At Home with John and Debbie

Now, in the past I’ve been harsh on Coldplay. The reason for this is that they were being compared to Radiohead. Radiohead are often accused of being glum or melancholy, but only by people who haven’t listened properly. Radiohead’s music encompasses rage, alienation, passion and — OK — a little bit of glumness, and not a great deal of cheeriness. Radiohead is also wildly experimental. In Coldplay’s music, I don’t get anything like that depth or range — if we must compare Coldplay with Radiohead, then they are Radiohead Lite.

But, while I still despise Coldplay’s “Yellow”, I’ve got to say that I quite like “Clocks” and “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face”. I can even listen to “The Scientist” and hum along in a sort of satisfied stupor.

But, when I hear people wailing and gnashing their teeth because the Crazy Frog record outsold Coldplay’s “Speed of Sound” (making them numbers 1 and 2 respectively), I can’t get as worked up about it as them.

The Crazy Frog song is a competently put together remix of a synth pop classic, with some mildly irritating (but quite funny) noises put on top. “Speed of Sound” is an average mid-tempo pop ballad. To my mind, neither is inherently superior to the other, and at least the Crazy Frog isn’t dull.

Remember too, the singles chart is for kids. Frankly, I’d be worried if our youth preferred to recline to the gentle “Speed of Sound” rather than get hyperactive on Haribo and leap around to a novelty record.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 31st, 2005 at 11:28 and is filed under Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.