Eno Is Producing COLDPLAY?!? How In God's Name Did I Miss This?

Let us now remember James.

Here starts the list of ways that Eno could somehow make Coldplay better, by applying his pre-1980 standards to something new.

1. Phil Collins drumming
2. Frippertronics

Hey, I like that James record!

3. Entire album is one audio channel, played very quietly, in the next room

The last Eno-related product I consumed was the Joe Boyd book, which has a big blurb from him on the cover.

Hey, I like that James record!

I did too! That's my point!

He produced several, didn't he?

Yeah, I forgot about the Wah-Wah record and one made a few years later.

Meanwhile Eno's other clients offer him additional work

Wah Wah was recorded at the same time Laid was. If memory serves, they had two different rooms set up that they were working in simultaneously -- one for Laid, the other for Wah Wah. So it wasn't just all drawn from the same sessions (a la Kid A and Amnesiac) but two distinct records made in parallel.

That said, I always felt a bit let down by Wah Wah, which given that it's the crazy, loud one, I had really looked forward to.

Coldplay continues to shake the branches of U2's family tree for apples.

http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2004/04/gallery/gpaltrowanniv/gpaltrow.jpg

That said, I always felt a bit let down by Wah Wah, which given that it's the crazy, loud one, I had really looked forward to.

OTM. Is it mean to suggest that James were at heart too conservative musically to profit by Eno's oblique strategies? On the other hand, there's a great essay that still hasn't been written defending WW.

Eno is the second best producer they could have picked. Only beaten by Nigel Godrich.

A bold statement, Geir. But why exactly?

steve albini

Geir is kind of OTM

oh wait, I thought he said Nile Rodgers.

I'm with Geir. I like all three Coldplay albums (in fact, I heard a wholly satisfactory amount of forward movement on X&Y), and look forward to the next one.

Geir is kind of OTM

While he's at it, should Chris Martin also have his eye made surgically lazy as well?

If it was Nile Rogers and he turned Coldplay into Scritti Politti I'd give it a chance.

Wont this just end up sounding like a bad U2 album? Even more than they already do?

yeah, this is going to sound exactly like every other Coldplay album.

Yeah, I'll be surprised if Eno can salvage them.

Wah Wah was very boring.

TO be honest I liked "Zooropa". But I cant exactly see Coldplay making something in that vein.

It'll sound like Zooropa but without not-Chris-Martin rapping.

I like Coldplay.

eno is also on the new robert wyatt album btw as something called "enotron"

Coldplay/Eno: File under futile.

A bold statement, Geir. But why exactly?

The Radiohead/Travis connection. Eno may sound kind of like Godrich.

yeah, this is going to sound exactly like every other Coldplay album.

They have all been excellent. But Nile Rodgers may secure the guitars are less prominent, with more space and studio wizardry added. This will make Coldplay more similar to Travis, and thus better.

The Eno influence turned out to be minimal at best. Not sure if that's disappointing yet or not.

"Lost?" is easily one of the best songs they've ever come up with, though, and "Violet Hill" is definitely a grower. Too early to really make definitive statements about the rest of the record.

has it l£4ked?

eurgh, cover is the Delacroix painting that used to be on the 100 francs note:

http://www.musiqueradio.com/images/news/coldplay-viva-la-vida-or-death-and-all-his-friends.jpg

I actually kinda like it. The fade out on the last song obv. sounds Eno-inspired, but his influence lies in it's subtleness, I think. It's quite a 'spacious' sound. Last song - Death and All His Friends - is great.

It's a great cover. It doesn't look like anything else.

Love the cover. Not a Coldplay fan in the least, but they don't annoy me like they do most here (or at least that's the impression I get). This could very well end up being the best Coldplay album, fwiw.

The cover's foul, if you want to rip a detail from an existing painting like that you should at least have the decency to use the Penguin Classics font for the band name and title.

That cover is horrible. But I'll let the drunken boat be my guide and give the album a try. Spaciousness is something Coldplay could use, methinks.

I like how ppl are willing to give corporate shitfuckers Coldplay a chance, while whenever I mention a good British indie band such as Oceansize or Youthmovies the response is a shrugged blank or worse.

Dude I gived the Youthmovies a chance but it sounded like bad June Brides so I was kinda stuck for something to say. Also you should know by now that fucking corporate shit has got nowt to do with what choons sounds like.

But I sympathize cos I can't get anybody interested in my Five o' Clock Heroes featuring Agyness "of God" Deyn.

thread.

@Willem, no refund on that guidance though! ;) I ain't exactly a Coldplay fan, but it's nice to see them somewhat shifting away from all that ugly bombast.

@Just got offed
Just how exactly are Oceansize and Coldplay comparable? I give a lot more about the former than Coldplay, but srsly, they're nothing alike.

Yeah, and in that last post I went against one of my principles, viz. you can't discount anything from having worth before hearing it, but Coldplay are such repeat offenders by now that I can't honestly believe they've put out something exciting.

And listen to Oceansize. PLZ.

LBI, no they're not alike, but only one of them is getting ILM interest.

Maybe I should have pitched it as a poll about 1995. With 200 options to vote for.

My argument wouldn't be about whether they were changing how they sound, even. I don't buy bombast as intrinsically bad. Don't think I buy any musical trope as bad in and of itself. They could sound like they've always sounded and bring a bunch of dope tunes and be good. Admittedly I don't think that's likely but I think there's always been at least one song on each Coldplay album that I thought was alright.

I don't buy bombast as intrinsically bad

well obviously, if done well it's just about the greatest shit ever

It's weird the number of people who roll up on a thread like this with a "I have no interest in this band but I might be interested if they start sounding like a different band" schtick tho.

OTM. That, and "Coldplay aren't my favourite band at all, but this sounds pretty good!". I know I just did.

And shouldn't huv.

The cover's foul, if you want to rip a detail from an existing painting like that you should at least have the decency to use the Penguin Classics font for the band name and title.

I'm inclined to agree with this. A beautiful painting like that should have a more beautiful font. Instead it looks like they're trying to make some big stupid statement or whatever.

"I have no interest in this band but I might be interested if they start sounding like a different band"

And what's wrong with that?

Let's follow it to its logical conclusion, shall we?

a good British indie band such as Oceansize

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. i've listened to Oceansize and they sound like emo-fied, "deep" post-rock in the vein of Aereogramme or Dredg. like i said before -- not a Coldplay fan, but i'll take anything Eno touches before i'll listen to Oceansize again.

xpost

People would be constantly posting on threads about bands they have no interest in whatsoever merely to tell the world that they should like something that sounds completely different oh wait

emo-fried

emo-fiend

"I have no interest in this band but I might be interested if they start sounding like a different band"

i think is happening in this thread mostly cuz of eno's name-- i.e. i kinda like that one song and i really like eno so maybe!...

but it never works out

I think the new single is really good. I'm looking forward to the album. I don't think Coldplay would ever be my favorite band but they are going to have one ripping greatest hits record sometime soon.

Thinking something Eno is producing will make it sound like Eno = Thinking something Albini is producing will make it sound like Big Black

Also Jordan I get the feeling we have the same kind of thread every new Coldplay album.

'cemetaries of london' reminds me of the pogues (as does the cover obviously)

Thinking something Eno is producing will make it sound like Eno = Thinking something Albini is producing will make it sound like Big Black

that's not what i said. but way to be snarky and deliberately misinterpret me. ;)

au contrairé, most anything that Albini produces has a certain aesthetic sensibility -- slamming rhythm section, distinctive guitar tone, vocals relatively low in the mix. now there are exceptions (see recently: Joanna Newsom) but i can conclude that in general, i like the way Albini produces a record; his choices never get in the way of the song, and sometimes make em even better.

Eno is the same way; he has a production aesthetic, i generally like what he does, and i think if nothing else, the production on the Coldplay record will be pretty good. if they happen to write a few nice songs, then that's a plus.

I was replying to Jordan's point about people getting excited cos of the Eno connection. But, y'know, way to misinterpret me.

;)

albini puts much less of his personal imprint on a 'production' job than eno does on a 'production' job. an eno production job usually extends well beyond engineering and mixing to playing other instruments, arranging songs, and using the studio as a instrument itself. albini doesn't really do that. he mainly sets mics up in specific ways and tries to record the band and represent the band as they sound.

hah! xpost

but Oceansize are miles better than ppl who've heard one of their early songs make 'em out to be; their new album is leagues ahead of their early stuff, really soulful, complex, original stuff, and not "deep, emo-fied post-rock" by even the widest stretch of the imagination.

-- Just got offed, Friday, 6 June 2008 00:31 (4 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

emo-tied

emo-cried

well i'll admit, i haven't heard the new(er) stuff. i'll not seek it out but hey, i'm glad they're getting better.

martin's regular actual singing voice sounds kind of more irritating than his falsetto

also the single they have out now on the iTunes commercial that was just on sounds 1. autotuned to shit 2. a lot like u-ziq's "The Fear"

@Louis

It's Effloresce for me all the way. They went downhill after that.

Hmm. Much as Effloresce is probably in my top 20 for the decade, I think Frames is their absolute masterpiece, and EIP has a LOT of outright brilliance on it too.

You see this and go wow and then remember he produced U2 so whats the deal?

this album is alright; not as good as the second one, better than the last, probably on par with the debut. the ambitiousness of it is overstated I think; it's not like they made 'remain in light'. but the typical eno treatments work pretty well (and they're all over the place); they just don't sound that fresh after 30 years of prevalence.

I think the new elbow stomps all over it, fwiw

When I heard this Eno news I imagined Coldplay sounding even more like the House of Love. Was my prediction anywhere near that mark?

Their guitarist really is crap.

Rhythm section in 'not much better' shock.

Typed that as 'rhythm secretion' initially. Should have let it live.

Now there's a bit with some Spanish-sounding violin and some more godawful rhyming dictionary lyrics and I want to buy Martin a copy of Ritual De Lo Habitual.

omg omg brian eno produced it??? IMAGINE THE RADICALITY.

Oh it's totally radical. At least as radical as that Paul Simon album from two or three years ago.

thank you nick and enrique, now everyone stfu about eno

that B-side rebel yell thing was absolutely great. an album of that = good. i don't think that's what this will be. but fuck it, i repped for this band far too hard back when "yellow" came out (yes, i know) to give up on them completely just yet.

cover used for at least one book i own (eric hobsbawm). i don't really gives a fuck though.

Haven't heard this yet, but the rhythm section isn't supposed to be important. Coldplay have never been about dancing, most good music isn't.

give it a rest Geir, at this point your name is shorthand for that opinion so you don't need to really go so far as spelling it out any more

I just heard the single today. On MTV actually. Or was it TMF? Some music channel. I srsly thought my sleep deprivation had fucked me over completely - baby keeping me away too much, you see - cause I rrrreally liked it. Didn't realize that Eno produced it. I thought it was partially sleep deprivation but also ole tosser's depro looking face cause of crumbling marriage to Gwynie Paltrow. It kinda gave me schadenfreude, you see.

gotta say i quite like this album. very u2ish but some really nice touches.

xpost

gwynny was in this rubbish film about six months ago (her true comeback prior to 'ironman') in which she split up with her useless british (former) pop-star boyfriend owing (iirc) to lack of sex and ambition on his part. what could she have been trying to say?

"...have never been about dancing, most good music isn't."
good lord, i am speechless and will now go listen to bad music

I want to buy Martin a copy of Ritual De Lo Habitual.

Would be funny for Coldplay to cover Been Caught Stealin'.

42 is great.

give it a rest Geir, at this point your name is shorthand for that opinion so you don't need to really go so far as spelling it out any more

In the case of Coldplay, this isn't an opinion, this is a fact. Coldplay have never been meant to have a very dominant rhythm section. That is not what Coldplay are about and they will never be about it either. Coldplay are first and foremost about melody, and there are lots of us who love them because of exactly that.

i like the single. there i said it, don't hold it against me.

I don't. The second half of the album is really good. First half is a bit meh.

Geir like Coldplay! Geir likes Coldplay!

but fuck it, i repped for this band far too hard back when "yellow" came out (yes, i know) to give up on them completely just yet.

Sunk Costs

I'm just sayin', ;)

like most coldplay stuff, even when it's 'meh' it's sneakily catchy and I've had things like "lost" in my head all weekend even though I only listened to the record twice last week (similarly, I have 'speed of sound' in my head all the fucking time, and haven't heard it, that I know if, in two years).

If it's catchy, it is good.

^^^ New Hep C slogan

Geir loves chlamydia.

yeah it has to be said here and now that over here (uk) this is getting their best ever reviews even from people who hate them, feel like they should hate them, etc. very grudging but basically good reviews.

All I've seen is a video of them doing the single at some MTV awards show. And it's fucking horrible.

http://www.drownedinsound.com/release/view/13445#r3447313

If it's catchy, it is good.

-- Geir Hongro, Monday, June 9, 2008 2:35 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

Oh really I did not know that you felt that way, maybe if you mentioned it a bit more we would all know how you felt. Maybe you should also try trolling a few more threads like this so we could finally understand. Oh also maybe keep talking about how music is only good when there are lots of chords, I find that theory infinitely fascinating no matter how many times you say it, which is probably up in the tens of thousands now. Furthermore I would like you to continue to ignore the fact that none of the bands that you love would exist without the blues, even your precious Beatles and yes, even Genesis. Oh and one more thing I love how you never seem to understand how your basic musical prejudices end up breaking along racial lines, that is so sweet and not at all creepy. The end.

-- Dimension 5ive, Saturday, February 16, 2008 1:13 PM

From now on this is my geirbot.jpg, unless/until D5 vetoes it.

Coldplay hacked to pieces.. in The Independent

Andy Gill: 'Why I hate Coldplay'

Pompous, mawkish, and unbearably smug, Coldplay have conquered the charts with the sonic equivalent of wilted spinach, argues Andy Gill. And in the process, they've poisoned an entire generation of British rock music

http://tinyurl.com/4truk6

Cue stock "Andy Gill hacked to pieces" response.

Andy Gill doesn't understand that Coldplay are pleasing millions of people by bringing melody back, and then adding their own twist by making their melodies turgid and crappy

jeez DiS is full of fucking morons (not you, Nick!)

Andy Gill hates U2 apparently? So much for his seriousity as a music writer then. I mean, I am no big U2 fan myself but I have learned that those who hate U2 with a passion seem to stand for everything I don't.

I hate U2 with a passiom

I'm Spartacus etc

I used to be so sure
I used to be so certain
Now it's gone

Always needed more
Bleating out excuses
I have none, no

Past reflections on the water
Now that the deed is done
We'll wait
Watch the ripples fade away

Hearts are breaking
Someone's daughter joins with someone's son

'Cause on and on again
On and on again
We'll watch the ripples run

I used to be so sure
I used to be so certain
How could I
Be so wrong

Always needed more
Our lesser chains are breaking
Watch me now
Watch me run

Over fields and past the houses
Like the bullet from the gun
Watch the figure fade away

Hearts are breaking
Someone's daughter joins with someone's son

All alone again
All alone again
Watch the ripples run

Over fields and past the houses
Watch the rabbit run

You cannot be seriocity.

The Return of Fake Geir

Well, I got the album today, and I can tell I am certainly not becoming a Coldplay hater. It surely is more musically varied, with more ambitious arrangements and song forms. But, unlike Radiohead on "Kid A", they have fully retained the sense of melody. Which only makes it a good thing they are more varied in other places.

It's not bad, really.

VERY Arcade Fire, this album

I'm annoyed that the site that's hosting the free stream keeps crashing my browser.

i totally honestly misread that as

All alone again
All alone again
Watch the nipples run

my neighbour is blasting this while i sit here trying to grapple with statistics. it sounds reasonably good, actually. about as good as it did when i listened to it in the car yesterday. it's that kind of album, isn't it? the car, background music from the dude upstairs ... it really is fundamentally OK. there's not a lot to hate here.

VERY Arcade Fire, this album

mrs fiendish thought it was very deacon blue, and i agree.

hang on, hang on: he's just skipped "yes". poor ol' "yes". he's cranked it up for the title track, mind. THUMP CLANG THUMP CLANG YEH!

... and now he's turned it off completely. oh.

silence. maybe he was wanking to it. i dunno.

I've just listened to the whole album for the first time and it absolutely puts me on clouds. WOW. I love the variation in the instrumentation and the little hints of Eno here and there, and most of all what surprises me is that it comes off as so uplifting. I don't remember Rush of Blood To The Head as being much of an uplifting record (I'll pretend that was their last record before this one thanks).

I really love the guitar sound at the end of "Yes", too...reminded me a little of Ride at first.

So really...what's to hate here? I didn't find a thing. It could quite possibly be a perfect album. It leaves me wondering why people are so determined to slag them off and yet they're constantly compared to Radiohead who are given such props! WTF?

http://www.bestweekever.tv/bwe/images/2008/06/JAYZGERVAIS.gif

So really...what's to hate here?

1) Coldplay

unintentional comedy from Geir:

Geir on the new Coldplay:

http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/coldplay/viva_la_vida_or_death_and_all_his_friends/

They have gone in a less "safe" direction now, but probably still too "safe" for those who dislike them. Why? Because they still write great tunes. I can hear them say: "What? Tunes??? God forbid??? Music shouldn't have tunes! Music should only have annoying beats and cyclic and repetitive structures that go round and round. Recognizable melodies that you can actually sing are yesterday, tunes are The Beatles. We don't want The Beatles, we don't want proper music. We only want useless crap without any tunes at all, crap that anyone without the slightest musical gifts can make.

Well, so "Viva La Vida" isn't like that. It is no "Kid A" - thankfully. Instead it's a collection of great songs with somewhat more ambitious arrangements and structures than the great songs that were also contained on "X&Y". Obviously, I like it, like I've liked everything they've come up with. And as long as the continue writing those great melodic tunes I will continue to like them. Another perfect album! "

My take:

I have heard an advert for this wretched album on the TV/ Radio

one track sounds like a Coldplay blando soft rock version of Oasis, another track Chris Martin is whining in a silly high pitch tone that sounds like his balls are being squeezed by Gwyneth Paltrow and Guy Hands.

Geir/cyclic and repetitive structures that go round and round oh the iron E.

i got sick of this album in a record four days. other than 'strawberry swing' the entire thing irritates me now, and I started out liking it pretty well (the echoplexed guitar loops on strawberry swing are still pretty great).

No wonder you dislike it if you dislike Coldplay. It's Coldplay, and thankfully still sounds like Coldplay. Music is supposed to be like that.

One quick Babelfish European tour later:

No surprising one has if it does not have to Coldplay. It' ; s Coldplay, and thankfully still noises like Coldplay. Music is to suppose for like this.

If what you are trying to write really poorly Norwenglish, so it is much cleverer to use the Google Translate. Google Translate, namely the Norwegian.

It's Coldplay, and thankfully still sounds like Coldplay

Yes, definitely and that is exactly the problem with them. The other sentence is rubbish though. To consider Coldplay's output music is something I can just about accept but that "music is supposed to be like that"? It's more like: music is music and Coldplay is Coldplay. And it is good that way, believe me.

This is a pretty good album. Coldplay are actually getting better at what they do and improving on their sound, which i like anyway. I like that they've expanded on their sonic palette but have retained that awesome sense for melody that makes their music so great

Some people would claim that they'd better lose their sense of melody. Some misguided people I have to add.

Some misguided people. Some straw people.

Anyway, one of Eno's most important contributions to the new album is that Coldplay are no longer fighting in the loudness war. The "X&Y" album was IMO great, but there was a little too exaggerated use of pro-tools, meaning the album sounded great in the car, but not as great using headphones or on the home stereo.

according to one source, the nhs are using the new album as some form of coma inducing soundtrack.

Hey dudes!

Just heard this record recently and there is a total shoegaze-y song on here that I thought stood out from the rest of this U2/Radiohead top 40 style. No idea what it's called though.

Steve Shasta
Pro Wakeboarder Columnist
EXPN online

strawberry hill probably.

*goes to youtube*

defitinely not, whoa aren't you in a shoegaze band duder? wtf my brothah.

well fuck you for making me search for this but it's a "Hidden Track":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i-yo0AVcww

you have to ffwd to 4:00

it's called "Chinese Sleep Chant"

Yeah I agree, that part of the song is really cool and very shoegazey.

Supposedly it's a 'song' in it's own right as distinct from the bit before it on the track; they mastered the album with the occasional song stuck to another song so that "downloaders get a better deal" - it's BOGOF rock.

But yeah coolest thing they've ever done, easily.

Yeah I listened to the whole album last night and quite enjoyed it, but it does get confusing with those extra songs they stick into the songs like that. It's a very dense album, really, a lot of twists and turns. I think you'd have to play it many times to really get familiar with it.

As of last week it's sold 5,139,000 copies, not including downloads. If Eno got points on this, he could buy a small island.

i'm really happy for eno that this album is so successful; it is all kinds of cool that he is still relevant (esp. in the u.s.) in 2008.

a minimal island with one white-walled box that he plays a quiet synth in

As of last week it's sold 5,139,000 copies, not including downloads. If Eno got points on this, he could buy a small island.

It isn't like this is the first multi million seller he produces. Remember an album called "The Joshua Tree"? :)

Yes, but maybe he spent that already ;) And with all this talk about the impending death of the music industry, you'd think nobody was making any money from music sales. Did anybody expect Coldplay to surpass Joshua Tree sales figures (not overall, which is 20 mil, but for the first year).

What a lot of people failed to see is that nothing can stay a growth industry forever. Rock 'n' roll took a good 40 years to peak and people just got greedy and took it for granted. Selling music is still a good sustainable business, as long as you don't expect to be able to gouge your customers anymore, and don't think you're going to have perpetually increasing profits.

For a massive selling album it's been incredibly anonymous. I haven't heard any songs from it while out and about anywhere, and that wasn't the case with the previous three.

I like the album, but something has always prevented me from becoming obsessive/intimately familiar with it. Go figure.

Considering the small number of 1+ million selling blockbusters, you're looking at a market of 4+ million people who probably buy only 1-3 albums a year. Aside from big hit singles, they apparently are drawn to pleasantly melodic aural wallpaper.

er, Eno worked on five out of six of the U2 albums since Joshua Tree, so it's not even like his last production of a blockbuster was even that long ago.

wrt sales figures. i was reading this book about electra records by jac holzman and there was a part where the first doors album went gold and ppl at electra were FREAKING OUT like omg we are rich rich rich now, etc etc...so i guess somewhere along the line things changed, but maybe it's just going back to where it was...now ppl handwring if a big rap album "only" goes gold, but it sounded from this book like it was a huge deal back then.

For a massive selling album it's been incredibly anonymous. I haven't heard any songs from it while out and about anywhere, and that wasn't the case with the previous three.

Yeah, same here. Except for the iPod commercial, I haven't heard anything from it, don't know anyone who owns it, or who will admit to it I suppose.

Yes, but maybe he spent that already ;) And with all this talk about the impending death of the music industry, you'd think nobody was making any money from music sales. Did anybody expect Coldplay to surpass Joshua Tree sales figures (not overall, which is 20 mil, but for the first year).

Rumours about the music industry's death are exaggerated. It is only the kids that have stopped buying CDs. And Coldplay don't sell much to the kids anyway.

I hear the title track all the time at places I go.
And it's not annoying. Thank you coldplay and eno and king creosote's producer for not making the hit song annoying.

It is very third rate Bunnymen-esque. Which, yes, is fucking annoying. My apologies.

There's something so insincere about the "When I Ruled the World" song that it manages to renew its power to frustrate me whenever I hear it. Perhaps it's the false humility of lines like "Something inside I can't explain/That I know Saint Peter won't call my name" mixed with a complete disinterest in being subtle about anything.

Coldplay's also intriguing because, not being English, there's a whole other subcultural role they play in England that I can't fully appreciate. It's similar to how someone from Europe wouldn't quite understand the elements behind hatred for Limp Bizkit and Creed six years ago.

The single is dope. Straight up.

wrt sales figures. i was reading this book about electra records by jac holzman and there was a part where the first doors album went gold and ppl at electra were FREAKING OUT like omg we are rich rich rich now, etc etc...so i guess somewhere along the line things changed, but maybe it's just going back to where it was...now ppl handwring if a big rap album "only" goes gold, but it sounded from this book like it was a huge deal back then.

Suggest Ban Permalink
― M@tt He1ges0n, Saturday, September 27, 2008 9:38 AM Bookmark

Do remember that platinum wasn't introduced until 1978(? I think, but late 70s anyway), so gold in 1960-whatever could have been any number over 500,000.

It's similar to how someone from Europe wouldn't quite understand the elements behind hatred for Limp Bizkit and Creed six years ago.

I don't quite see the similarities between a bratty adolescent "rebel" and well-established everyman in his 30s.

I'm with Geir on this one. There should be no comparison between Coldplay and either of these bands. And I'd take Coldplay in a heartbeat.

He's not comparing them.

For a massive selling album it's been incredibly anonymous. I haven't heard any songs from it while out and about anywhere, and that wasn't the case with the previous three.

Call it the Dave Matthews Effect: it's around, and lots of people listen to it in their cars, homes, and dorm rooms. Lunching with students the other day, I was greeted with "Viva La Vida" on the girl's car CD player.

Song "Viva La Vida" is their first US/UK #1 single. Weird! Most inconspicuous #1 I can think of, especially compared to the inescapability of their other singles.

I do like it more than their other purported hits.

It's not as good as "Talk" from the last album, but at least it's not effing "Yellow"

"Talk" was only decent because of the "Computer Love" guitar line, though. Admit it.

Not that, but instead because they took it and made it sound like an Echo & The Bunnymen song.

He's not comparing them.

No, but it is fairly obvious that desperately "rebellious" adolsecents (=US Limp Bizkit fans) are way more annoying people than just the ordinary average 30 something man on the street (=UK Coldplay fans)

Can we just acknowledge that this band seemed like they were going to be good after their debut and have since developed a hideous messiah complex that would make Jesus Christ himself blush?

We can?

Thanks.

Meh. They were messiahs looking for a cause, which they haven't found on the debut (why it sounds so empty). The bigger the gesture, he larger the arena crowd, the less abstract they seem, oddly. It doesn't make them any less tolerable, though.

And, Geir, I wasn't saying the fan bases are the same or equally awful. I'm noting the fact that American's don't fully understand a certain English hatred towards Coldplay, much like the English couldn't understand certain American's hatred for "mook rock/nu-metal."

who gives a flaming fuck about a messiah complex? its not like we piss on jesus everytime we hear his name.

this album has its moments - much better than their previous efforts IMO

who gives a flaming fuck about a messiah complex? its not like we piss on jesus everytime we hear his name.

Speak for yourself. ;-)

I don't listen to that first record much anymore -- but it had some interesting rabbit holes, including the one with Randy Newman. They've always had a way with a melody, but their grandiosity just seems like the world's biggest metaphor for celebrity these days with absolutely zero irony.

i think i hate chris martin's bono complex, but i don't hate this band. i rather like this record.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jan/17/brian-eno-interview-paul-morley

""It was fine. A few jokes. I felt like a philanderer who was with another woman and might make a slip and call her by the wrong name in bed. I had one computer that had all of the Coldplay stuff and all the U2 stuff. I had to very carefully label each folder because I was paranoid that I might end up with the same basic track for each group and I wouldn't notice until it was too late. There was a chance the same track might have appeared on both albums."

When influential music website Pitchfork listed its 100 greatest albums of the 1970s – which in certain other lists is calculated to be the greatest decade for rock music – the modestly immodest, driven, musical non-musician Brian Eno was directly and indirectly involved in at least a quarter of them

-

Eh? A *quarter*?

it appears to be Eno Day on bbc4 this friday

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/programmes/schedules/2010/01/22

21:00–22:00
Arena
Brian Eno - Another Green World
A profile of Brian Eno, former Roxy Music keyboardist and a pioneer in ambient music.

22:00–23:00
Brian Eno: Hits, Classics and Tracks
Paul Morley talks about some of Brian Eno's hit tracks, including Heroes and Viva La Vida.

23:00–23:55
The Roxy Music Story
Profile of the glam band Roxy Music, who reformed after 25 years to make a new album. (R)

23:55–01:10
For All Mankind
1989 documentary relating the story of the 24 men who travelled to the moon with NASA. (R)

(plus later repeats, possibly with a little man in the corner waving his arms)

Arena
Brian Eno - Another Green World

Is the Arena theme tune still what it used to be?

>The Roxy Music Story

I'm assuming this is a repeat of the doc shown early last year? It was excellent. That's a splendid evenning's TV for sure, For All Mankind is absolutely awesome.

Never realised Eno went to the moon as well. What a renaissance man.

On Jim DeRo's latest podcast, he interviews Eno -- pretty good stuff. Then plays and reviews "Paradise" from the newest Eno-produced (and co-written) album -- and I have to admit, the song is totally thrilling.

Eh, thats actually probably one of the worst songs on the disc.

I've only heard about two minutes of the song. But the bit where it breaks into the chorus is dope.

I just bought this on iTunes today, as I really wanted to hear what it sounded like. First impression...it warrants more listens.

Any consensus here on Mylo Xygoto?