I got Coldplay’s new CD the other day. X&Y from Coldplay may well have a stupid title but the ‘album’ itself, complete with a A side and B side listing, is really very good if you ask me.

Sure, it’s commercial and steers a safe musical journey down the middle of the road, but nonetheless it’s very very playable with some tracks that will still sound good in 20 years I bet.

Some people will of course say that this new CD follows a tried and tested commercial formula that the record company love because it’s a money spinner winner. But this is only the bands third album, so what exactly do the detractors expect? Listen to U2’s first three albums and they pretty much sound the same, or at least they did/do to me.

If I were a poncy-up-my-own-ass music critic writing for some poncy-up-their-own-ass music magazine I’d give this CD 4.5 stars, leaving that last half star out just to be cool. Coldplay could be happy with that, but in the end what do they care what the critics think. They’ve sold something like a million copies of the CD in just a week here in the UK so I imagine Chris Martin and the rest of the band will be happy enough with that.

Coldplay’s official website