Review #8: Coldplay

Coldplay-X&Y
(Capitol)
6 out of 10

Picture links to Coldplay's website

Mr. Paltrow & Friends are not very good at being cryptic. For their new album cover, they write the album’s title in a visual representation of the Bardot code, a virtually extinct predecessor to Morse code. In the liner notes they even place the entire key to the Bardot code and even the message “Make Trade Fair” in the back in Bardot (Whoda thunk Chris Martin was in favor of fair trade, eh?) So, friends, your packaging is mysterious and everything, so how about the album you place inside this complex exterior? Unfortunately, “X&Y”’s subject matter is painfully obvious. Chris is frustrated with everything imaginable and he just won’t shut up about it.

Every single song on here, however good or bad it may be, is not without a reminder that Martin seems to think he’s incredibly handicapped. Sometimes he’s upfront about it, like in “Talk” (“Oh brother I can't, I can't get through / I've been trying hard to reach you, cause I don't know what to do”), or he’s a bit more abstract, as is the case in “Speed of Sound” (“How long am I gonna stand / with my head stuck under the sand?”). Either way, this tense whining makes it very hard to warm up to the lyrical content of these songs.

“X&Y” is a frustrating album not only lyrically, but sonically as well. As opposed to the more melody-focused simpler instrumentation of their past work, Coldplay try to cram in layers and layers of glossy effects, obscuring any sense of melody in many of these songs. This album is an obvious attempt to break away from the middle of the road and jump into the current trend of new-wave influences in rock music today. The prime offenders of this album are songs like “White Shadows”, “Low”, the title track, and the single; “Speed Of Sound”. All these songs could be described metaphorically as airport-hangar sized spaces that Coldplay only manages to store paper airplanes in rather than quality aircraft. There’s not much more here than loads of reverb and Martin’s constant howling of awkward symbolism. This motif is more hit-or-miss than anything else, however, because of great tracks like “Fix You”, which displays sympathy towards a troubled soul besides Martin and uses these droves of sound as a climax to this lament. The album’s opener, “Square One”, comes straight forward with a soaring chorus and becomes one of the stars on the album due to the fact that it holds nothing back. Another example is “Talk”, which successfully rides a riff swiped from the Kraftwerk song “Computer Love” to create another immensely catchy Coldplay classic. True, the P. Diddy Success Through Sampling strategy is a sinister technique, but it’s irresistible in this case.

To attempt to hold onto fans of their past work, they try to throw in slightly more traditional works as well. This choice has created two gems in the ballads “Swallowed in the Sea” and the bonus track, “Til Kingdom Come”. “Swallowed” is a promise to stick with a significant other channeled through sincere metaphors of songs, trees, books, and streets. On “Kingdom”, the ol’ acoustic is finally pulled out of the addict and the band sits down around the campfire to end the album on a much welcomed quieter note.

Overall, Coldplay hang onto their title of the kings of soft rock by their fingernails thanks to a few tolerable songs on a mediocre sellout album. If anything, the entire effort as a whole proves that the band is probably not ready to make arena rock to match the venues they’ll have to play to accommodate the influx of new fans. Enjoy success!

Key Tracks: "Fix You", "Sallowed in The Sea", "Square One", "Til Kingdom Come"