Marcus Berkmann

Standing still

Standing still

‘Art for art’s sake,’ sang 10cc in 1976, ‘Money for God’s sake.’ And promptly split in half shortly afterwards. It’s a conundrum every new young band has to grapple with sooner or later. You want creative freedom, of course you do. You want trillions of dollars, of course you do. You want to have your cake, you want to eat it, and you want to keep your lithe figure afterwards as well. And if you can also manage to marry a swan-necked Hollywood lovely and call your first baby Banana, well, so much the better.

For this and several other reasons Coldplay have become the template for ambitious young bands everywhere. Theirs is a career path to slaver over. Chris Martin’s keening vocal style (blatantly nicked from the late Jeff Buckley), one or two memorable tunes, lyrical angst by the bucketload, textures recovered from long-forgotten 1970s prog rock acts: it doesn’t seem much to go on but this combination has made them maybe the most popular mainstream rock act in the world today. The new album is due shortly and, to be honest, it doesn’t interest me greatly: stories that they have had trouble writing it, owing to an unfortunate shortage of new ideas, plus a distinctly underwhelming advance single, don’t really presage the work of staggering genius that everyone seems to be expecting.

The real problem, though, is that it’s three years since Coldplay released an album. In the same period David Bowie once recorded and released Diamond Dogs, Young Americans, Station To Station, Low and “Heroes”, and maybe a live album or two into the bargain. He never stopped moving, but while Coldplay have been standing still, a whole batch of new quasi-Coldplays has raced past them.

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