Experts Decode Coldplay

"Up Middle Finger"

New Music Express asked a number of top art experts to figure out what the geometric figure on the cover means. They've concluded that it's a 19th-century telegraphic code known as the Baudot Code, or The International Telegraph Code Number One. It was used in teletype machines in the late 1800s.

So, what does it say on the album cover? It says, appropriately enough, "X and Y." The rainbow colors are there just to make it pretty.

A message on the back of the liner notes says, "Make Trade Fair." The band is politically active, and lists several Web sites in the liner notes at which fans can get involved in global affairs.

*at a WTO meeting*

"Hey you like that new Coldplay?"

"Yup!"

"Do you get any hidden messages from it?"

"...no?"

"Same here. Let's fuck over Tanzania for shits and giggles."

http://www.beatlesagain.com/images/drumclue2.jpg
http://beatlesnumber9.com/pal5.jpg
http://beatles.ncf.ca/tpepper.jpg

Sure the music sounds nice and uplifting and all............but EVERYTHING about them is just so calculated and unoriginal.

Yes, that they think any ol' bullshit design will do.

Late 1800s? A similar five-bit code was used by the Telex public teleprinter network up into the 1990s. I don't know if the Telex network still exists, but it certainly did until relatively recently.

Uninterestingly, the code used on the Coldplay record sleeves isn't *exactly* the same as the "International Five-Unit Teleprinter Code" in the 1970s beginners' telephony manual I keep by my computer. According to that, the album cover actually reads "X96" instead of "X&Y", and the Speed Of Sound cover uses null characters instead of actual spaces.

(hah, xpost)

TS: cover of Power, Corruption and Lies vs. cover of X&Y will be so easy.

Released July 14th in a gel pack that gets all over your hands.

can we stop there? new order covers were all pastiches, yes? you can't 'rip off' a new order cover.

You can appropriate their aesthetic.

of course, it was all about the concept of the shared secret etc; something i don't think coldplay will appreciate. the album's already set for the record books, apparently: they reckon it'll have shifted 450,000 copies in a week.

I have to like Coldplay to "get along" with my girlfriend... but just proved what wannabees they are....

In its own tiny way, this is one of the saddest things I have ever read. Not "sad" as in "pathetic", Scott; "sad" as in "sad."