我真是上班太閒了 http://metromix.com/top/1,1419,M-Metromix-Home-X!ArticleDetail-17754,00.html Music review, Coldplay at the Vic By Joshua Klein Aside from Radiohead, which occupies a unique place in the pop scene as the current international arbiter of cool, Brit-pop just isn't making much headway in a U.S. market still saturated with teen pop and hip-hop. Any assessment of so many other U.K. superstars reads like a qualitative retelling of the Goldilocks fairy tale. Travis? Too nice. Oasis? They try too hard. Blur and Pulp? They don't try hard enough. Starsailor? Just try to tell them apart from everyone else. But something about Coldplay seems to be just right. The band's debut album "Parachutes" was a sleeper hit, even landing the band a top-40 hit with "Yellow," much to the barely disguised envy of Coldplay's peers. Coldplay, for its part, possessed just the right balance of ambition, talent and accessibility. Indeed, Coldplay's upcoming "A Rush of Blood to the Head" picks up right where "Parachutes" left off. Recorded in the same studio with the same producer, the album's indelible first single "In My Place" was apparently the only song left over from the "Parachutes" sessions. Hoping lightning will strike twice, the band is in the midst of a short preview tour to build anticipation for album No. 2, and if the reaction at the sold-out Vic Friday night was any indication, the band's set for a sophomore success. The setting Friday admittedly skewed the sample. With a camera crew capturing the set for a livetelevision special, the club's lights were left on and Coldplay's impossibly charismatic singer Chris Martin was encouraged to play not just to the Vic audience, but to the viewers at home, too. No problem. Reminiscent of U2, Echo and the Bunnymen and, of course, Radiohead, Coldplay's music sounds perfectly suited to catch the ears of millions. The piano-led "The Scientist" and "Clocks" mingled with the psychedelic-tinged "Daylight," "Don't Panic" and "God Put A Smile Upon Your Face," the latter three songs playing up Martin's Bunnymen infatuation. Drummer Will Champion chimed in with falsetto backing vocals as he pounded away incessantly, while Jon Buckland brandished a new guitar for nearly every song. Buckland's minimal leads were key to Coldplay's rousing performance. Preferring subtle shadings to power-chords and simple rhythmic patterns to full-blown solos, Buckland provided the counterpoint to Martin's heartfelt and yearning vocals. When the two meshed, as on the hit "Yellow" and its sound-alike sequel "In My Place," the melancholy emotional power was undeniable. Not everything was so serious. When a technical problem delayed the live broadcast, Martin played a brief piano medley of Nelly's "Hot in Herre" and Eminem's "Without Me," showing that he's been studying the mechanics of hitmaking. He brought an enthusiastic fan up to introduce the propulsive "Shiver," then later led the band through the giddy Bunnymen nugget "Lips Like Sugar" (Bunnymen singer Ian McCulloch appears on several songs on the new album). "This is less like a gig and more like an evening with your grandparents," apologized Martin about the odd, casual pacing of the show. But if this show was only Coldplay in low-key mode, then the band's forthcoming proper tour should cement them as the stars they so clearly aspire to be. -- If world power was delineated not according to wealth or fame but by musical output, Suede would be emperors. Suede is so beautiful they could stop world wars. --

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