Out in the U.S. on Tuesday

Here's the notable stuff that's out in the U.S. on Tues June 17th...

Coldplay - Viva La Vida [Some little band from England you may have heard of.]

Mono In VCF - self-titled [Debut from 60's-esque female-fronted Seattle band. They're @ Spaceland with Midnight Movies this Wednesday.]

Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer [Stream. 2nd album from Montreal based 5-piece.]

IAMX - Kiss + Swallow [Debut album finally gets stateside release.]

Comments

[Matt]

I am actually VERY fond of the new Coldplay album. Call me lame if you must, but I think it's extremely good - WAY better than X&Y...

[torr]

i've waited to listen to the whole new album till tomorrow.

and i seem to be the only one who thought X&Y was better than Rush Of Blood?

http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/coldplay/parachutes?q=coldplay

http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/coldplay/rushofbloodtothehead?q=coldplay

http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/coldplay/xandy?q=coldplay

[Fred]

X/Y is so much better than Rush of Blood. But Torr, I seem to remember you not liking X/Y when it came out.

[torr]

I believe that at the time I did think XY was weaker than Rush Blood, but now with some distance to it it's plainly clear that X&Y is far superior.

Rush Blood just has too many weak tracks:

# "Daylight" – 5:27
# "A Whisper" – 3:58
# "A Rush of Blood to the Head" – 5:51
# "Amsterdam" – 5:19

oh, and I'm honored that you remember what I thought of an album from a few years ago :-)

[Steven Patrick Morrissey]

torr, you are most certainly not the only one who feels that way.

outside of "in my place", i can't stand that record. "x & y" blows it away.

[luftwaffle]

cold play? who are they?

[ridicularious]

A Rush of Blood and Amsterdam weak tracks? oh my... STRONGLY disagree... I LOVED Rush... I own X&Y but it's so bland and the lyrics are so "cat in the hat"...

new one is back to where they needed to be and the step forward that I had hoped X&Y would be....

all my humble opinion, mind you...

I think RUSH, PARACHUTES, and VIVA are masterpieces.

[ridicularious]

P.S. "In My Place" is my all time favorite COLDPLAY song... those opening chords just send me over the moon everytime I hear it...

Strawberry Swing is now contender for my favorite.

[Pete]

I also think X&Y was better than A Rush... Like you said, A Rush has too many weak tracks, it gets quite boring at some point. I like the title track, though. It's a surpsisingly menacing Coldplay song ("...Said I'm gonna a buy a gun and start a war...", etc.)!

[james]

Count me in the X&Y > A Rush Of Blood To The Head > Parachutes group. Though after the first dozen or so listens, Viva La Vida is a bit weak to me. I'd give it a 3/5. It sounds to me as if Eno was given a bit too much leeway.

Call me a purist, but you'll never be one of the great bands when a piano is that prominent in so many of your tracks. Not that not being great is a bad thing, but I think it is for Coldplay who so clearly want to be.

[Pete]

I see what you mean with that comment about the piano, and I mostly agree. It's just some un-nameable thing... a Really Great Rock Band needs proper guitars. I don't know why, but it does seem to be so.

But let's talk about Brian Eno, then. Is he actually a sonic genius or is his reputation quite much exaggerated? Let's think of the artists he's produced lately: U2, Travis (though sessions were scrapped), James, Coldplay. Quite MOR, play-it-safe rock bands (OK, well, James can be adventurous, but...). When was the last time he made somethign truly "WHOA!!!"?

[james]

I'm of the opinion that Eno is a nice guy to have in the room, but not someone you want to hand the reins to. My analogy of Eno is to that of Joe Torre: not the greatest results as the man in charge until the hall of fame lineup was dropped in his lap.

[torr]

i agree about Eno, like many producers of his era he's been coasting by on reputation for many years now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_eno

and let's not forget all this genius stuff ;-)

Synthesizer on Daryl Hall's "Sacred Songs" (1980)

Keyboards on The Neville Brothers' "Yellow Moon" (1989)

And producing Toto's Dune soundtrack (1984)

[james]

And Pete, to reference your, "a Really Great Rock Band needs proper guitars" comment, I think it also comes down to a Really Great Rock Band needs a frontman that can connect (especially in the live setting), and that just simply can't be done when you're sitting in front of a piano for half the show.

[Pete]

Heh, that's true! So it's a really simple equation, then... :-)

[woyo]

I'm an eager fan of Coldplay's but I think this new album ranks below X & Y. All the songs are of great quality, but there are no epic tracks like on X & Y.

The new Wolf Parade is outstanding as well. I wish they had more tracks where both Boeckner and Krug sing interchangeably instead of having totally separate tracks where only either/or of the two sing the whole song through.