Coldplay Album Review-Death or Diamond in the Rough?

Salutations-

I had the chance to review the Coldplay album, “Death And All His Friends” before it is released on itunes and other stores (like people buy music in REAL stores anymore…) on Tuesday, June 17th. To preface my examination of the album- I am not a die hard Coldplay fan- so my comments and reviews should be somewhat “unbiased” except for the fact I am extremely critical about every piece of music. Ha!

I am going to go ahead and mention what others have said about the album off of the Rolling Stones comment page: Coldplay has finally found the power behind a string section! The feel of this album is a little more full sounding; more power, less focus on Chris Martin’s piano playing, and more of a full representation of contributions from the whole band.

The album opens with “Life in Technocolor” which to me sounds like the background to just another U2 song. I am always disappointed when a band falls short of creating an awesome opening track. The first song listening through that catches my ear is the third track, “Lost!” Great anthem sound, colored with a heavy drop of the organ, and a “We Will Rock You” bleacher-percussion sound. I wouldn’t be surprised if Kayne West rips it off in the future for a back beat. Track four, “42” sounds like a Radiohead inspired hit… except I think it falls a little short (very somber and sad sounding… first part could be played in a funeral precession). the two songs that really shine on the album are “Viva La Vida” (Single) and “Violet Hill.” Both seem to turn the whole album from a dark gleamy sound to a bright, optimistic overture. the title track, “Death And All His Friends,” took a little time to grow on me. Starts off a very simple tune with Chris Martin playing a kind of lullaby (for some reason reminds me of Jack White’s “We are going to be Friends.” Doesn’t sound anything like it, but the simplicity is there). The song is soon transformed into a progressive upbeat Sing-along. Also, the end of the song is the same as the opening track (I guess so the piece or album comes back to it’s origin).

The only tracks I didn’t get a chance to review were the acoustic versions of, “Lost!” which might be pretty good! and “Lovers in Japan.”

Bottom line: A solid effort by Coldplay, but I don’t it think will captivate audiences beyond usual “concert-goers.” If you want to get into them, I would download a few tracks (my picks: “Lost!” and “Violet Hill”) when the album drops on Tuesday. Enjoy!

Links:

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2008/06/06/coldplay-streaming-viva-la-vida-now/

Andy Mckee & The Power of Social Media

Introduction: Hello! sorry for the late contribution. I have been spending sometime figuring out how I want to structure my blog. Originally I wanted to incorporate separate pages where I can post under different topics. After I figured out that you can only post on the main page-it pretty much destroyed my vision. So for the time being I am going to put all my posts on the main page. I am still putting a primary focus on social entrepreneurship, but I am also going to write about other issues or topics affecting me.

I first discovered Andy Mckee through youtube. Wait, to be truthful my friend Danny told me about how awesome he was and so I decided to check him out on-line. My old way of finding new artists would be to skim through countless reviews of albums on Rolling Stone.com or Spin.com and develop a consensus of what fits my taste in music ( which has been described as eclectic or a tad unusual) .

Welp, I guess the power of social media has done it again! Andy Mckee is a phenomenal guitarist, shall I say virtuoso, that gained the highest downloaded youtube video last October ( gaining 20 million hits and made over 29,000 friends on Myspace~) I remember in the old days you had to send your tape into some big record label to try your chances at stardom-wow, there might still be a hope for me! I am glad that our society is understanding the importance of self-advertised/self-sustainable talent… or maybe they soon will be. Check out his “sick nasty-ness”

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