If you have a real Y in your genome, then click on this link to visit the main Coldplay page... X&X Overall Album Score: 8.6 out of 10 Coldplay strikes again! ... It's been about three years since their release of A Rush of Blood to the Head and ... they haven't really changed. I mean, there's some slight, subtle differences (i.e. this is spacier), but ... THEY'RE STILL BORING!!!! AND THEY STILL CAN'T WRITE A HOOKY MELODY TO SAVE THEIR LIVES!!! ... Really, everybody who enjoys comparing Coldplay to Pink Floyd haven't bothered listening to Pink Floyd because PINK FLOYD WROTE GREAT MELODIES!!! Coldplay melodies could have been written by freaking children! ... Blah! But X&Y is about as entertaining as the two previous Coldplay studio-creations. The production is, again, the album's strongest aspect. The songs all begin sounding alike once you get to track 10 (of 13), but ... whatever. This thing works nicely as background music (which is good enough sometimes). Heck, I'm giving X&Y a good review! But, as I mentioned in my previous Coldplay reviews, let's not get carried away with it. (I'm being negative only because every bloody person I know adores this band.) Coldplay is a fine, fine band who obviously takes great care in their work ... but they're not a great band! Not a great band at all! DANG IT!!! Let's talk about the songs. I like all of them except for "'Til Kingdom Come" at the end, which sounds like something a kid penned on his Fischer Price guitar. "Low" is my favorite moment in the album, which just CATCHES FIRE! Its melody isn't great, but ... it works as well as it needs to. I also very much enjoyed the hit-single "Speed of Sound" and the two album-openers "Square One" and "What If." ... And there are a bunch of other "highlights" in this. Um ... it might have been nice if the album was 40 minutes long instead of 60 minutes, but ... this is Coldplay and their fans would have spit poison at them for releasing a justifiably short album. That's all I have to say 'bout that. Overall Album Score: 8.6 out of 10 (I wish somebody would sit down with Coldplay and teach them to write melodic HOOKS, but ... oh well ... this is another fine album...) Average Song Score: 8.7 (Thoughtful, well-done songs all around. They continue to exhibit Coldplay's melodic shortcomings, namely lack of melodic talent. They still have another entertaining album, though.) Album Tilt: 8.5 (Sort of a difficult album to sit through. Many of the songs sound the same, and the 60-minute album overstays its welcome ... Not unlike other Coldplay albums, really.) Artist Rating: 8.5 (They really know how to produce a song, though.) Track Reviews Square One 9.5/10 Actually, a fine song! Not that I was expecting anything worse ... The song is just as you'd expect: Very well produced (it sounds all "outer-spacey," which is kind of neat). The production seems to work very well with the melody (which still isn't that catchy, but it's effective). For the life of me, I can't ever get too excited about Coldplay, but listening to this song comes as close as I ever was! What If 9.5/10 It starts out all slow and ballad-like ... and then it picks up stream and gets all Elton John-like. ... The instrumentals sound a lot like The Beatles ... with only slight updates. And ... This is another fine song, actually. I'm able to get caught up in it! Woohoo!!! White Shadows 9/10 DREARYYYYYY... But the use of a danceable drumbeat is always a nice edition! ... I don't think this is such a worse song than the previous two ... I just have a hard time getting around the dreariness of it. Sometimes dreariness is nice, but sometimes it's just not necessary! For some reason, I find the ending (which features only a very church-like organ) quite awesome. Fix You 8/10 It takes me two minutes to figure out that the song isn't boring ... You can call that being emotional or just pure laziness. ... At any rate, Coldplay's melodic skills still aren't up to snuff (they were able to more or less bypass that simple fact in the previous three songs with awesome arrangements), but this song is a little bit tiresome. It's really not even that great when it "picked up steam." Talk 8/10 A good song, I say. ... Quite ordinary for 00s alterno-pop music, but ... that's fine. It's still pretty good. The instrumentation is technically perfect and lends the song an intricate and lush quality (as most like-artists do these days). The rhythm section is also very ordinary ... The melody isn't too catchy, but ... it's decent enough, I suppose. ... These guys are pleasant, but they're far from geniuses! X&Y 9/10 Nice Pink Floydian chorus!! ... Now, *that* moment really seems to capture some magic! The rest of the song (which is the vast majority of it) isn't really 10-worthy, but ... THAT CHORUS IS SWEET! WOO! Speed of Sound 9.5/10 The big hit single from the album (...although it got beaten out for the #1 spot by a ringtone in the UK!...) It's a pretty good song ... the melody is nice even though it doesn't contain many hooks in it. The instrumentation is excellent as usual giving it that spacey feel that's nice to hear. A Message 8.5/10 A Message of THIS SONG SOUNDS LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE ALBUM!!! BWAGGGHHHH!!!! ... Anyway, this is yet another Coldplay song. It's rather nice, certainly, but ... but ... it sounds like everything else ... bwah? Low 10/10 Yay! A rhythm section! ... And this doesn't make a bad listen, either. ... I like the 'playing spoons' thing in the middle of this. We need more of that in these modern-day albums. This is a good song, because it catches fire ... and the melody is actually quite noticeable in this song. So, I gives it a 10. BOO YAH! The Hardest Part 9/10 Again, this is a pritty guud Coldplay song! I think, again, they have a melody that works well with the song. The instrumentation is all dreary and stuff, but it sounds pretty fresh and enjoyable here. ... COLDPLAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Swallowed in the Sea 8/10 More like "Swallowed in the Murk!" ... But I nevertheless enjoy this song. I think the melody's a little bit ... simple ... and not very hooky ... but ... still a decent song. I enjoy the production. Twisted Logic 8/10 More like TWISTED DOODIES!!!! ... Okay, maybe not. Um. ... This is yet another pretty good but very samey Coldplay song. Dreary, mediocre melody, very good production ... mostly enjoyable. I'm not excited over it. 'Til Kingdome Come 7/10 I want to know how Coldplay gets away with such dumb melodies! ... A 10-year-old could have written this melody easy. It's the production that saves this song ... but it's not lush enough to totally bleed over the mediocre melody. Coldplay commennnnnntsssssssss here!

All reviews are copyrighted by the author, Michael Lawrence. Hey! I no traysh Colplay!