Early listen: Coldplay - X&Y

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a big fan of the "ambient" background of Coldplay's music. I call it "omni-esque" or something to that effect, straight out of the library of Atmosphere. However, if they wanted the U2 comparison composition-wise, they've earned it. There are so many similarities I kind of place X&Y between Achtung Baby and Zooropa, from nuevo-disco beats to acoustic guitar. It's a love-hate relationship to me. They aren't pushing new ground ala U2, but it's easy to listen to. I ran across a review from Joe Tangari of Pitchfork Media that pretty much nail my sentiments of Coldplay's latest release:

"Guitarist John Buckland does his part to bring life to the proceedings: He's an encyclopedia of Will Sergeant and Johnny Marr-isms, and even if most of his window dressings are little more than a distillation of tricks learned from better bands, he does a nice job of providing the illusion of a grand gesture for songs like "Square One" and "White Shadows". Martin's vocals, meanwhile, rarely command attention, content to melt into the string synthesizer and guitar reverb as if he hopes he's not imposing on you. Listening back to an earlier track like "Shiver" proves he's capable of more.

Lending to the uninspired nature is lead single "Speed of Sound"'s uncanny resemblance to "Clocks". Certainly, it rarely hurts to stick with what works, but this is not just a near-exact replica of its successful predecessor; it's also a less memorable song riding a piano hook that has so deeply infiltrated the pop-culture landscape that I've become numb to it. In fairness, the track's vocal melody outperforms the one from "Clocks" by a hair, but without a strong hook, the song fails in the one category it needs to succeed in: replay value. It's symptomatic of the rest of the album, and indeed, much of the band's catalog to date: Like Coldplay's two previous albums, only more so, X&Y is bland but never offensive, listenable but not memorable. It may be pointless to hate them, but with this album, they've almost certainly become the easiest band on the planet to be completely indifferent to." -Joe Tangari, June 7, 2005

Coldplay - X&Y: **1/2