Sep 23, 2001 03:00 AM
2417 Views
''Don't Panic'', ''Everthing's Not Lost'' to the sad world of pop music, for storming the musical area at ''High Speed'', Coldplay, the Manchester all-singing, all-dancing, guitar-bearing, real-instrument playing, rock band have broken what was a universal rule of modern popular music.
For the last ten years, if you were to do well in this musical area, you had to be a celeb, not a musician. You had to be the equivalent of rich companies putting money in to charity to show their goodness, not because they care. You had to be a Britney, or an N'Sync. Music produced for you, you just come along, sing 5 or 6 lines, record a vid and release.
But fortunately for people who actually like REAL music, rather than mass produced pop music, Coldplay exist. A band that have instruments. A band that ''play music'', an unheard of idea.
Right, enough drivel about how much I hate pop music, and on to a nice little review of the album...
At 10 tracks, and weighing in at around 40 mins, this album is short-lived, but unlike most records, all the tracks are quality. They do go for the old ''quality not quantity'' idea. And they do this perfectly.
The two released singles from this album, ''Yellow'' and ''Trouble'' are brilliant, although they are better listened to than watched on MTV's and VH1's. The music perfectly accompanies many daily ''rituals'' such as work, play, relaxing and waking up.
My favourite tracks are the up-tempo ''Shiver'', the popular single ''Trouble''. If you like Travis or the Stereophonics, this is much better than both bands. It has the odd blue bits, like Yellow, and also has the up-tempo, up-lifting songs... ''Shiver'' being a good example.
For the bluer of tracks, ''Spies'' is excellent. Nice echoey, blue, up-lifting acoustic guitar, and subtle electric with heaps of crazy effects. Then their is the main guitar part. This is simple and lovingly done. The drums are simple and repetitive, but still strangely nice, using snare rim shots to good effect. Lyrically, it doesn't tell a story very well, but gives good imagery involving spies and underwater exploits.
Another fairly blue track is ''Sparks'', which includes a fair bit of piano and acoustic introduction. And the usual hint of electric guitar. This song has a dream-like quality to it. Simple, yet very effective.
I am gonna skip straight past the Yellow and Trouble, because they are singles and I don't like reviewing them, because people have heard them TOO MUCH!
On to Parachutes, another fairly down-tempo, yet musically exciting tracks. Short lived as it may be, it bridges the gap between Trouble and High Speed.
Interesting drum rhythms, light guitar, and a good smattering of interesting lyrics: ''We've been living life inside a bubble / We've been living life inside a bubble / Confidence in you is confidence in me, which is confidence in a higher thing... / Can anybody stop this thing?''
A prized jewel in a gold-quality album.
What's next? We Never Change... acousticy intro, with a few https://lyrics...
The photography on the album cover is interesting, and most definitely British. The music on it is very chilled out, and relaxing. If you only buy one album this year, buy Coldplay's Parachutes...
40 minutes, 10 tracks, 4 blokes, quite a bit of guitar, 5 stars...
