Dear Freedom, We Take It All Back

From F. Du Lac's review of Coldplay - although I'm sure a lot people in new cars are gnashing their teeth. Come to think of it, my little bro played me Coldplay in his new car recently. It was all I could do to remain polite.

Whatever. Upon further review, a better data point is the Dave Matthews band, minus the fiddle solos.

As a vocalist, Martin -- who showed enough promise early on that he was considered the probable heir to the late Jeff Buckley's king-of-crestfallen-singers-with-soaring-voices throne -- has come to sound like an over-emotive version of the Birkenstock rocker Matthews. The singers have the same high register, and both have come to serve basically the same audience -- one that does not include indie hipsters who recoil at Martin's immodesty and hyper-pretension, as well as the strikingly familiar, middle-of-the-road quality of his band's music. Particularly on the new "X&Y." Coldplay and the Dave Matthews band generally appeal to medium-level dull people. They both create music to be played in new cars. Whereas true artists make music to be played in old cars.

And yeah, that thing he wrote a few days ago about about Sufjan Stevens being the offspring of a Flannery O'Connor and Nick Drake coupling was pretty good, too.