intro - quiet bit - duh duh duh duh dah - vaguely hookish quiet bit - duh duh duh duh - vaguely hookish quiet bit - duh duh duh duh dah dah - quiet bit - end

Blame Buckley!

Jeff Buckley? His songs didn't really do this did they, they as I remember, haven't heard Grace in an age were more tradional. i think the bends maybe another influence maybe at a very long shot the dymanism of dance tracks.

you mean like nirvana and white stripes (among others)?
the quiet verse and the loud chorus?
the formula for a big hit?
like "yellow"?

I think it's quiet verse/loud instrumental chorus

an instrumental chorus that's just chords

ok, it has the same effect, instrumental or not

It's the same volume all the way through, just that they start dropping the snare hit on every beat in the chorus rather than every other beat, or something. The foursquare indie whackwhackwhackwhack rhythm. Very little melodic progression, often little lyrical progression either; listen to Trouble by Coldplay and it's only half a song - verse chorus repeat repeat end. The death of the middle eight. Pretty much the death of the bridge, too. I've been thinking about why Coldplay conquored the world for ages regarding the structure / timbre / dynamic of their songs. It's the evenness, the lack of progression; even Fix You doens't actually change, they just drop more instruments in. Thirteen Senses do this on the first track on their second album 9and other tracks too) and I called them out for it - http://www.stylusmagazine.com/reviews/thirteen-senses/contact.htm - it's the most witless trick in the indie (maximalist UK post-U2 division) book. Say what you like about Embrace, but they're rhythmically and melodically way above this shit; even when they do do it a couple of times (Ashes), they drop in middle 8s and codas and melodic progression and theme (not repetition). It's like I Am The Ressurection with the instrumental and the bassline and the actual groove (where that is intersection of two rhythms) taken out. I think a lot of Coldplay's success is down to the fact that their songs, no matter what point in them you turn the radio on and hear them, are always going Thunkthunkthunkthunk so they always sound like they're in a chorus. In a distracted, car-radio, office-radio etcetera envirnment it's vaguelly pleasing cos you don't have to wait for a fiddly riff or bridge or something; you feel like the chorus is the entire song. I blame... trying to beat r'n'b & modern pop at it's own game, partially, without understanding that game at all, also U2, and Stock / Aitken & Waterman too - I bet Chris Martin is subconsciously way more influenced by early Kylie song structures than The Beatles, that fascistic impulse to establish the chorus melody in the intro so there's no surprises, only redundant payoff. Go and listen to I Should Be So Lucky and then In My Place or whatever it's called, or Yellow or Sound Of Speed or whatever. The hooks come through repetition rather than... whatever it is that Daydream Believer or I Get Around or Drive My Car or whatever uses, those little melodic riffs and fills. It's anti-pop pop music. The Tuss has more hooks. Bark Psychosis has more hooks. Sound worlds. Those don't exist for Coldplay and their ilk.

It's the same volume all the way through, just that they start dropping the snare hit on every beat in the chorus rather than every other beat, or something. The foursquare indie whackwhackwhackwhack rhythm.

the doves

Aye.

One thing I always wonder about Coldplay fans, is do they think that awful bit in Fix You where Chris totally misses the notes and mangles the melody is somehow a really 'good' bit of singing or songwriting, demonstrating either intense emotion or melodic range or something? Cos it just fucking hurts my ears.

ok, it has the same effect, instrumental or not

-- Zeno, Wednesday, June 27, 2007 5:56 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Link

no, no it doesn't! southall has explained it pretty much but the "duh duh duh" pounding doesn't work like it would in a pixies or nirvana song, it doesn't spring an attack, it doesn't even soar in the way U2 or the Bunnymen might, it just sort of gets louder except it doesn't really, it sort of gets faster except it doesn't really. it seems odd no one has really pointed out that has been a quite big shift here.

Bump for Louis.

dis iz like evry song evr made DURRRRRRRRRRR

BUT Stock / Aitken & Waterman are pretty amazing. i was listening to "too many broken hearts" today, it's just so powerful from start to finish, it makes me feel messianic. structurally you have a point but the sheer impact of SAW is incredible. i guess you could argue that coldplay type drone anthemics is the cross fertilization of two seemingly contradictory late 80s movements Bliss Out and SAW type house-pop. with snow patrol havin been shitty sonic youth rip offs in a past life my theory could have legs.