A Music/Culture Review:

It hasn't been a good year for Big music (with the exception of M.I.A and the Eels new records). As a lifelong music fan and musician, I've never liked Coldplay. I gave them a listen and I don't hate 'em, but I'd never intentionally listen to 'em either. Good musicians, formulaic, predictable and grossly overproduced, it's fairly typical of what Dave Matthews brought to the world.

But they have good marketing techniques and that I don't curse them for that. It's good to be big, I suppose.

I was curious what the deal was (since people are talking and maybe I wasn't getting it - that happens) so I took a look at what the pros are saying and it pretty much sums up my attitude:

NY Times:

"But Coldplay follow-throughs are redundant; from the beginning, Coldplay has verged on self-parody. When he moans his verses, Mr. Martin can sound so sorry for himself that there's hardly room to sympathize for him, and when he's not mixing metaphors, he fearlessly slings clichés."

Pitchfork:

"Like Coldplay's two previous albums, only more so, X&Y is bland but never offensive, listenable but not memorable. It may be pointless to hate them, but with this album, they've almost certainly become the easiest band on the planet to be completely indifferent to."

Rolling Stone:

"It's the sound of a blown-up band trying not to deflate.... Compared to all the hubbub about Chris Martin the celebrity, his band's return to the American pop charts was a bit of a letdown."

Spin:

By ratcheting up their guitars and still singing about everyday themes, Coldplay are recasting their nerdy-student Britpop as Important Rock Music without sacrificing the homespun vibe that allowed Martin's fans to believe that he wrote a song for each one of them and called it "Yellow."