Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Coldplay (as I hear them)
By way of some kind of respectful but apposite response to Toffeeboy's blog below, I just have to post this song, which illustrates pretty perfectly my biggest (although not my only) obstacle to enjoying Coldplay.
Basically, I cant hear enough difference between this and that.
N.B. Severe ear worm warning - please be cautious when listening to this song.
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3 comments:
No, this is worse. Agreed, the musical backing is similar (and pretty well identical to the vast majority of lumpen post-U2 rock), but Martin's voice is at least distinctive (even if you hate it) where this singer is entirely anonymous, and Coldplay - to my knowledge - have never indulged in the cheap effect of a gospel choir. Further, Coldplay lyrics are earnest and pretentious when they're not simply incomprehensible, but these are just a string of cliches and conventional homilies.
On the other hand, if I had to listen to this stuff for more than a couple of minutes (8.55???!!!?) I would probably be swearing off all rock music ever made that wasn't explicitly Satan-friendly, even if that throws out the harmless macrobiotic dolphin-lovers along with the bathwater.
This reminds me of the wonderful King Of The Hill episode where Hank's son gets involved with a Christian Rock band. Hank's reaction?
"You people aren't making Christianity better. You're making rock n' roll worse!"
Genius!
I take your point Abahachi, that without this instrument/sound/sonic backdrop, the comparison between CR and CP would be much weaker, but oddly enough, Chris Martin's voice has elements of that same anonymity for me when I hear it.
His songs also hit me as being without a real point of view - appropriately so, even, making them perfect for the times in which they sprang up, when all passionate politics and grand theory philosophy had fallen so far out of fashion. In that sense, they have always managed to remind me how lost we seemed as a global culture..sort of the band equivalent of the lyric (which always troubled me too, at the time) 'drop me in the shallow water, before I get too deep'.
To be fair, there were beyond plenty of other 'acts' to which the same critique could be applied, so, having made my point, I shall retire.
(Watching this video actually makes me feel so 'uneasy', I almost feel sorry for posting it!)
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