coldplay
10/16/2007
Linkin Park Mopes In "Shadow of the Day"
Linkin Park, oh, I suppose I've missed you. But what I've missed is your earnest boy-band-with-a-backing-bass sound, the uber-dramatic bridges and crescendos of synthesizers. What I didn't miss was your attempts to be Coldplay. I have seen Coldplay, Linkin Park, and you are no Coldplay.
What I see here is lead singer Chester Bennington (seriously -- CHESTER), singing about the world. The world is apparently bad. You can tell, because he turns on the TV and watches the news. Which is full of violence. So he laces up his manly manly construction boots and leaves the house to walk around the riot raging right outside his door.
And he walks around and sings for a while, while cops point their guns and rioters run amok... Really, it's a pretty boring riot as far as riots go. Eventually, a car gets set on fire, and Chester sings some more about how the world is sad and bad and all that... And then the video ends.
Some might interpret this video as having a very nihilistic message, but it's a video about hope, really. Hope that if you stand near a burning car to sing about how the world sucks, the car's fuel line won't ignite and set you on fire. We all gotta hope for something, I suppose.
06/25/2007
Mark Ronson (featuring Lily Allen) - "Oh My God"
“Oh My God” is the first single from Mark Ronson’s new album Version. For those of you [Americans] who don’t know who he is and are confused as to why this isn’t billed as a Lily Allen song since she does all the singing, Ronson is a London DJ who, over the past few years, has gained some notoriety for his covers of rock and pop songs. This new album is no different: in addition to “Oh My God,” which was originally sung by the Kaiser Chiefs, tracks include covers of Coldplay, Ryan Adams, Britney Spears, The Zutons and Kasabian, among others.
Anyway, the video is a Roger Rabbit-esque club scene featuring an animated Lily Allen seducing the various male patrons with her singing. In a classy move, she also blows a kiss to the Kaiser Chiefs, who appear in the video (“Thanks for letting me borrow your song, boys!”) as some of the aforementioned lovestruck patrons.
As cool as it all is, I can’t help but be a little disappointed that Lily Allen doesn’t make a flesh-and-blood appearance; she’s a sexy little firecracker. I would be afraid to ever date her though… half of her songs are about the sexual dysfunctions of the various boys she’s been with. Not that I have any. I swear. Oops.
