Wednesday, June 08, 2005

WASHING HANDS, MOVING ON

The book is done. Sent the final, final versions of the last chapters to the publisher this morning. Off to the printer it goes; onto bookshelves it thuds, early September.

On to the next thing(s), which this week is (are) a piece on serial killers and the women who love them, an interview with the band Manntis (the ones who should have won MTV's Battle For Ozzfest, but didn't), a review of the new Hate Eternal album, and some other easy stuff.

On another subject, why does everyone hate on Coldplay's lyrics? I love the new album, just like I loved the first two albums (even though this one is actually really, really different from them), and I barely even notice that they have lyrics. When Chris Martin sings "I wrote a song," in the beginning of "Yellow," half the time my brain turns it into Mick Jagger singing "I rode a tank" in "Sympathy For The Devil." (Not that Martin sounds anything like Jagger; it's just that each of them seems to hit the same three notes in the beginnings of their respective phrases.)

X & Y is a really good-sounding record, and it doesn't sound much like the first two Coldplay albums at all. Lots more synths, lots of interesting rhythmic stuff, new guitar tones (some almost Goth-y ones, others lifted from U2's Achtung Baby, specifically "Zoo Station," the song that made me think U2 was actually gonna become a band I could give a shit about)...it's a good fucking record. Critics need to stop worrying so much about the fucking lyrics, and listen to the music. That's what people hearing the singles from X & Y (and yeah, I admit that "Speed Of Sound," "Clocks" clone that it is, was a poor choice - it's far, far from the best song on the record, and "Square One" would have been a much better first single) are gonna focus on. Really. I swear. When I saw Coldplay live last time around, there were people singing along, but only on the choruses. This ain't some Morrissey-esque thing where weepy teens memorize every line. It's about the big chords, and the warm feeling in your chest that these songs inculcate.

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