Great expectations...

Are a hard thing to live around. It's almost inevitable that you'll fall short. If you think of the movies and films and books we adore, they're the ones that sort of creep up on you. They're passed along by word of mouth and passion. When someone loves something so much that they just have to tell me about it, I will more than likely see the movie, read the book or listen to the cd. And the majority of the time, I spread the word. Passion is an infectious phenomenon. It's impossible to manufacture and it's widely known as fleeting. But everyone once in a while, you find some enduring passion.

And so, it was with great expectations and a nervous twitch that I went to the music store this week. One of the biggest and most anticipated albums of the year was set free in the heat of early June. No, no, I'm not talking about the new Backstreet Boys album (Backstreet's back?). That's next week. I'm talking about the new Coldplay album.

Forgive me if I gush. I can't remember the last time I was this excited about a record after I've listened to it. I was blown away. It's not wall to wall genius, but it's really fucking good. I audibly gasped at least three times during my first listen, uttered the phrase 'you're fucking right!' half a dozen times and finally went 'you're shitting me!' I meant it in a good way.

I was in awe.

It's everything I hope my band achieves. It's what any band should want to achieve. Learn your strengths, play to them, but continue to change and grow and re-invent what you're good at doing. These are four men who understand sonics, who understand dynamics and who understand orchestration. And they've learned to write songs that way, which is really fucking good news for anyone who likes music. The colours and textures of the album leave the realm of audibility and reach into the reality of tangible pain and joy and love and fear. It's awesome. Like I said, it's not wall to wall genius, but it's; Really. Fucking. Good. It's life, man. It has ups and downs and parts that aren't as interesting or intense as other parts. I know it's been attacked for lyrical content, but really who cares? We don't all need to be wordy sons of bitches. They've made no bones about their simplicity from the get go. "Yellow" is not a great poem. It's a great song. I do care about lyrics and in this case, I think critics are just looking for something to be nitpicky about. I don't think they're that bad. And really, once you get lost in the wash of sound they make, you shouldn't really care.

It's just so wonderful to hear a band grow in this day and age. Radiohead is the last big band I can think of that was allowed to grow. And this isn't 'OK Computer', but it's another step forward for a band that's already taken a few giant strides for rock and roll. Although 'X&Y' isn't wall to wall genius, Coldplay's finding more moments of genius with every album they release. It's so encouraging and affirming as an artist to see and hear that. Almost everyone else has played it safe and churned out record after record of the latest trend to ripple through music. What will get radio play? How many women in bikini's can we get in the video (not that there's anything wrong with that)? Is there an 80's band that hasn't been ripped off that we can morph ourselves into? Fuck that. This is an album of 4 or 5 minute songs. They're not writing to fit nicely into radio programming or into an average video attention span. They're writing for all the right reasons. To be a voice for the meek. To ask questions about all the garish mistakes in the world. And best of all, just for the sake of making music.

There's nothing as upsetting as placing expectations upon another person or thing. But - in the true nature of the human dichotomy (X&Y!) - there's also nothing more exhilarating as when they smash through the expectations and surpass all you hoped they become.