Solid Music For Softies

Few bands have taken as much abuse for what they are not as Coldplay. The British foursome sold 5 million copies of its very good first album, 2000's Parachutes, but was slagged on both sides of the Atlantic because its abstract, lovelorn pop was neither abstract enough to be Radiohead nor pop enough to be Oasis. This middle existence between the brains and the brawn of British rock led Alan McGee, the manager who discovered Oasis, to dismiss Coldplay as "music for bed wetters."
Coldplay's second album, A Rush of Blood to the Head, finds the band plowing ahead with the bed-wetter thing and improving. Lead singer Chris Martin has a lovely high voice, and he has all the solipsistic tendencies of a latter-day Morrissey. He writes about breakups and sadness and fear of death, but unlike so many other weary chroniclers, he is a romantic not a cynic. When he sings "Nobody said it was easy, it's such a shame for us to part" over the brooding keys of The Scientist or "The truth is I miss you" on Warning Sign, he sounds in love with love, which may make him even wetter than McGee thought. The advance on Rush is that Martin's voice is tethered to some terrific music. Parachutes was full of floating guitars and twinkling pianos that laid the framework for a Coldplay sound — a sound that got a little boring over the course of an album. Rush still hovers more than it grinds, but the group is now unafraid of the occasional tempo shift, and on some songs drummer Will Champion even trades in his brushes for real live drumsticks! The result, on standout tracks Politik and Clocks, is a low-adrenaline kick from the music and high romance from Martin. And that makes the middle a very nice place to be.

--By Josh Tyrangiel

轻音乐爱好者的硬核音乐

酷玩在玩风筝摇滚－－出色的风筝摇滚。

很少有乐队因为他们不像酷玩而受到那么多辱骂。这个英伦四人组售出了5百万张他们那非常棒的第一张专辑的拷贝，2000年的降落伞（Parachutes），但是这张专辑在大西洋两岸都受到无理的批评，因为它那抽象，相思流行，既没有收音机头（Radiohead）那么抽象，又不像绿洲（Oasis）那样流行。这种中立的存在使英国摇滚铁腕领导人物 Alan McGee（发现绿洲的经理人）从脑子里面轻视酷玩的音乐是“给床上乳臭未干者的音乐。”

A Rush of Blood to the Head, 酷玩的第二张专辑，我们发现这个乐队不仅继续而且改进了这个“床上乳臭未干”的玩意。主唱Chris Martin有一个很可爱的高音，而且还有一个近代莫里西所有的唯我倾向。他的作曲有关分手、悲伤、对死亡的恐惧，但是不像其他那么多令人生厌的记录者， 他很浪漫而不愤世嫉俗。当他以消沉的声调在The Scientist唱“Nobody said it was easy, it's such a shame for us to part（没有人说那很容易，这对我们的分手是一种羞辱）”，或者是Warning Sign里面的“The truth is I miss you（而事实是我错过了你）”，他的声音听起来充满了爱，这使他比McGee所想象的更乳臭未干。

Rush这张专辑里的进步是Martin的声音和一些极端音乐联系起来了。Parachutes里面充满了漂浮的吉它声和闪烁的钢琴声，这为酷玩式声音设置了架构－－这种声音在事个专辑的路线里变得有一点无味。Rush仍然沿续了这种演奏风格，但是这个团体现在已经不再害怕偶尔的节奏漂移，甚至在一些歌曲里面，鼓手Will Champion把他的电子刷换成真实的鼓槌！结果是，在Politik 和 Clocks的完美音轨里，包含了来自音乐的低肾上腺素刺激和来自Martin的铺张浪漫。这使中立成了一个非常好的存在之地。

--By Josh Tyrangiel