'X&Y' by Coldplay
Three and 1/2 of five stars
Chris Martin, Coldplay's frontman, has a monkey on his back. Following the release of his band's sophomore effort, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" in 2002, Martin met and married actress Gwyneth Paltrow, and the couple had a child. In a profession that still clings to the clichéd idea that angst produces the best art, critics saw signs of the worst weakness a musician can confess to - domestic bliss. "X&Y" is not only Coldplay's third full-length album then - it is a test for a band long brushed off as banal since its breakthrough hit "Yellow" from 2000's release "Parachutes."
The UK's music press has long been fond of saddling any band that shows a sliver of promise with the weight of being the next Beatles or Oasis, hoping their domestic fledglings will usher in another era of invasion-like fervor about British music. Coldplay has labored under this mantle with the obligatory U2 references ever since their discovery, and it seems to have gone to their admittedly self-conscious noggins. Instead of doing what a great band does and break new musical ground, the men of Coldplay seem contented to simply be a second-rate cover band of the best in British music, both now and then, subsuming the punk-revivalist guitar attack of Bloc Party and fusing it with Bono's swelling arena overtures.
This is not to say "X&Y" is not a good album. On the contrary, there is hardly anything to object to in the band's trademark formulaic build-up on songs like the album's opener "Square One." This inoffensiveness of sound is sure to net Coldplay big Sound Scan numbers for album sales, as "X&Y" will appeal to rock and adult alternative fans alike. If nothing else, the album's brilliance is in its carefully wrought production, which clearly has in mind Coldplay's live arena show where the big money is made off T-shirts and spinning turnstiles.
Martin seems to have traded the vulnerability that made his earlier songwriting more approachable for a shot at universal appeal, all the while scaling back the acoustic guitar and piano approach that was notable in earlier albums. "X&Y" trades off between up-tempo rockers and ballads in predictable fashion that would make a manic-depressive proud. "Fix You" is a notable example, with Martin straining his voice to a near whisper in a bid for the upper register, getting lost in the wash of organs and piped-in strings and evoking the indie albums that made a breakthrough last year thanks to Fox's "The O.C."
"X&Y" is a summer album, plain and simple, with notes of the British rock icons of the past that hopefully mean Coldplay will mature into something more complex in the future.