Coldplay - Album #9 (Read 27,214 times)

[The Crimson Rambler]

Oct 16, 2024 18:03:57 GMT -5 Lennon2217 said:

Oct 16, 2024 17:32:17 GMT -5 The Crimson Rambler said:

'The Slow Rush' is actually my favourite Tame Impala album. I thought it was underrated at the time.

Personally I think 'artistic development' is a very over hyped concept. People spend so much time and effort talking about it. As long as the songs are good very little else matters as far as I'm concerned. I think sticking to your guns (like AC/DC for example) is a pretty bold artist choice and quite brave as it's critically unpopular. It also puts emphasis on the songs themselves as when you compare the new songs with the old you're comparing like for like, not apples and oranges.

What I said doesn’t mean Slow Rush wasn’t a good album. It was. My point is that each time tame dropped a record from 2010 to 2015, I heard something new. Something different. Slow Rush was the first time it felt more of the same. Shares loads of DNA with Currents which isn’t a bad thing but I wasn’t wowed for the first time. It happens. No artist is perfect.

Oh sure, I understood that. I just wanted to say I felt differently.

[thespiderandthefly]

Just listened to every Coldplay album since X&Y, which was the last one I'd really heard. I know people really like them, and I respect that, but I found it hard to connect with a lot of it. Viva La Vida, I need to give that another turn -- I think I need to let that one soak in more -- but everything after that just felt like "musical product." I wanted to hear something that felt sincere and not purpose-built for the algorithm.

I will say though, I Am A Mountain (Alt version) has grown on me a lot. And a lot of the live versions of the songs really worked better for me. IDK...

[matt]

Was watching Rick Beato like the old man I'm turning into, and sure enough, he had a lot to say about We Pray and it's 15 - yes fifteen - songwriters.

And you know what, it's by far my least favourite song on that album. It's all much of a muchness, a mish mash of committee driven songwriting like an algorithm cherry picking all the sounds of what makes a chart song these days. It's as if all the sounds are put in a blender, and the result is this beige mush. I don't think its a terrible song, but its uninspired in the extreme in its desperate attempt to be 'relevant'. Thankfully, it's the only song on that album that sounds like that.

You don't stay relevant trying to sound like everyone else, you stay relevant doing the thing that only you can do and can do well.

That aside, still really enjoying the album after a month.

[The Escapist]

Counting the number of credited song-writers like that is a cheap move, in my opinion, especially since the whole point of "We Pray" is to be as far-reaching a collaboration between rappers/singers as possible, and Coldplay always credit all four members of the band plus their producer for most of the songs despite Chris being the one doing the actual writing. It's like when people think there are sixty song-writers behind hip=hop songs when most of that is just the various sample credits. A lazy way to score points against modern songs you don't like.

"We Pray" is a fine track, just not a Coldplay one. Rick Beato doesn't hold much appeal for me.

[matt]

Oct 24, 2024 16:53:10 GMT -5 The Escapist said:

Counting the number of credited song-writers like that is a cheap move, in my opinion, especially since the whole point of "We Pray" is to be as far-reaching a collaboration between rappers/singers as possible, and Coldplay always credit all four members of the band plus their producer for most of the songs despite Chris being the one doing the actual writing. It's like when people think there are sixty song-writers behind hip=hop songs when most of that is just the various sample credits. A lazy way to score points against modern songs you don't like.

"We Pray" is a fine track, just not a Coldplay one. Rick Beato doesn't hold much appeal for me.

Regardless, I think it's their worst collaboration, primarily because it's all quite tuneless. It's no Princess of China or My Universe.

[matt]

Here's something interesting for you all to listen to before it inevitably gets taken down.



An unreleased track from MX has just been leaked, it's apparent this was rewritten into the much more flimsy, lightweight Fun from Head Full of Dreams (with the same guitar riff). Where that song and album lacks any sonic appeal, this has the multitextured sounds synonymous with the Viva La Vida and Mylo Xyloto era. Very consistent with the brilliant guitar work Jonny Buckland did throughout the MX album. Instrumentally it's fantastic.

Melodically, it's good, although it does sound a bit half baked in places as if there's a massive tune in there somewhere, similar in vibe to the work in progress demos you hear from the X&Y sessions (e.g. Talk). But a good tune nonetheless that I think deserves a place on the album in place of the acoustic songs, primarily because the vibe fits the overall electro-pop/rock vibe.

It's a fascinating remnant from that era that makes you wonder what more they have stored in the vaults.

[World71R]

Oct 24, 2024 15:42:33 GMT -5 matt said:

Was watching Rick Beato like the old man I'm turning into, and sure enough, he had a lot to say about We Pray and it's 15 - yes fifteen - songwriters.

And you know what, it's by far my least favourite song on that album. It's all much of a muchness, a mish mash of committee driven songwriting like an algorithm cherry picking all the sounds of what makes a chart song these days. It's as if all the sounds are put in a blender, and the result is this beige mush. I don't think its a terrible song, but its uninspired in the extreme in its desperate attempt to be 'relevant'. Thankfully, it's the only song on that album that sounds like that.

You don't stay relevant trying to sound like everyone else, you stay relevant doing the thing that only you can do and can do well.

That aside, still really enjoying the album after a month.

Glad you mentioned that. The song sounds so corporate, like a company trying to convey a message of addressing the world's issues, overcoming adversity and "uniting as one!1!1" It sounds like it could be VLV or MX-like but that part is so watered down.

[The Escapist]

My biggest criticism of the song, other than being released as a Coldplay track when it blatantly is not one, is that Little Simz gives one of the most disappointing verses I've heard from her. She's a fantastic rapper but it felt like her heart wasn't in this one, which is a shame as a Coldplay collaboration could've been a big break for her.