Pros: Simple but elegant; the individual elements of the band really shine through.
Cons: A little skimpy on lyrics and overall length. Only one truly rocking song.
The Bottom Line: Worth a listen, and ultimately a great album to relax to. Expect Coldplay to sink in with slow subtlety - they're not here to rock your world.
I hope this letter finds you doing well and hard at work on the new album. I wish I could be there with you, but I’m not entirely sure how long the Brits are going to keep me captive here in England. They’ve got me locked up in a recording studio with another band called “Coldplay”. They do kind of a quiet, simple, acoustic guitar and bass thing, and they’re convinced they can hit it big with me as their lead singer. I just don’t know what to tell them – I can’t be in a band that doesn’t have a fiddle and saxophone and all the other exciting instruments you guys play. Really, these guys seem droll and depressing at times – I just want to let loose and jam, and they just don’t understand it. But I’ll sing for them if they’ll return me to America soon like they promised.
We’ve got a lot of work to do when I get back, you guys. Do we sound this depressing to the outside world? I’m starting to think so. Maybe we should toss out what we’re working on and start a whole new album – do a bunch of happy, poppy songs for once. What do you guys think of that?
Well, keep on jamming, and I hope to see you again soon.
Sincerely,
Dave
Okay, okay, I admit it – Coldplay didn’t really kidnap Dave Matthews and make him sing for the band. But it’s tempting to think so. I suppose I should explain. A few months ago I heard the band’s breakthrough single “Yellow” on the radio, and in my ignorance, I briefly turned up the stereo, thinking that the voice was so familiar, and it just had to be a tune from the upcoming Dave Matthews Band record. Of course, this wasn’t the case, but I remained enamored with the song, which sounded much like a more vague and less wordy version of something Dave Matthews might have come up with. Coldplay’s vocalist Chris Martin has that same sort of drawl to his vocals, though he’s a little smoother compared to Dave’s gruff and hiccupy singing style. But in fairness to both bands, I don’t see either of them as resembling the other musically. Where Dave Matthews is known for their upbeat and sometimes complex jam sessions, Coldplay is beginning to carve out their own reputation as the kings of the slow burn (i.e. they tend to record a lot of ballads and keep things generally mellow).
I’ll be honest – when I first downloaded Coldplay’s album from Napster, I got bored with it. I expected the single “Yellow” to be more of a ballad against a backdrop of British flavored modern rock tracks, and found out instead that the band’s first single was one of their more upbeat tracks. Only one other song on the album had a fast tempo, and this really perplexed me. I made the usual mistake of deleting it, only to hear snippets of a few other songs later, which made me curious enough to track down the band’s songs once again – only this time I had to get around the Napster block to do it. And just as I should have guessed, these subtle little tunes sunk in over time. The overall pace may be slow, and the instrumentation may be rather sparse, but they manage to satisfy me when I just need to mellow out a bit.
Don’t Panic We live in a beautiful world, yeah we do, yeah we do…
Right from the start, subtlety is this band’s modus operandi. They don’t pack this song with a lot of lyrics or much of anything else, settling for a few simple verses and a chorus to draw the listener into the record. It starts off with a muted guitar strum and a light but crisp drum pattern, which picks up slightly with some spacier guitar sounds as the song gets going. It has a nice little piano bridge, and an overall calming effect, but just when you think it’s building into something powerful, it ends after a short two minutes and fifteen seconds. I’m not sure whether the song’s title is meant to be a Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) reference, since it never appears in the song, and there are so few lyrics in the song to determine much of anything – but it’s a nice calm start.
Shiver Did you want me to change? Well, I changed for good, and I want you to know that you’ll always get your way…
This is the one upbeat song that I mentioned earlier, starting off with a ringing guitar riff that might be U2-inspired, and immediately breaking into a joyously driving 6/8 beat with a catchy chord sequence, before settling into a quieter verse in which Chris laments being taken for granted by some sort of a friend or lover. He starts to sound a little angry and bitter in parts of the song, but he never loses the sweet, almost silky vocal quality that helps to make the band so charming. I love the high note he hits during the chorus: “Don’t you shiv-ER!” What shivering has to do with the rest of the song, I couldn’t tell you. This one also ends a bit abruptly, but it’s gracious enough to rise and fall between relaxed and aggressive for nearly five minutes.
Spies I awake to see that no one is free, we’re all fugitives – look at the way we live…
This track slows things down to the pace that dominates much of the rest of the album. It’s quite a standout, though, building off of a nice, syncopated drum rhythm, and the swirly guitar sounds that worked so well in “Don’t Panic”. There seems to be some sort of a “Big Brother” theme to this tune – we never really learn who these “spies” are that Chris is afraid of – maybe they’re just a personification of his paranoia. But near the end, he seems more assured, and the fear that these untouchable beings who “hide out in every corner” morphs into an awkward assurance that if they never show their faces, they can’t hurt you either. This one takes a little longer to wide down, which is good – with how few songs there are on this CD, you wouldn’t want to be rushed through them all.
Sparks Did I drive you away? I know what you'll say - you say, "Oh, sing one we know"…
Shiver, Spies, Sparks. Try saying that five times fast. Anyway, I don’t really understand this song. It drops the mood to an even mellower level, resting on an acoustic guitar, very light percussion, and a more noticeable bass part, which is probably the most memorable thing about this tune. It seems to be an apology, an attempt to rekindle the “sparks” that have died down in a relationship. Unfortunately, there are too many “yeah”s, “la la”s and “oh”s to make room for much in the way of lyrical substance. This was also the point where the slowness of the album began to perplex me at first, since I already knew “Yellow” was only a mid-tempo track. I suppose I’m still learning to stop judging bands by speed alone. Anyway, this isn’t a bad track, but not a standout either.
Yellow Oh yeah, you’re skin and bones, turned in to something beautiful…
Everyone has to have heard this song by now. It’s a really pretty tune, if a bit on the vague and simple side. Something about its straightforward guitar pattern, driven by a zippier, more “modern rock” attitude, has caught on – it’s very easy to sing or at least hum along to. The lyrics, if a bit esoteric, are very lovely – “Look at the stars, look how they shine for you, and everything you do – yeah, they were all yellow.” Apparently everything is “yellow” in this song, including him and the likely lover he’s singing about. “Yellow” has been a metaphor for so many things in the past that it’s unclear what it means here. Does she glow? Is she scared? Is she malnourished? (She is skin and bones.) I had actually stretched the song at one point to come up with an entire spiritual metaphor where “yellow” meant sinful, and the singer was a savior of sorts – “For you I bleed myself dry” seemed to enforce that. But I was probably thinking too hard there. In any case, it’s one of those songs that despite it being only about a year old, seems to have a timeless melody and dredge up wistful memories of something I just can’t place. It’s like déjà vu. Once again, Coldplay shows us their affinity for unexpected endings, letting the song fade to silence during the last verse instead of completing it with the expected line “They were all yellow”.
Trouble Oh no, what’s this? A spider web and I’m caught in the middle…
Okay, ready for more ballads? I warned you, that’s pretty much the whole record. This song flows nicely out of “Yellow”, its lovely piano intro picking up right where the last lyric of “Yellow” was expected to go. This seems to be another apology song, though definitely a more intimate one. Chris seems to have entangled himself in a situation he can’t get out of – you seem to get the idea that he put his foot in his mouth and now he’s trying to undo the damage. The “spider web” metaphor works quite well here, and the overall feel is sad but relaxing. Whoever he wrote this song for, I hope it won her back.
Parachutes Yeah my head is a stormy haze – I’ll be round, I’ll be loving you always…
I just quoted half the song. Seriously. This is a short little acoustic solo piece, and kind of an odd choice for the title track of the album, since it’s only about 45 seconds long. People have really complained about this one, but it’s not a bad track at all. I tend to see it as an interlude, an unfinished thought, but I have to admit, it’s kind of a bad call to pose this as one out of only ten songs on an album.
High Speed Can anybody fly this thing? Before my head explodes or my head starts to ring…
Don’t get your hopes up. The title is an ironic one, since the song continues in that slow, swirly vibe once again. The percussion here is a little stronger, but the song isn’t nearly as aggressive as “Shiver” or even “Yellow”. However, its irony kind of works, helping support the vague feeling of despair in the lyrics. Once again, the song lacks a bit in lyrical variation, content to paint a mood without explaining everything, but the fact that Chris hasn’t found anyone to “fly this thing” and his “confidence in high speed” has not yet been realized only makes it more logical that the song seems to float along in space. This is probably part of why so many people have compared Coldplay to Radiohead, though I don’t see the similarities as much, since Radiohead is pretty bent on being weird, and Coldplay’s melodies and song structure are considerably more normal.
We Never Change I wanna fly and never come down, and live my life, and have friends around…
Another acoustic ballad in 3/4 time – this one fares a little better than “Sparks” did. For some reason, I get visions of being off alone in the forest when I hear this song, probably due to the enigmatic line “I wanna live in a wooden house”. The song appears to deal with insecurity, and the desire to fake happiness in order to make friends. The overall theme is a bit depressing – we never learn to be true to ourselves, and be honest about our failures. But it seems to be a plea for genuineness, which is always a good thing, even if it hurts more. At times, the guitar seems to trip through an extra measure at the point where I’d expect Chris to sing another line, which reminds me a bit of “The Tourist” from Radiohead’s OK Computer. But as I’ve mentioned before, almost any rock album can be compared to Radiohead if you try hard enough, and I don’t see that as enough evidence that these guys are meant for the same crowd.
Everything’s Not Lost When I counted up my demons, saw there was one for every day, with the good ones on my shoulders, I drove the other ones away…
Hey, cheer up, old pal! It’s not as bad as it seems! That seems to be the obvious message of this final tune, which is upbeat in its mood, if not in its musical style. Still, it always brings a smile to my face with its plea for holding onto whatever strains of hope we can find when things look bleak. I’m not exactly sure what to make of the good “demons” in this song, but perhaps it’s kind of like the good witches in the Wizard of Oz, and my preconceived notions are just giving me a hard time. The song starts out driven by a piano, and it has all the earmarks of a classic rock ballad, especially when it builds stronger upon Jon Buckland’s ringing guitar, and everybody seems to join in singing towards the end. It’s almost like a classic Beatles tune in some ways, though much more straight-laced. I can just picture a bunch of Brits sitting in the pub, waving their beer mugs and singing out, “Oh, oh, yeah, everything’s not lost!”
After a very short period of silence, we get another partial song as a bonus, which seems once again to draw on the apology theme of “Sparks”, “Trouble”, and “Parachutes”, sounding like an old demo at first but filling itself out with the sound of an organ or whatever instrument is backing the song. It has a very British feel to it, but it too ends a bit suddenly, and then the CD stops spinning.
I think a lot of listeners are going to be left a little cold (pardon the pun) at the end of this album – feeling like they were a little bit shortchanged. The album’s only 10 tracks and 41 minutes, and as I mentioned before, if you’re looking to rock out, download “Shiver” and leave well enough alone after that. Still, it’s a nice album to relax to, and ultimately worth getting if you pay close enough attention to the songs. You can actually derive a lot from the little that Chris Martin seems willing to tell us, and the overall moody feel cheers up at the end. Coldplay has a knack for drawing in the patient listener, and the hype surrounding a hit single or two is frankly going to be misleading, because they don’t seem as concerned with churning out modern rock hits for the MTV generation (though one or two haven’t hurt them, either).
I would hope that in the future, Coldplay learns how to master some more rocking songs while not losing their ability to get a good slow burn going. Contrary to what some have said, this album isn’t “all yellow”. But it is mostly “all mellow”.
TRACK REVIEW SUMMARY Excellent: Shiver, Spies, Yellow, We Never Change, Don't Panic
Good: Trouble, Everything's Not Lost
Decent: Parachutes, High Speed, Life Is for Living
Weak: Sparks
Skippable: NONE
Band Members:
Chris Martin: Vocals
Jon Buckland: Guitar
Will Champion: Drums
Guy Berryman: Bass
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