Coldplay

You know what?

Fuck it all.

"Yellow" by Coldplay is still a totally bitchin' song.

I mean, let's think about this damn thing for a minute. There's that bitchin' guitar part with all the bends and all that. That kicks ass. That's one of the great intros of the 21st century.

The verses... eh. They're something. "Look at the stars/Look how they shine for you/Everything you do/They were all yellow" All right, man. Ok. Sure. If nothing else, they're pleasant.

But dude. That "chorus" part?

"Your skiiiiiiiiiin oh yeah your skin and boooones..." and etc.

God. That's so gorgeous. Only the dreamiest of pop songs could ever hope to have such a beautiful chorus as that. And those "oooooh aaaaaaaaah" backup vocals? Icing on the most delicious cake ever.

When that song took the world by storm in 2001, it would have been odd to think that "Yellow" would actually be one of the least successful Coldplay singles (especially considering its success after "Shiver" and "Brothers and Sisters" and all that stuff that is now considered "early"). Hell, I sure never thought they'd go on to be The Next U2 when I first got into them. If I knew then what I know, would I even have paid attention? I don't know.

I do know that I miss the days when they could be seen at the TLA in Philly or the 9:30 Club in D.C. I miss when Chris Martin didn't date movie stars. I miss the quaint charm of Parachutes, especially in comparison with the world-conquering blustery hoopla of X & Y. It hardly even seems like the same band. I miss when I could log on to Coldplay's official message board without it being completely overrun by a million bombastic idiots (oddly enough, there are at least two regular readers of this page that I know will agree with that).

Anyway, I am feeling quite nostalgic for when I could like Coldplay without feeling apologetic about it. Is that normal, or is that just because I'm a total music snob? They are almost a completely different band now, right?

One final note: "Everything's Not Lost" is a fantastic song, and all three times I saw Coldplay play live (once each in 2001, 2002, and 2003), they played it, and each time, I was absolutely ecstatic. If nothing else, I'll have those memories.