The Smiley Smile Message Board

I've listened to "Talk" from X&Y.  What song should I listen to next?

Personally, I'd say 'What If', a beautiful tune.  Sure, he's not the world's greatest lyricist, but the heartfelt delivery lends personal conviction to it.  And I hear it as an inverted 'Imagine':

What if there was no light
Nothing wrong, nothing right
What if there was no time
And no reason, or rhyme
What if you should decide
That you don't want me there by your side
That you don't want me there in your life

What if I got it wrong
And no poem or song
Could put right what I got wrong
Or make you feel I belong
What if you should decide
That you don't want me there by your side
That you don't want me there in you life

Oooooooh that's right
Let's take a breath, try to put it aside
Oooooooh that's right
How can you know it if you don't even try
Oooooooh that's right

Every step that you take
Could be your biggest mistake
It could bend or it could break
But that's the risk that you take

What if you should decide
That you don't want me there in your life
That you don't want me there by your side

Oooooooh thats right
Let's take a breath, try to put it aside
Oooooooh that's right
How can you know it when you don't even try
Oooooooh that's right

When I first got the CD, I just kept playing this track over and over...before I'd even heard the rest of the CD.  That is how good it is.

"1969" by the Stooges.

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:szu1z84a5yv1

Only song I Liked off that album was 'Fixed You'

what a great song. though I do prefer their first two albums....

The organ played on the beginning of "Fix You" belongs to Chris Martin's wife, Gwyneth Paltrow, and was a gift from her late father Bruce Paltrow.

Cool, I learned how to play that part by ear...its great. I love playing it.

This might sound contrived, but the beginning of "Fix You" could have been played and sung by Brian circa late 60's.  Am I wrong in that perception?

No more songs. Just wash your ears clean.

Reminds me of the little snippet of something Brian plays on the tracking session for "That's Not Me". Just organ and Brian wailing.

I love the piano that slides in on the beginning of that track - a great 'feel' - did that ever become anything?

It's funny you say this, I'm listening to the Cocaine Sessions someone posted in another thread and the song 'Oh Lord' is hauntingly familiar...

I just wished there was a better quality recording of this...

Yeah I noticed that too.

X&Y, apparently, is the biggest selling album of 2005.

I have to admit this album is growing on me, and I wasn't much of a Coldplay fan to begin with.

Don't even. Just don't.

I like the title track.  But, then, anything with electric slide guitar and a solid 4/4 beat is a winner with me.

Sure, Coldplay/Chris Martin are pretentious, but they are good musically, in spite of it all.  I'd rather listen to them than most bands of their stature, meaning record sales, popularity, etc.

 Another so-so band in a biz desperate for but petrified of TALENT.

Any band who gets to be as popular as Coldplay will be derided, no matter how good they might be. 

Doesn't mean that all derision is unwarranted.  I've changed the channel a few times when they've been performing, including what I caught of the Brit awards.  That's genuine repulsion.

But sure, some of the derision will be because of the size of their fanbase.  Probably there's a view that this music is bought by people who's taste doesn't stretch any further.  City workers driving around Clapham with their music blaring out, their Coldplay album replacing the previous year's Dido or David Gray.  James Blunt can probably be added to this bed of wet socks.  Yeah, that's a broad stereotype of music-buyers, and not one I care about, but it's probably a reason for the contempt.

Right, it's totally warranted. And then some.

Yeah, but I didn't buy the CD because I am part of a legion.  (BTW, I've never dug on Dido, David Gray, James Blunt, etc.)  I bought the CD because it has mostly well written and performed music on it.  It's different from their previous album, but, still, I like it.

No it doesn't.

I won't fight you on this one.  We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don't care for.

Christ, STFU - I couldn't give a glittery $hite about arguing with the likes of you, I only thought of half-inching the last word. Seeing how *you* care so much, I'll elaborate a little further.

That album is $hit. Along with everything else they've done. And "$hit" is being really, really philanthropic and generous. It literally, physically *hurts* - FU%£ING ***CANES***, ACHES - to see even the vaguest parallels being drawn between their spew and Brian Wilson's heavenspun sounds. Even his hissiest, most tape-decayed offcuts stand an imperious billion-storeys-high over Coldplay's U2/FlamingLipsIfTheFlamingLipsWerePureGarbage/StingWithoutTheHummableTunes hybrid.
They are vile beyond articulation. 200billion times more contrived and soulless than ANY bunch of happy "manufactured" kids who ever brought people fun and caught Hell for it.

p/s: Don't make like you know me, or what my reasons for posting anything are. Keep that withering schoolteacher crap away from my door. Ta.

You are ill funny. ;D

Thx. I does me best.

On yer bike!

Didn't say you did.  It was just a possible reason for the contempt some may have for the band.  Those legion buyers described above exist, but probably not on any of these boards.

In a similar way, I wouldn't want to be lumped in with people who knock them just because they are popular, or not 'indie' enough or something.

But I did! Have you listened to the two songs I'm comparing? I never compared the two artists (BW & Coldplay) I only made a simple comparison between the two tracks. I don't think Coldplay is anywhere in the level of Brian Wilson and I haven't seen anyone else try to say differently...

I'm surprised you can say all the things you did, have you really listened to their first albums? All of it isn't excellent, but they have written some great songs. I can probably pick out a few from 'Parachutes' and 'A Rush of...' and make a pretty solid compilation.

I do agree with your statement in regards to X&Y though :p

Yeah. 'Fix You' was everywhere in this country for months solid. This is why I don't listen to radio.
Because, in the UK, Coldplay are mistakenly considered by most to be one of 2 things
(*Musical innovators and songwriters of immense note
**The "people's band" - jolly nice chaps who write top quality bellowalongs, while still being introspective enough for the blokey on the street to stare meaningfully into his ale over while earnestly remarking "propeh band, that Coldpleh...not lark that Girls Alarrrrd crap..."),
the only way to avoid extreme soul pollution is to keep the radio OFF, and the TV permanently tuned to SkySportsNews (with "mute" on, if the bastards turn up soundtracking the "6 Of The Best" slot or something like that).

"Even the vaguest parallels being drawn between their spew and Brian Wilson's heavenspun sounds" are enough to make me gip. It's not that I'm saying you didn't hear something, some tenuous similarity...but that it's a shuck. A dupe. A massive f*ck-over. It's just notes and rhythm, not soul. Coldplay just happened to get hit in the face by some dirt kicked up by Brian's blazing trail, and that's all you heard. Brian yelling "HERE'S $HIT IN YOUR EYE!!!!!!!!!" at a bunch of over-privileged, gormless, Phil Collins worshipping nobheads, as he roared by.
The gulf is so great, so YAAAAAAAAAWNIIIIIIIIIIING, that I find it staggering to think any superficial resemblance that might momentarily occur to a person, however slight, wouldn't be cancelled out automatically - ERASED CLEAN FROM THEIR BRAIN - by the colossal beauty of one and the complete $hiteness of the other.

Everything about that group is vacuous and faux. Right down to the name.
Coldplay. If you can't come up with a better name than that, don't start a band. Go back to Toff-school instead, and give your guitar to some penniless kid with a heart. Seriously, f*ck off and kick people out of their homes for a living. Leave music alone. It doesn't want you, it LOATHES your sorry ass.

Yes, I have. I wish it wasn't so, f*ck knows I feel dirty for it in all the worst ways possible...but, yes.

Preach it, Reverend Sebastian.
Let all the children who read know that they have received the gospel.

What's wrong with Phil Collins?

You're joking, right?

No.  For a long time I didn't care for his stuff, but now I am coming around to some of his songs with a fresh ear.  Very good stuff once you get past the 80's gloss.

It seems to me you have more of a problem of whats 'cool' or whats 'underground.' The Beach Boys were played on the radio a lot, heck back in the early 60's they were probably at the same level of pop as Nsync and The BackStreet Boys were in the mid-90's. They were a bunch of goody-two shoes kids with tucked in pants singing songs about love, cars, and surfing. Not so soulful, I'd think. Now before you go off on a tagent and thing Im comparing these two pop-culture bands musically, relax. Because I'm not. I'm saying in the level of popularity they were probably the same, which seems to me you have a problem against Coldplay just because a lot of people buy their albums because its being pushed on the airwaves so much.

Personally, I dont care if the music is played a lot or if a lot of people like it. I dig what I dig. I don't find it necessary for someone to bring down someone elses taste in music because they like something different. I agree with you on a lot of crap that spews the airwaves, this is true. A lot of garbage that people consider great is selling only because radio personalities shove it down their throats and make it seem like its the good sh*t. If you think radio is bad in the UK, I dare you to listen to a day straight of radio here in Miami. You'll literally kill yourself.

As for Coldplay, I don't think they're anyway innovative. Infact, after the first album I thought they sucked and probably hated them just as much. But what can I say, after a few more listens I was able to pick out some good stuff, and I think they're pretty solid. I'll even throw in some more gas into the fire, I think Chris Martin's lyrics are ridiculously lame. But I can't get over some of the great riffs they write. NOT including Clocks, ugh... and how nobody can tell the similarities between Clocks and Speed of Sound just need to stop it. stop everything theyre doing and just, stop.

But tunes like Politik, are pretty badass, imo.

Oh, and I dig Collins too.

Clocks and Speed Of Sound are similar, yes.  But I'd rather listen to those two songs than the two that were done by Nickelback (I forget the names of them, but they sync up exactly.)  And people can criticize Coldplay for stealing their material from U2, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Cure, Radiohead, Kraftwerk, etc.  But those are some great bands to steal from!  If Coldplay is only remembered for bringing attention to their influences, that would be cool with me.  But I still like a good chunk of their tunes.

:lol I listened to that mp3 too, where they pitch one song with the other and they sound exactly the same. Its sad that bands are able to make so much money with garbage like that. Its bands like Nickelback that make this argument completely relevant. Regurgitating the same power chord progression and ridiculous music and taking away from other bands that actually put effort into their music.

Oh well.

You are oblivious.
Go play one of those crappy Coldplay tunes that you and Q magazine love so much, then spin, say, Holly Valance's 'Down Boy' straight after...you might get it then. Probably not.

Care to place money on that?

Coldplay ARE Nickelback. But EVEN MORE SINISTER.

I don't get to say this very often, so I'm going to kind of say it slowly, and relish it. Perhaps I'll enjoy a nice glass of wine, after. But:

I totally, wholeheartedly agree with Sebastian.

God, that actually feels pretty good.

A more soulless bunch than Coldplay I've never seen. Every song has a cold, calculated feeling, a sallow surface-level prettiness that belies a lack of original ideas and an inability to pen anything remotely approaching actual feeling. Everything has, implicit within it, a dripping, oozing superiority complex that even U2 cannot hope to match, and everything has a generic, bland quality that makes the songs *palatable* to a wide range of people while actually *appealing* to none of them. Ever found a truly rabid Coldplay fan? They don't exist. You cannot be rabid about Coldplay. They're the fucking default position. They're like turning your radio to "mediocre" to put on in the background while you're chopping veggies for the evening meal. There's nothing in them that inspires "rabidity" or even "passion."

And the worst thing about them? They never even rise above "mediocre" to "REALLY AWFUL." To be "really awful" you have to at least do something which provokes strong emotion. Phil Collins is, to some people, REALLY AWFUL because he at least went out there and did his frickin' BAD THING and its so SOMETHING, so wretchedly unapologetically SOMETHING, that it pisses people off. Coldplay are so bloody consistently inoffensive that they can't even achieve a level of awfulness that puts them in the upper echelons of awful bands. They don't inspire love OR hate. They inspire indifference.

And since the opposite of love is NOT hate, but indifference, it is this which dooms them.

Play "Clocks," and then play something by Smokey Robinson. Jesus. They're not even in the SAME UNIVERSE OF MUSIC. They're not even in the SAME DIMENSION. "Clocks" is a black hole of soul, it actually removes the soul from the next song you listen to. Thank god Smokey's song has soul to friggin' spare or it would be destroyed.

xXxXx
<3

(http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/927/sebsovesbananarama1wg.png)

I am not skilled at spewing vitriol regarding the quality of this album, so my point of view won't prevail easily.  That being said...I like X&Y.  Now really try hard to think of another band on whom to waste your mordacious streak.

WIll it go round in circles? :deadhorse

I like the Coldplay songs I've heard.

I like Phil Collins, too.

Coldplay deserve vitriol mostly for being the emblem band of the "never mind manufactured muck, here's the real stuff" mindset that currently rules my country.
Laugh at my Girls Aloud records all you want, but make sure you've got something better than Coldplay to offer as evidence of your self-proclaimed connoisseur status...or *you're* the joke. And I'll laugh hard.
Their "tunes", as Jon noted, are just forgettable and transient puffs of hot air. Poison, yeah, but nothing that a cumulonimbus-sized hit of 'No Good Advice' couldn't easily engulf and destroy.
The cultural rot is where the real terror lies. People are actually being TAKEN IN BY THIS STUFF. Stilted gimps disregarding great work before even a cursory listen, on the basis of nothing more than their own crummy prejudice, yet holding Cold$hite up as an example of how to get it gloriously right.
It sickens me.

You appear to be no component in this grudge. Just a person of some unadventurous and easily-satisfiable musical taste, apparently.
So, step aside and let me do mine!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Pop is bad...bad,bad,bad!!!"
Courtney Love mocks would-be music-fascists, circa 1998

Jon was also astute enough to note the laziness of my Collins remark. At least his output can lay claim to being something as solid as a dog-turd on the sidewalk of Pop...Coldplay's reminds me of that remark one of Dylan's band made about being so hungry he was "farting fresh air". That's Chris Martin's songbook to a tee - one pale, barely-ever-existing fart of a catalogue.
Let's just let it fade now. Shouldn't take long.

The line between bands you FUCKING HATE and bands you FUCKING LOVE is frequently thin. I used to hate, with a VENGEANCE, Steely Dan. I mean, I felt *violent* about them. The mere sound of their music made me want to smash things and hurt people. Now, though? I love them. I mean, I unapolagetically LOVE, will stick up for them with fisticuffs LOVE them. What happened? Eh -- like I said, the opposite of love isn't hate, its indifferent. They stirred violent feelings which eventually mutated into affection. I realized they were TRYING to stir violent feelings, and were doing so wonderfully.

I'm sure that's what happened with a lotta people and Phil Collins. I've found recently I dont' really hate Phil as much -- that is to say, I kind of love to hate him. I hear his music now and I almost feel warmth at the return of that old familiar feeling of vitriol.

A band like Coldplay doesn't provoke that kind of ire, and thus, will never provoke love, either. You might fall in LIKE with X&Y but never LOVE. It's not Pet Sounds. It's the Hollyridge Strings Play Pet Sounds.


Yeah, that's kinda what I hate too. Like somehow they're REAL, MAN and AUTHENTIC and RIGHT. That's poop. They're as coldly calculating as the worst,  most calculating radio-pop ever. They're as coldly calculating as Jessica Simpson, the only difference being the songwriter is IN the group rather than writing from the outside. Which is supposed to make it okay. I'd rather listen to someone like Max Martin craft a subversively genius song like whatever that Kelly Clarkson song from last year was with the full knowledge that he's TOTALLY manipulating me, rather than have Coldplay try to SNEAK in the manipulation under the guise of "realness." If that makes any sense. I'd at least like honesty. Coldplay doesn't feel honest. They're a demographic experiment. They're an attempt to create a lowest common denominator that's somewhere in the MIDDLE rather than at the BOTTOM.

Ditto.
And seeing him lump along in his cargo-pants for a BoneThugsNHarmony video was a gas. More of that, Phil.

BullseyeX1000. That's it, right there. Every word.

Are you implying that I consider myself a 'connoisseur'?  I don't often agree with the masses on popular music tastes, so my liking X&Y, to me even is a bit odd, I know.  I tend to dig good songs most adventurously: I've been known to give "Don't Worry Kyoko" a casual headbobbing listen.  I can see one element of your hate towards them; here in my neck of the woods of Small Town, USA, I am not inundated with Coldplay everywhere I turn.  I happened to see the CD at - gasp! - Wal*Mart, so I bought it and have had it in semi-regular rotation since.  I don't care if that gives the impression that I am 'easily satisfiable'; X&Y isn't good to me because people think it is adventurous or innovative or more authentic than thou, I am simply saying that X&Y is a good listen.  I love to listen to X&Y.  Here are some more things I am saying:

• I love guilty pleasures in music.
  
• It isn't that I love to hate; more often, I hate to love.  Then it eventually turns into love to love, but that's redundant.
  
• I love "Against All Odds".  And "One More Night".  I don't love Phil in cargo pants.
  
• I like faux-inspiring clichéd movies like "Radio", "October Sky" and "The Mighty".  Because...I am easily satisfiable.
  
• I am easily satisfiable.
  
• I am easily satisfiable.  I repeat things on purpose, to emphasize them in flashback.
  
• The only channel I ever watch is "The Hallmark Channel".
  
• I like to make long, boring lists filled with seemingly useless facts.
  
• The human head weighs eight pounds.
  
• Coldplay broke the record in the United States for most albums sold in one week by a British artist. The record was previously held by the Beatles.
  
• I said that to imply that I think The Beatles are currently past their critical darling prime, and should break up before succumbing to guest appearances on "American Idol" or "Dr. Phil".
  
• I am only overemphasizing how easily satisfiable I am.  Whoa, pre-flashback work was efficient!
  
• Lists can be annoying, but not necessarily corrosive for your teeth.  Unlike Banarama.
  
• You are now dribbling vitriolic acid down your shirt.
  

Now...pounce!  Attack!  Type so furiously that steam rises from under your fingernails!

*pounces, in an attacking fashion, steam rising from under fingernails*

Sickness of the most terrifying magnitude.

Cool.  I am glad I you do not consider me a cog.  :)

I gotta say, that post at the top of the third page is about the best non-informative post that I have ever read here. The parts about Brian Wilson: sheer gold. For the record, I have pretty much avoided Coldplay and have a completely neutral opinion about them. Nice thread, though!

Agreed!  Coldplay is calculated pop music for the masses that the public has deemed "brilliant" and whatever other term of greatness you can come up with just becuase they guy writes his own crappy songs as opposed to having someone write crappy songs for him.  Whatever floats your boat I guess but please dont try to pass this stuff off for real or honest to me.  Just more music for the lowest common denominator.  Enjoy!!  Kelly Clarkson might be mass appeal pop music, but at least she has some killer tunes that arent quite the snooze-fest, yawn inducing pap that Coldplay feeds us.

Its not quite the LOWEST common denominator -- its designed to appeal to the EXACT MIDDLE. So the smart people don't feel insulted but the stupid people can look up and feel like they're even smarter for listening to it, while the middle people -- the vast majority of the public -- feel like its written JUST FOR THEM. That way they cover everybody.


I would rather listen to somebody sing SOMEBODY ELSE'S GOOD SONGS than listen to someone singing their own crap, if that makes sense. In other words: I'd rather listen to Glen Campbell doing Jimmy Webb than Chris Martin doing his own music, and the former is a more viable artist every time, even though they're not a "composer."

That topic reminds me of a funny conversation I once had with another student at my former school:


He: "I hate all these "artists" who don´t sing their own songs. They are so faked etc.."

Me: "Do you like Elvis?"

He: "Sure. He´s cool. Why do you ask?"


 ;D I grinned and just walked away...

I like X&Y, if only because it's exceptionally good pop music.

I totally agree.  That is a much better way to describe their music than I used.  Well said.  I also agree with the second statement.  There is most certainly something to be said for a great interpreter of other peoples songs.  Someone like Joe Cocker is a great example of how cover material can still be very soulful and original.  I was not trying to knock people who do cover material in my statement about Chris Martin.  Just the fact that people think he is so deep and intellectual becuase he writes his own shitty songs.

Great discussion everyone!

I bought X&Y based on my love for Speed Of Sound...and now I love the whole album.  I play it everyday in my car.  Great for long trips.  I don't expect it to be Beethoven's 9th Symphony...calculated to be a masterpiece by the way (30 years alone to perfect the 'Ode To Joy' melody). 

I propose that every piece of music is calculated...especially if it's been released commercially...that goes for Brian Wilson as well.  Those harmony highs come with a price.