X&Y — Coldplay
EMI
2005
Rating:


In a pop culture where calling a work "original" means tempering the term by acknowledging how much the work has borrowed from previous sources, there are two ways to interpret the now ubiquitous homage: as a Rip-Off or as what could be called The Waste Land (though, considering the negative connotations of "waste," it may be better to refer to the art by an abbreviated form of the original name for the first two chapters T.S. Eliot's seminal work, "He Do the Police in Different Voices"). A Rip-Off, quite simply, is a work that outright steals from previous sources with an interpretation that's empty of all value, as in "Louis XIV is a Rip-Off of T. Rex."

Then there's something like Coldplay's "X&Y," an album in which Chris Martin uses Different Voices, expanding upon influences as varied as composer Richard Strauss, The Pixies and U2 to say something new about the world, and therefore creating a work that's vibrantly original.

So when Coldplay begins the album with "Square One," using the infamous strains from Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra" as interpreted by Brian Eno, segueing into U2's "New Year's Day" bass line and guitarist Johnny Buckland mimicking Echo & the Bunnymen and concluding with a little of David Bowie's "Space Oddity," the band isn't Ripping Off its primary sources — it's using them as a shorthand toward commenting on the rift of space between us that creates miscommunication. "Square One," incidentally, ranks as Coldplay's sonically hugest and loudest song, a blistering piece of pop that justifies Martin's boasts that Coldplay are U2's peers. Martin sings about cracking codes more complex than Da Vinci's. That is, he's "deciphering the codes in you," and it sets the tone for an album whose riches come from deciphering the influences and symbols the band sets forth.

"Talk" takes the hook from Kraftwerk's "Computer Love" and the beats from Neu! to express Radiohead-style existentialism with fears about a text messaging, Instant Messaging future where no one talks in person any more. The appropriately named "Low" finds its influence in Eno-produced Bowie albums and a New Order groove. "Twisted Logic" follows a train of thought that's Beatles-oriented, flowing from the strings of "Strawberry Fields Forever" to the climactic "Abbey Road" medley and, more explicitly, "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" as Martin sings, "Hello Goodbye"-like, "You'll go backwards / But then you'll go forwards" in a song about the inevitable destruction of Earth. "A Message's" melody displays what could've been an evenly shared Lennon-McCartney songwriting credit. "White Shadows" is what it sounds like when Bowie makes "Doves Cry" while "Til Kingdom Come" is the best ballad Johnny Cash never had a chance to sing. And "Speed of Sound" and "Swallowed in the Sea" find Coldplay sounding like, well, Coldplay.

"Fix You" offers the most intriguing interpretation. Part three in the Coldplay Torch Song Trilogy that includes "Yellow" and "The Scientist," "Fix You" is one of the band's most miraculous achievements. Opening with a somber, church-like Hammond Organ, the song soon causes the heavens to open with one of the most affecting melodies charted in ages once the full band joins in and Martin promises that, when "Tears stream down your face, I will fix you," which isn't a statement of Martin's savior complex so much as it is a testament to the healing power of music. Part of the reason the song is so fascinating is that, before Coldplay finds its own heart-filling melody, Martin's aching vocals sound like a sensitive interpretation of The Pixies' "Where is My Mind?" Whereas Frank Blank sings about performing spinning headstands and heads collapsing, Martin sings about losing something that can't be replaced, having a love that goes to waste. The reason for the homage returns Martin to the album's theme of (mis)communication: even Black was able to find someone to talk to while swimming in the Caribbean. Martin, unlike the animals of Black's song, isn't hiding behind the rocks; he's a man who promises to learn from his own mistakes so that he can fix you.

Different Voices or not, none of this would mean much if Coldplay didn't have something to say in their own words. Like Eliot before them, the band knows that the world is composed primarily of love and fear, and that the two aren't mutually exclusive ("What If" finds Martin asking, "What if you don't want me there by your side?"). Martin, with good reason, puts more faith in love than he once did. His trust in its ability to fix others can be felt in the way the melodies soar and expand in a way that no other band can hope to equal. Coldplay has challenged its fans for the first time with an album that rewards multiple listens and may just make the fans believe in love again, too.

Posted Sunday, July 3, 2005

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