Yes, I am a Coldplayer, thank you.

October 28, 2013

     Well, I honestly couldn't think about a very good topic to write my blog about this week, so I just came up with something that I'm gonna throw out there. Here we go...
     I love listening to music. You probably already knew that from my other blog posts about music. My favorite kind of music is rock, with a tiny bit of more mellow, pop feel. Which in result, makes my favorite band Coldplay. I honestly have liked every single Coldplay song I have ever listened to. Even their more slow songs that are like really really mellow, for example, Parachutes.
     Their first album named after the priorly mentioned song, Parachutes, has a more hard rock feel. I know I just said that Parachutes had a mellow tone, but stuff like Shiver, Yellow, and Spies, have a bit of harder rock. It won two Grammy Awards for Yellow and Don't Panic. The second album is called A Rush of Blood to the Head, which is named for another one of their that is in the album. This album features a lot of falsetto singing, like the chorus of Clocks, In My Place, and Daylight, and the bridge of Politik. In total, it has a few Grammy Award nominations, and one Grammy Award for Clocks.
     X & Y, the third album was the last of what they like to call a 'trilogy.' The top rated song from the album, and the second most successful one of their songs, Fix You, is in this album. The song was dedicated to the lead singer, Chris Martin's, wife, the famous actor Gwyneth Paltrow when her dad died. The album was a very alternative album, with not much rock at all. The album appears to be inspired by love. For example; Swallowed in the Sea, has a line that states 'I could write a song/100 miles long/and that's where I belong/and you belong with me..' And the song Fix You, previously stated up there states 'And I will try to fix you..' The album won two Grammy Awards. One for Speed of Sound for the Best British Live Act, and one for Fix You, because I don't know.
     They had another album, called Prospekt's March, that I don't know a lot about because they collaborated with Jay-Z, and there is a bit of language in there, and I can't just download part of the album. Their fifth album, was by far their most successful.
     Viva la Vida and Death and All His Friends was the name of it. It was uniquely named after two of the songs in the album. Viva la Vida is their most successful song. They actually went through a lot to get that song. They were sued by Joe Satriani because it sounded a lot like his song called If I Could Fly, which is much worse than Viva la Vida. I honestly wouldn't have ever heard of Joe Satriani if I didn't read about the lawsuit. Viva la Vida is my favorite song, which I stated in previous blog posts. The album has a lot of more orchestral stuff going on in it. Other than Viva la Vida, the song Yes, has a violin melody along with higher bass clef vocal melody. The other song which this album is named for, Death and All His Friends, actually has a bit of hard rock in it. The beginning part makes you think it is a slow, soft, piano, love song. Though, after the first three verses, it drastically picks up tempo, going to a resonant, low, electric guitar sound, going into the bridge with 'No I don't wanna battle from beginning to end/ I don't want a cycle of recycled revenge/ I don't wanna follow Death and all of his friends..'  They even did something amazing in this song. One of the first songs they ever started working on was in this album. (Don't even get me started on their first song, Ode to Deodorant). Violet Hill was one of the first songs they ever started working on, and it is probably one of their best. It has a quarter note piano chord melody, underneath Chris Martin's vocals at the beginning. Then it suddenly bursts into a chromatically descending guitar chord, and it gets exciting. On the bridge, lead guitarist, Jonny Buckland, plays an amazing guitar solo, which I can't even describe. This album in all won one Grammy Award for Viva la Vida, which was Song of the Year in 2009, and reached #1 on a majority of the boards at it's peak position, the lowest being #4 in Portugal.
     Between 2008 and 2011, Coldplay made one EP, Life in Technicolor ii, which was going to be in Viva la Vida, but didn't make the cut. It features a hammered dulcimer playing a melody in the key of A major. The two other songs in the album are a live performance of the prior song at the O2 in London. The other one is called The Goldrush, and it is very different. The drummer and lead backing vocalist, Will Champion, is singing the melody with the rest of the band playing things like the mandolin and singing backing vocals and making a bunch of laughter in the background. They also did a Christmas song in 2010 called Christmas Lights. It has a violin background with a piano melody.
     Their most recent album, released in 2011 has a rather odd name. Mylo Xyloto, (the to is a short sounding 'toe' sound. Sorry, it just really annoys me when people say the name incorrectly :P). There are three songs in the album that don't have a really a whole song within them, they just make perfect leads into the song following them and are performed live with both combined. One being Mylo Xyloto, which is a perfect lead into Hurts Like Heaven, M.M.I.X, leading into Every Teardrop is a Waterfall, and A Hopeful Transmission leading into Don't Let It Break Your Heart, which leads into Up With the Birds. This album definitely has a more pop feel to it. The song Paradise, was #1 in Australia at it's peak position. It won a grammy, and is the most popular song in the album. The albums inspiration came from the song Charlie Brown, which I am arranging for a small band to play. The bassist, Guy Berryman, said that the inspiration for the entire album came from the image of a bright red rose bursting through concrete; which is a line in Charlie Brown "In my scarecrow dreams/ When they smashed my heart into smithereens/ be a bright red rose come bustin' the concrete." The album won I think 2 Grammys, one for Paradise and one for Charlie Brown, but I'm not sure about the latter.
     Their most recent song is featured in the new Hunger Games movie, specifically written for it. It is called Atlas. Many people say it is a combination of all of their albums' styles in one song. Chris Martin, the singer, like most other songs, wrote this song. He said in an interview last week (posted this on the 28/10/13), that he pretended he was a woman whose dress kept catching on fire to write the lyrics for this song. And this song really is a masterpiece, like all the others.
     So, main point is, I really like Coldplay, and all of their songs are very good, in my opinion. So, I would suggest you listen to a few of their songs. Just try it for me, and you'll probably like it too, if you're into limestone rock music. Also, sorry for the really long post.