Scooter McGavin's 9th Green: Coldplay

Showing posts with label Coldplay. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

I Want My Music Television: 5/24/15

Send My Love (To Your New Lover) - Adele

Adele gets a bad rap for being too boring, it is probably because she is the biggest artist right now and people would rather have the biggest artist on the planet be a bit more exciting but hey, she is better than when Katy Perry or Lady Gaga wore that crown. Okay, Adele’s music video can be described as boring. The new one is just Adele standing in one spot and after realizing she is no D’Angelo, they thought, maybe we should just layer other takes over the first one.

Up&Up – Coldplay

Well that was one trippy Coldplay video.

In Common - Alicia Keys

After soft sales of her last album (granted I liked it), it sounds like Alicia Keys is jumping on the Caribbean dance trend that is going on right now that I am already ready to end. And those double jointed people are freaking me out.

Let Me Love You – Ariana Grande featuring Lil Wayne

Ariana Grande’s last album was just cheesy fun, but her latest, oh goodness, it is just pure hot trash. She just spent too much time trying to make everyone think she is an adult even though she still could pass as fourteen. And somehow the guests are even worse: Future, Nicki Minaj, and uggg, Lil Wayne shows up on this track which is one of the more annoying. Oh, Ariana, please go back to being cheesy because you just cannot pull off being some grown up sexpot.

Wednesday, February 03, 2016

I Want My Music Television: 2/3/16

Hymn for the Weekend - Coldplay featuring Beyonce

Didn't Coldplay already do the weird colored sand thing in a previous music video, or am I thinking of someone else that did that? But anyway. I am not really liking the happy Coldplay of their latest record. Yeah I know there last one was super depressing but they really did not need to swing the pendulum so far in the other direction.

Wide Open - The Chemical Brothers featuring Beck

The Chemical Brothers have always done some pretty creative music videos and add the mysterious disappearing dancer to that list.Simple but really visually effective.

Lose It - Oh Wonder

I do not know if the whole new Oh Wonder video was staged or these were actually reactions but I really hope it was the latter. I just feel bad for whoever had to clean up the confetti after every audition.

FloriDada - Animal Collective

The new Animal Collective music video is pretty freaky, I would not expect anything less from them.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

I Want My Music Television: 6/25/14

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.

A Sky Full of Stars – Coldplay

Coldplay is sometime considered U2-lite and this could very well be their I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. Except Bono is inherently cool and even this semi-ironic look at himself, Chris Martin comes across even less cool. But still, I still wish the video featured the live performance (aside from a honking horn) with the silly instruments being used on their backs instead of the bland dance track of the original.

Writings on the Wall – OK Go

It feels like it has been a long while since the last OK Go video and their latest trippy optical illusion filled video does not disappoint in that you have to re-watch it multiple times just to figure out what is going on. But like every other OK Go music video you mute the crappy song on the second watch because it is not any good.

Get Her Back – Robin Thicke

A couple months ago Robin Thicke and Paula Patton split after years of marriage, a courtship that goes back to when they were teenagers, and a kid (most speculated that being twerked on my Miley Cyrus in a Beatlejuice suit was the main reason she left). Not that I cared much because Allen is the only member of the Thicke family I care about. A couple months later he released a song called Get Her Back, it was a sweet slow jam that certainly will not make a Blurred Lines dent in popular culture. Then he announced his upcoming album would be called Paula. Alrighty. The cynic in me wants to call this whole “separation” a cheap marketing ploy for the new album. Then came the music video for the song and oh no, it is embarrassingly bad. The video features texts (presumably between Robin and Paula) that make he look like a complete fool. Then he appears in the video for no apparently reason with a black eye and bloody nose. Is he accusing her of domestic abuse? Trying to get her back after that make him seem even worse. If this really has all been a marketing scheme, it is a massive fail. And if it is not a marketing ploy, c’mon Robin, as Michael Wibon would say, there is always another train coming. Just do not get on the Miley Express again.

Bartender - Lady Antebellum

I came to the realization watching the new Lady Antebellum video is that Kate Upton should be in every music video ever. Though I am not sure I would drink anything Buster Bluth served me.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Though I Try My Heart Stays Still, it Never Moves

In the post Beyoncé world, I have become fascinated with album rollouts. Sure there are only a small handful of artists that could also pull off a surprise album (Kid Cudi, the only recognizable artist who has tried since turned out to not be one). Coldplay is probably one of them. Much like Beyoncé they were the biggest act in their respective genre about a decade ago but each successive album was selling less and less while younger act stole their crowns.

But that did not happen. Instead they released they released Midnight with nothing more than a weird video at midnight in Ulan Bator, Mongolia of all places. After being considered the pop version of Radiohead, Midnight sounded like actual Radiohead if they were fronted by Bon Iver. Was this a new direction for the band? Nope. A week later the band released Magic, a more traditionally sounding pop song even if it sounded like the least Coldplay single they had ever released with a bouncing bass and Chris Martin not singing in his traditional falsetto voice.

With the release of Magic came a traditional album rollout, the album Ghost Stories would be released two months later. In the meanwhile the typical promotional campaign would happen, talk show appearances, NBC special, Target ads. Then came a non-traditional, and probably inadvertent bit of promotion for the album: Chris Martin announced a “conscious uncoupling” from his wife Gwyneth Paltrow.

Duran Duran lead singer Simon LeBon was once asked why rock stars date supermodels to which he replied, because they can. The only problem is dating the most beautiful women sometime makes for bad music especially in the hands of singer-songwriters. John Mayer worst album Battle Studies was the concept album about dating and then breaking up with Jennifer Aniston. So it is hard to listen to Ghost Stories without looking through the prism of the conscious uncoupling. It is the most evident on the opening track Always in My Head. It seems pretty clear with this and the subsequent songs, that the conscious uncoupling may not have been his idea and there will be no spiteful breakup songs here. The song is even followed up my Magic with its chorus, “I don’t want anybody else but you.”

Those songs also set a musical mood that is much more moody and airy compared to their grand stadium anthems of the past. Magic is not the only song where Martin opts not to go in his signature falsetto which leads to more honest song. And the drum machine sound from that sound also permeates the whole album. The only song that sounds out of place is A Sky Full of Stars. The song, produced by Avicii, sounds it would have been a better fit on their more dance leaning album Mylo Xyloto. But then again it may sound way too much like that album’s Every Teardrop I a Waterfall to the point you have to wonder if A Sky Full of Stars is just the Avicii remix of Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall.

Song to Download – Magic

Ghost Stories gets a Terror Alert Level: Elevated [YELLOW]

on my Terror Alert Scale.

Amazon.com Widgets

Monday, April 14, 2014

I Want My Music Television: 4/14/14

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.

Magic - Coldplay

When “A Jonas Akerlund Film” popped up at the beginning of the new Coldplay video, I expected a Best Music Video of 2014 contender. Akerlund has directed such great and thought provoking videos such as Smack My (Expletive Deleted) Up by The Prodigy, Turn the Page by Metallica, and Christina Aguilera’s Beautiful. I was slightly disappointed that the video turned out to be The Prestige meets U2’s All I Want Is You video seen through an oldtimey filter.

Guilty All the Same – Linkin Park featuring Rakim

Linkin Park has made some creative, interactive music videos lately, and their latest is an actual video game (lean more here). Kind of looks like darker version of Sonic the Hedgehog. It is much cooler than the song which weirdly tries to mix early eighties heavy metal and late eighties hip-hop courtesy of the Microphone Fiend Rakim with mixed results.

I Love You (But I Hate Your Friends) - Neon Trees

The first music video off of the upcoming Neon Trees album had a definite eighties vibe. They went even further with their latest video which I am pretty sure Thompson Twins and / or Culture Club made the exact same music video back in the decade.

I Wanna Get Better - Bleachers

In the annuls of rock history, lead singers can go on to have successful solo careers, the band can go onto side projects no one cares about or joins a supergroup. So history is not on the side of Bleachers, headed by the Fun. guitarist. But the first single is catchy in an New Wave song I cannot quite place that it sound like kind of way. The whole therapist themed music video is entertaining.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

The 5 Most Anticipated Albums of Spring 2014

Beyoncé changed the game late last year dropping a visual album out of nowhere on a Thursday night about a week before Christmas. But that change looks to be slow because most of the albums released early this year were announced at least a month in advance aside the new Kid Cudi album (which went as quickly as it came) and Skrillex whose new album drops today after just announcing it last week. Granted there are still plenty of names that are supposedly at work at a new album that could break the internet much like Mrs. Carter (considering they just teamed back up at SXSW, could a second Watch the Throne album be far behind) like Adele and Taylor Swift. Here are some albums that will not be air dropping out of nowhere over the next couple months since they already have hard release dates. Click in the artists name to be taken to their iTunes page and the album tile or cover art to pre-order on Amazon.

1. Sheezus – Lily Allen (May 5): Forget Yeezus, 2014 will be the year of Sheezus. After teasing new songs for the past four months, Lily Allen finally announced her comeback album which will feature the previously released Hard Out Here, Air Balloon, L8 CMMR, Out Time (as well as the Somewhere Only We Know cover on the Bonus Track Version). I am most interested in the title track, if it is half as good as her takedown of Window Shopper’s Window Shopper off her debut, it will be a great start for the new album.

2. Ghost Stories – Coldplay (May 19): The band has always been considered the poppier version of Radiohead, but it still came as a shock when their first new music was the non-pop song Midnight which sounded like Radiohead by way of Bon Iver. A week later the released a more conventional Magic but with its throbbing bass and drum machine mixed with Chris Martin not in falsetto, it still was one of the least Coldplay songs the band has ever recorded it. It should be interesting to hear what the rest of the album sound like, will they be pushing their limits even further or is the rest what we have come to expect from the band?

3. A Dotted Line – Nickel Creek (April 1): 2013 was the year of the reunion and that has seeped into 2014 with the first new album from the Afghan Whigs in sixteen years and Outkast headlining basically every festival this summer. I am more interested in the reunited Nickel Creek who will be putting out the first album in almost ten years. Where most reunion albums are just an excuse to go on a more profitable reunion tour, the album's first single Destination is as good as anything in the band’s library.

4. Supernova – Ray LaMontagne (May 6): Ray started out as the folk guy but on his last album he recruited a full band for a fuller sound and produced the album himself. The Pariah Dogs are sitting the new album out and benched himself when it came to production. Instead The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach is doing the producing the album and if first single, and title track, are indication, Ray is going for a seventies pop-rock vibe.

5. TBA – U2: This album should be higher on the list but it is becoming more and more unclear just when we are going to hear the first U2 album since 2009. When they dropped Invisible during the Super Bowl, a spring or summer released seemed inevitable, but after the song was met with a resounding, “eh” it was reported by Billboard that the album and tour would be pushed back to 2015 and they would go back into the studio with Ryan Tedder (ugg) and Paul Epworth (Adele). But that story was refuted by a spokesman for the band who said, “U2’s album is planned for this year, is still on track and touring plans haven’t been confirmed yet.” Though still no date, or even timeframe was given. So maybe there will be a U2 album this year, but maybe not until the holiday season. Maybe after all this gossip, maybe they will just end up Beyoncing the album just before Christmas.

Here is a list of more albums coming out this spring that will at the very least worth a spin on Spotify.