Coldplay
A Rush of Blood to the Head
Capitol
While the manner in which Brit-pop act Coldplay's 2000 debut album, Parachutes, led to the band's unexpected rise to super-stardom has been compared to that of Brit-pop pioneers, Oasis, there the similarity thankfully ends. There is no trace of Beatles wannabe-ness surrounding Coldplay's brand of whiney hypnotic Brit-pop. Instead the four members seem contented to follow in the wake of less headline-making UK acts such as Travis and Echo and the Bunnymen.
Not that Coldplay is solely a UK phenomenon. After being nominated for the Mercury Music Prize for its debut album, Coldplay inadvertently went on to conquer the US after ABC opted to use the track Yellow as the theme tune for all of its promo spots.
After two years, countless rumors of a break-up and extensive tours of Europe and the US, Coldplay makes a welcome return to music store shelves this month with its second, and even more emotionally powerful piece of plastic, A Rush of Blood to the Head.
Picking up from where Parachutes left off, the new album and its 11 mellow and mesmerizing melodies is a wee bit rockier than their debut. The multitude of rumors surrounding a split appears to have encouraged the band to rediscover itself.
Be it the smooth flowing number In My Place., the piano-driven swell of The Scientist. or the mind-blowing number God Put a Smile upon Your Face, Coldplay might bare the scars of the post-punk indie scene but has somehow managed to distance itself from it in a most refreshing, melodic and moving manner.
With A Rush of Blood to the Head already entrenched in the UK album charts it won't be long before Coldplay are repeating this chart-topping success in the US.
Electric Soft Parade
Holes in the Wall
DB
There may only be two of them, but the Electric Soft Parade -- comprising of two late-teenage English brothers, Tom and Alex White -- has the clout and posses the songwriting abilities of an entire orchestra.
Although hailed as one of the greatest debut albums of all time by the ever-fickle music press, the Electric Soft Parade's Holes in the Wall is, while containing an earful of well-penned tunes, not on par with groundbreaking debuts such as The Clash's eponymous release or Oasis' Definitely Maybe.
Hailing from the UK's infamous southern beach resort city of Brighton, the two-piece band's music has been described as neo-psychedelic. Which, in layman's terms, makes the 12 tunes on the Electric Soft Parade's debut Weezer-ish with a bit of Grandaddy and a pinch of the Beach Boys thrown in and then blended with a few rock riffs ala Ash to appease the masses.
All this makes Holes in the Wall an album with two faces. Tunes such as Something's Got to Give as well as the title track ooze downbeat mellowness, while numbers like the scorching Silent in the Dark and Why Do Try so Hard to Hate Me see the band shifting up a couple of gears and hitting listeners with catchy rock-orientated choruses.
The Electric Soft Parade has produced a fine debut. While it may not be a masterpiece, it certainly creates anticipation for their next release.
Catatonia
Greatest Hits
Blanco Y Negro
When the Welsh five-piece gang of upstarts who once so eloquently threatened to come to Londinium and "storm the palace" split up late last year, the tiny nation lost one of its most underrated assets.
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