no idea.

-- Sick Mouthy (sickmouthy

better than dave matthews, not as good as madge vs janet j.

TIHS THRAED FAILS H TE TURING TEST!!! TZZT TZZT TZZT ZTTZ. !!!1

stay on TOPIC!!!

it's nice to get some support in a music chatroom like this - no, i don't 'get' why some people use sarcasm either Johnny - they're not like that at Yahoo. Personally i think it lowers the tone, even if that means we're never going to be one of the 'in crowd'. wouldn't the world be a nicer place if we all just said what we meant??

personally i prefer Coldplay. They've got a much better understanding of harmony - Radiohead seem to have lost their way a bit since their glory days - sometimes i want to say to them: GET A PROPER GUITAR TUNER!! i know that maybe seems a bit harsh to some people, but there are 12 notes in the western scale and it's just not right to go breaking the rules like that. Rules are there for a reason Tom!!! Coldplay never play the wrong notes on purpose.

Beeble - about the comment on Radiohead sounding detuned... well they experiment a bit with some less than traditional chord progressions and sound mixining needless to say but most of the time I think the result is good. But I do know some folks who think it can be annoying so I guess it is very debateable. (like some people who loved the bends and ok computer really don`t like the albums after) but also the one thing I have found is that if people listen to them enough, the later albums grow on them. I guess they don`t have immediate appeal when hearing like the earlier albums did.

I don`t know enough about blogs to have Jouster`s premonitions, but I am learning :)

But back on topic, here is a question for all... which is the best song from Radiohead or Coldplay in your opinion and why?

In terms of Radiohead songs, too hard to pick one... I just don`t tire of any of there stuff aside from a few songs on Kid A and Amnesiac. Pretty much anything on The Bends, Ok Computer and Airbag: How is My Driving is great. Huge classics I would say are songs like Lucky, Airbag, A Reminder and Fake Plastic Trees. But really hard to pick them even over a dozen of other songs that are timeless too.

The big test for me is that I toss a CD in the car and see how long I can endure it. Stuff I liked like Coldplay`s Parachutes, Beatles albums, Stones, White Stripes, some of the Brian Jonestown Massacre albums etc etc would do well for 1-3 months before I tired of listening to them almost daily. The Bends and Ok Computer have been in the car CD changer for 4 years now, and I am not even close to being tired of either of them yet...

so why don`t you focus a bit - tell us which song from which band you like... or anything on the topic of this blog for that matter...

come on, surprise us buddy!

The point is though: when comparing Coldplay to Radiohead there is no doubt that Radiohead is the more talented band hands down. It seems to me that Coldplay only started out for something to do with their free time, like a lot of bands, but have never really gotten over that or tried to challenge themselves too much. I don't see, though, why everyone is so intent on hating Coldplay just because of how popular they have become in their mediocracy. How were they to know they would become so mainstream? Can't blame them for it, so I don't see why there has to be any sort of hostility towards them for that.

I'm just wondering why the topic is Thom Yorke vs. Chris Martin when most people (including myself) are talking about the bands and music as a whole, and not the individual. If I really want to stay on topic, my answer would be Thom Yorke, just because I have seem many interviews about the guy and have read Dead Air Space and his blogs and all that. I know almost nothing about Chris Martin and his personality.

Sorry that was so long and choppy, inconsistant, etc etc. Just some opinion because I'm really bored at the moment.

Thanks for being on topic!!

>:(

I still choose Radiohead over them any day though.

pscott - I got a chance to spend a bit more time with Echo and the Bunnymen music. I must say thanks for the lead, I hadn`t really heard much of their stuff before as I stated to you earlier. Of the three bands you had mentioned no doubt if any influened Yorke it would be this one.

I also wasn`t surprised to see them as a recommended item to hear on Anton Newcombe`s band`s site. I think they influenced the BJM no doubt too and probably many others for that matter.

thanks again for the lead.

Now do you have anything productive at all to say or not ?