Coldplay vs. Foo Fighters

I've been trying very hard to like the new Coldplay album for several weeks now, and I just can't get into it. This CD isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, but I can't see any reason it's worth more than a 5/10, 6 at best. It's by far the most produced CD I've ever owned - the entire band could easily be replaced by computer programs like cakewalk and you'd never notice. The Drummer is by far the most useless member of the band - if it weren't for real pictures of him in the studio included in the CD jacket, I'd swear it was a drum machine. Pretty much the entire CD features Christ Martin performing the same vocal gymnastics over and over again with standard Brit-pop speeding along in the background. Lyrically, it features such amazing verses as these:

Lights will lead you home
And ignite your bones (?!?!?!)
And I will try to Fix You
(Fix You - to sing that high, I think he's been "fixed," and now he wants to fix you too.)

You'll go backwards
but then
you'll go forwards
again
You'll go backwards
but then
you'll go
(Twisted Logic - no kidding)

'Cause I feel low 'Cause I feel low Ohhhhhhhhhh Yeah I feel low Oh no Ohhhhhhhhhh (Low)

X&Y: the most "produced" CD ever?

Many of the reviewers I read say Coldplay is going to be the next U2, and they're probably right. I really can't get into U2 either, for most of the same reasons: it all sounds the same, and that same sound bores me, and the lyrics are weak at best.

In good (but not complete) contrast to this is the Foo Fighters new 2 CD set, In Your Honor. I picked it up at target because, like the Coldplay album, it was only $10, and I figured getting 2 CD's for $10 was a pretty good deal.

The first CD on the album is full of harder, faster tracks, featuring the title track as well as the current single "Best of You." It's very good, very edgy, and the slight gravel-scream on Grohl's voice shows he never got over the desire to be the screaming front man for a metal band.

The real jewel is the second CD, which features softer, slower, more acoustic tracks. The first song, Still, is one of the most emotional tracks I've ever heard, perfectly encapsulating the feeling of sadly remembering times gone by. The mood lightens but stays mostly reflective, peaking in Virginia Moon, where the harmony part is sung by Norah Jones, and Cold Day in the Sun. It's very very good, and I highly recommend it. I'd give this 2 CD set 8.5 stars because while not being musically earth-shattering, it's very solid and good, and at $10 you can't go wrong.

In Your Honor, I will sell 2 good CD's cheaply.