Coldplay's 'new' direction...

Yes, but it's not something you want to boast, as if you've discovered Cathay.

It's the specificity of the influences that I find so weird. Like, Springsteen, Dylan and the Beatles should all be pretty implicit in many act's vocabulary.

And actually, it's pretty rare to find artists these days who will just outright be all "I drew a lot of inspiration from Bob Dylan and the Beatles." And even Springsteen you mostly got during the big wave of indie appreciation. Anyway, just odd, pointless things to mention, because we all know the new Coldplay will sound nothing like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen or the Beatles

If Coldplay's creative force were anybody but Chris Martin I'd accept the guilelessness with which he no doubt made the admission; but Chris Martin is the type of person who drops these influences to journalists whose publications would applaud the mention of the Beatles and Springsteen as a sign that the eternal verities still hold true for The Next Generation of rock stars.

In other words, they're U2 in 1988.

Fair enough, I guess I didn't read/hear the interview in question, so I didn't realize he was "boasting".

It's innately boastful. "So, who influenced our new album? Only three of the most popular and important bands of all time, that's all! I will be sure to put Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and the Beatles on the guest list the next time we play the O2, so they can see how much they've taught us!"

Wow, you really get worked up by this. Have you never read an interview ever with a musician about their recent album?

Fair enough, I guess I didn't read/hear the interview in question, so I didn't realize he was "boasting".

When is he not. And since you wonder about my aggro buttons, fuck a world that makes this Chris Martin famous when the Chris Martin in Kinski up in Seattle deserves it far more.

I mean, every band ever (you get my point) does this thing of listing influences when they are hyping a new album. Is it really any more boastful because the references are quote-unquote canon, more so than if it was pandering to critics with like Eno and Can references?

(xpost)

And Ned, fair play to that!

Like I 100%

Like I 100% expect boring, bland Coldplay dude to list off safe references like that.

I'm not exactly worked up. Just a bit embarrassed for them. I've never had a real problem with Coldplay, and have always found a lot to like. But usually musicians talking about their new albums don't feel it necessary to bring up Bruce, the Beatles and Bob Dylan, let alone bring it up unprompted. Again, it's just so oddly conspicuous.

Plus, those two singles do suck. And I've always liked the first couple singles from each album.

In re his utter boringness -- maybe it's down to my relative age but I burned out on the necessity of classic rock genuflection a long time ago and I have no truck with it anymore. His clinging to it is just horrific.

And actually, I never would have expected Chris Martin to name those three influences, because again, whatever Coldplay sounds like, it doesn't sound like Springsteen or Dylan. Maybe he thought U2 and Radiohead was just too obvious?

because again, whatever Coldplay sounds like, it doesn't sound like Springsteen or Dylan.

Maybe thats his point, though! Maybe he's saying we used to sound like these boring bands, now we sound like these other boring bands.

(please note I'm using "boring" here wrt to Springsteen and Dylan being "boring" acts to list as influences, no judgment on their music intended)

No, those two singles sound like Coldplay, but more boring.

Nah, he's not going for cred. He'll happily admit that he didn't know anything about music till he was 19 and that all his favourite songs are obvious classics. You can say that's the whole problem but he's not exactly going "Hey check out who I've just discovered." This is a guy who aspires to write a song as enduring as Somewhere Over the Rainbow - he has no embarrassment about stuff like that.

kinski rocks!

And yet this is a guy that wrote a hit by interpolating Kraftwerk? He's no naif.

he seems like kind of butthole though

xp Proves my point. He listens to Kraftwerk and borrows one of their most famous riffs. He has probably the least coolhunting tastes of anybody around.

He is a butthole. My point was just that its weird to me that people are suddenly aghast that a mainstream, popular musician would cite Sgt. Peppers and Bruce Springsteen as influences.

I'm not aghast, I'm more 'man, talk about reconfirming every stereotype I could imagine in terms of your limited sense of range.'

Obliquely this reminds me of one of my favorite quotes in pop music ever -- Rikki Rocket from Poison, from some late eighties interview, saying, as quoted later by Chuck Eddy, "We don't make art, we make hamburgers." I have no problem with that attitude, but forgive me if some hamburgers turn out to be tough from having sat under the heat lamps for far too long.

um ned that was JOHNNY rockets

wake me when chris martin lists xray-eyeballs as an influence on a forthcoming album.

x-post - A protean quote!

Meantime I see they maximize any opportunity, don't they.

Just had a concert before work. Norah Jones and Coldplay rocked the memorial for Steve Jobs.

i listened to this album until i got bored of it; it was ok.

and yes that's the kind of nuanced descriptive prose that got me a career in music journalism

Fits in a Twitter post, you're gold.

can't believe no one else grabbed this from the NYT piece, about where the album name came from:

“Music comes from a place we don’t know,” he said. “It sort of comes through the fingers and toes. So we came up with the idea of, what if you had musical digits, like xylo toes.” He shook his head, irritated that he gave up the secret so easily.

And what about “Mylo”?

“It’s just a great name,” he said. “For anything.”

I listened to the new album this morning. Most of it sounds like an awful Coldplay remix album, especially the song with Rihanna on it. There was one other song that sounded like the most blatant possible attempt to rip off Achtung Baby. All in all, I was disappointed. And I liked their last album.

Nothing wrong about The Beatles except Coldplay have never sounded like them and I doubt they will ever be unable to sound like them. Unless, that is, the rest of the band members do a lot of vocal training and start singing harmony.

(Used to all the Coldplay-bashing - I am sure this album will be just as brilliant as the rest of them - and those who hate them will keep on hating them because they write anthemic melody-verse-chorus based songs and - even this side of Y2K - are more popular than most acts who don't)

Used to all the Coldplay-bashing - I am sure this album will be just as brilliant as the rest of them

This is undoubtedly true!

“Music comes from a place we don’t know,” he said. “It sort of comes through the fingers and toes. So we came up with the idea of, what if you had musical digits, like xylo toes.”

You, sir, are no Gorky's Zygotic Mynci.
http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/5598/gorkysfingersxylo.jpg

Also obv "xylo toes" would just be wooden toes. Here is an ancient Egyptian prosthetic wooden toe, beating Chris Martin to an idea by 3000 years:
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/9533/woodentoes.jpg

Sorry, as you were...

apparently, this album's pretty sweet!

(Rolling Stone) -- In the three years since Coldplay's last album, the world's problems have gotten a little more urgent.

A cratering economy, riots from Tahrir to Tottenham, the prolonged ubiquity of the Kardashians -- these are things that can't be solved with a lullaby, even from the biggest band to emerge in the 21st century. Chris Martin knows this. But Coldplay's fifth album -- and most ambitious yet -- suggests Martin cares too much not to at least try to help.

Coldplay recently entered their second decade together -- the same point Springsteen made "Born in the U.S.A." and U2 made "Achtung Baby" -- so it comes as no surprise they'd want a zeitgeist-y, big-statement album of their own. On "Mylo Xyloto," the choruses are bigger, the textures grander, the optimism more optimistic. It's a bear-hug record for a bear-market world.

Aided again by Brian Eno, Coldplay are still dabbling in the kind of cool-weird artiness they truly went for on 2008's "Viva La Vida." But where that album sometimes seemed like a self-conscious attempt to diversify their sound, with a world-music vibe and U2-style sound effects, this time Coldplay have integrated the "Enoxification" (as they call it) into their own down-the-middle core: Check out the cascading choral vocals that augment Martin's soaring refrain on "Paradise." Prominent elements prop up the sonic cathedrals: Jonny Buckland's guitar, which is riffier and more muscular than ever, and Euro-house synths that wouldn't sound out of place at a nightclub in Ibiza.

Martin says "Mylo Xyloto" was inspired by 1970s New York graffiti and the Nazi--resistance movement known as the White Rose -- it's probably no coincidence both were about young people embracing art in times of turmoil. Here, Coldplay rage in their own lovably goofy way. On the rave-tinged "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall," Martin imagines a revolution powered by dancing kids. "Hurts Like Heaven" might be the first Coldplay tune to which you can bust something resembling a move. The lyrics seem to be about fighting the Man -- "Don't let 'em take control!" -- but Martin sounds ebullient over a sproingy New Wave beat.

Explicit political statements aren't really Martin's thing; he's in the uplift business. "Mylo Xyloto" suggests he's fully embraced his role as a not-terribly-cool guy who's good at preaching perseverance, in a voice that's warm and milky like afternoon tea. By the time he croons, "Don't let it break your heart!" over "Where the Streets Have No Name"-style guitar sparkle near the album's end, you can't help but think he's an inspiration peddler who believes what he's belting.

Oddly enough, the best moments are darker ones. "Princess of China" is a ballad about loss and regret, co-starring Rihanna. It's a partnership that probably came together over champagne brunch at Jay-Z's, but its synth-fuzz groove is offhandedly seductive. It's followed by "Up in Flames," a minimalist slow jam. Martin sings nakedly about how breakups can feel like the end of the world, or maybe it's about the actual end of the world. Either way, as end-times lullabies go, it's pretty sweet.

It's a bear-hug record for a bear-market world.

srsly I will support the continued existence of Guatanomo if I can send the writer there for giggling archly to himself as he typed this.

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l9fsuba7M51qbps8yo1_500.jpg

Martin sings nakedly

worst slash fic ever

sonic cathedrals

No. Not even ironically.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sashafrerejones/2011/10/why-dont-i-like-coldplay-an-investigation.html

i LOL'd a few times.

1. Chris Martin, Writer. +14
He can write a catchy melody. See “Paradise,” an immensely stupid song with an elegant and confident verse and chorus line, slightly reminiscent of a prime Noel Gallagher moment.

This is why I love Coldplay. Period. The rest of his argument is uninteresting. This is the only thing that counts to me. He is a genius. Period.

I also notice that everything about his arguments that is actually about the music is positive. I wish people would stop judging anything else but the music. In music, the music itself is the only thing that counts. Screw image, screw lyrics, screw fan demographics, screw ANYTHING but the music!

I'm not screwing my mom, Geir

I'm not screwing Dick Cheney's vag.

the visual motif for this new album is just fucking horrid

geirbot is getting a little agitated.

Fuck off Geir.