Introduction
I said not so long ago that I couldn’t see Coldplay taking U2’s place in the near future, but I may have been a little premature..
Twins
Last year we saw the release of Coldplay’s contemporary masterpiece Viva La Vida and I have to say it was a grower, in retrospect I probably missed a couple of songs as I got mired down by the Albums fashion statement which looked ever so familiar.
The first vinyl album I ever bought was Prince Charming by Adam and The Ants and for those of you unaware of this 80’s New Romantic phenomenon, Adam and the Ants were the band that donned threads that would not have been out of place in Louis XVI court with heavy eyeliner and white nose stripes (apache style) and rocked the house with post punk military marching band pop.
While Coldplay have thankfully dispensed with the eyeliner and make up generally, the costumes are certainly VERY familiar and this similarity has not been lost on Adam Ant himself (who made a well humoured side swipe about it at a recent awards ceremony). The Adam and the Ants drums are also there under the usual Coldplay-ness. This may sound like I’m having a go, but credit where credit is due, while the plagiarism is definitely there, Coldplay have taken their Adam and The Ants-ness into a new dimension and I am ecstatically happy they have chosen such a ground breaking sound to draw creatively on. Their last offering X&Y smacked of Kraftwerk (the Band admitted as much) and, with a couple of exceptions, had all the warmth of Tuna Sashimi, lacking the emotional introspection and depth of their previous work. I saw them live in Osaka a couple of weeks ago and despite Chris Martin’s anti rock star awkwardness they even managed to get the robotic Japanese audience jumping up and down (no mean feat in itself).
Zen Minimalism
Similarly, this months new release from U2, No Line on the Horizon, has taken the plagiaristic road, except in U2’s case they have chosen to plagiarise themselves. This may sound decadent and it is not the first time they have done it either, but I am inclined to think that this time they may have got it right. They have clearly gone back to their roots and employed the producers and soundscape engineers of albums-old and that is clearly evident in the end product, with each of the songs being Eno-centric, Lanoisish or Lilywhitian. This is old school Electronica, which smacks of their highly underated concept album Zooropa and merges that chemical darkness with a lyrical sense of humour seen more recently in Bono’s word babies.
In many ways the first single Boots (which shouldn’t be on the Album IMHO) belies the depth of the other tracks. Boy’s you don’t need to pander to the spotty adolescent masses! It is the uncles and aunts these days who splash on the CD’s instead of hitting the torrent sites.
Message To U2
The more you try and squeeze a few dollars out of everything you do the more people you WILL alienate (I strongly object to having to pay for access to material on the U2 website having bought ALL the albums, sometimes twice due to infinite borrowing, bought live DVD’s, been to concerts etc etc there comes a time when you just got to ask the question, how much money does one band need in one lifetime? Or perhaps the question is how much money does one manager need, as Bono himself pointed out in their Slane gig as he thanked their parents for the lend of 500 pounds he also points out that the audience have probably all each given them 500 pounds too so just stop it! You can’t campaign against world poverty then squeeze minimum wagers for an additional 50$ to get a glimpse of the decent content on your bands website. Bono, glass, houses, stones, throw, people..fair trade? rearrange into a well known phrase or saying!) rant over!
Anthemic Sing-along's
In all fairness to U2 and despite the hype surrounding any new release from them, as a diehard fan I honestly believe this to be their Abbey Road. It sounds honest, to me it sounds like the cure to their creative constipation exhibited in their last release Atomic Bomb (There are 2 corkers on that one too Original of the Species and Crumbs). If you close your eyes you can mentally hear the bowels unclenching as the Edge reinvents the Fly Riff in No line on the Horizon and in the Funkiness of stand Up as Bono urges us to stop helping God across the road like a little old lady. Sure, there are no 3am whiskey in hand sing-along numbers like with or without you, but where bands like Radiohead dive into audio soup occasionally surfacing for a melodic breath of fresh air, this audio soup has the depth and energy of Boy, the electronic darkness of Zooropa and the timeless infinity and melody of the Joshua Tree all in one. If they never do another album then this does a wicked impression of the last ever album from a band, so Good Job Boys!
The Pudding
So why do I say that U2’s position as best rock band in the world maybe in danger of succumbing to a hostile take over bid from Martin and the Ants? Simply put there ARE anthemic sing-along's in Coldplay’s album, there ARE moments of vocal back tingling in songs like Lost and it is accessible these are the things I also love about U2’s music. I am not saying this is good thing, bands should not constantly be striving to birth crowd pleasers, so props to U2 for taking the dive back into the creative gene pool but lets be honest here Coldplay also dived in reinvented their sound and came out with a few even the tone deaf can hum to.
The 5 years in the wilderness it takes for U2 to come up with a new album allows pretenders to take their seat, albeit temporarily and quite frankly it looks sometimes like they have either run out of ideas or are happy to receive website membership cheques instead of making some honest money out of releasing good new material. Back when ATYCLB came out (all that you can’t leave behind for non U2 speak literate) Bono boldly stated that were reapplying for the position of best band in the world, in my book it’s about time they did it again or stand aside.
