Music Debate #70: Coldplay

[Reed Rothchild | 9,918]

 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,918]

Part 3 of 4 for the 2000s

[Tulpa | 3,704]

I'm torn on this one. Some of their stuff is pretty cool, though not knock-your-socks-off cool, and some is ... not.

[docile tapeworm | 4,268]

love me some parachutes.

rush of blood = the scientist.

[Sumez | 3,153]

Boring formulaic pop music under the pretense of being something with a bit more depth to it. I give it points for being listenable and not annoying unlike most other modern pop music, though. I'm fine with them existing but would never go out of my way to listen to a track of theirs.

[Skorp | 387]

Definitely passable music for me (like pass not play and listen). It's not super bad, but if I hear it or something I'll change the station or would much rather prefer something else.

Edited July 1, 2020 by Skorp

[fox | 1,760]

monotone music with dying cat vocals

eeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[BortLicensePlate | 652]

Pretty bad for the most part. Maybe one or two songs that are passable, from what I've heard

[noiseredux | 232]

6/10... when Coldplay came out with "Yellow," I remember thinking that Travis would be a huge band, and that in a  year nobody would remember Coldplay. I was wrong on both counts.

I generally think that Coldplay is a pretty 'safe' band. They don't do anything amazing. But they don't do anything horrible. They're generally 'good,' in that I won't avoid hearing them. I usually like their singles. I haven't heard a full Coldplay album since A Rush of Blood, though. And I actually have a rather nostalgic fondness for Parachutes now.

[JamesRobot | 6,026]

Kinda crappy.  Kinda really crappy.  Lil Xan is better.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,122]

3/10. They're not awful, but I'd probably change the station if one of their songs came on.

[docile tapeworm | 4,268]

6 hours ago, Sumez said:

Boring formulaic pop music under the pretense of being something with a bit more depth to it. I give it points for being listenable and not annoying unlike most other modern pop music, though. I'm fine with them existing but would never go out of my way to listen to a track of theirs.

these are my favorite kind of replies in these threads.

[TDIRunner | 2,889]

4.  Like others have said, I don't hate their music.  If a song of theirs is playing on the radio, I might not even change the channel.  But I don't think I've ever specifically selected a Coldplay song to listen to.  

[Tulpa | 3,704]

I think my main issue is that they got waaaay overplayed in a short time. Okay, Viva la Vida is kinda neat, but I didn't need to hear it every half hour.

[fcgamer | 5,006]

2. 

One of my best friends used to live this band, even back then, during their prime, I just wasn't feeling it.

[Andy_Bogomil | 861]

I give them a few extra points simply due to how terrible music was in the very late 90s and early 00s. I really detest a lot of music from this time and Coldplay, although over played, were still refreshing from the all Rap/R&B stuff that really didn't do it for me... I really couldn't stand the suburban gangster culture and all the crap music that came with it. This is when pop music really started to spiral out of control which is saying something coming after all the boy bands in the mid-late 90s. 

[ICrappedMyPants | 302]

3/10

I find their music terribly boring and unlistenable. I don’t deny that they have some talent, so I wouldn’t give them a lower score.

[fcgamer | 5,006]

Ironically enough my best friend from back home sent me a video today of him doing a cover of "A message" on his twelve string. I actually never heard this song before, and only later could pick out the lyrics and look it up. Although my friends version wasn't very accurate, I much prefer it to the real deal, at least it has comedic effect.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,918]

I haven't given many low scores across the previous 69 threads.  Mostly because I'm pretty laid-back and can find something fun and enjoyable in most things.

But I don't see the appeal here.  None of their songs elicit anything from me.  I mean, just looking at Muse - another British band that came about at the same time - where I find even their random deepcuts are more engaging than anything I've heard from Coldplay:

...and they got a pretty middling score from VGS themselves.

So yeah, I'm wavering between a 2 or 3 right now.

[RH | 5,206]

I've been a fan since they could barely fill an arena of a couple thousand (well, at least in the US.)  But that's a double-edged sword to claim and admit.  Parachutes is amazing.  I love the full tone and sound of the entire album and it was one of few albums that I could listen to again and again, but it was definitely a "background music" type of sound.  It's something I loved to hear while I worked. I also use to fly a lot with business and there was something about Parachutes, specifically, that helped ease my nerves walking around all the hustle and bustle of the busyness of the Atlanta airport at 6:00AM.

But... on a 1 to 10 scale, its like each successive album docks a point.  I could probably give parachutes a 10, or probably a 9.5.  There are definitely more competent musicians, but if this was the only album they had ever released, I would have definitely wondered if they could have gone on to make better music.  But... unfortunately not.  They'd give into the temptations of many more indy bands and make albums more and more over produced to appeal to the pop masses.  I mean, fine for them.  They became "rock stars" but their music has suffered.  Parchutes was a solid 9.5. I'd give A Rush of Blood to the Head an 8 and X&Y drops to a 6.5, maybe a 7 if I'm being generous, and from there it's just "meh" at best.

I gave them an 8 but that's just my old affections for their earlier work.  Realistically, they are probably a well rounded 5/10.  If I saw them in concert today and they played a bit of their older stuff, I'd probably still enjoy the experience.  The last time I saw them in concert was in 2005 in Atlanta.  They had Michael Stipe come on stage and perform with them.  My wife and I, and our friends, were hoping for Elton John because he lives in Atlanta and had done that before but I guess they were to afraid to ask Sir Elton to come on stage twice. Anyway, Stipe was the highlight of the show.  Even in 2005 it was good, but not great.

[mbd39 | 2,092]

They're... okay. I don't feel too strongly about them one way or the other. I'm not sure what to rate them.

 

 

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,122]

8 minutes ago, mbd39 said:

They're... okay. I don't feel too strongly about them one way or the other. I'm not sure what to rate them.