My Acolyte Journey: 2014.29

A Sky Full of Stars.
Coldplay. So this is a simple song. I'm not saying that simplicity denies depth by any means (M.C. Escher's Sky and Water). I'm saying that it's much harder to deliver immense depth through a single image, even though perhaps the surrounding story is incredible (Craig Thompson's Blankets). I'm saying that when the lyrics don't tell the whole story, there needs to be depth in the music.

I guess what I'm saying is that I have nothing to say about these lyrics. They could represent a very healthy or very unhealthy relationship (I'm leaning towards not healthy re: I wouldn't care if you tore me apart). They could define a sexual or other relationship. These lyrics could describe a first-time lover or a hardened veteran. They just don't give me any solid information. So I'll stop blabbering.

And the music video is really disappointing to me, which is awful trash of me to say. Let me explain. I've seen a few Coldplay videos in my time, and they seem to get less impressive with time. The first I saw was an enormous backwards ramble that probably took months of planning and hours of shooting to get to halfway decent. The second was a colorstravaganza even though the band itself was just . . . sitting. And this . . . this is like a stunt an indie band would pull to go viral. This is like the work of OKGo, and having seen the music video masters do anything similar puts this one in the "pale imitation" category. So comparing it to other music videos, even their own, is meh.
The delivery is solid, but it's lacking a lot of what I really like about these sorts of videos. There's no zing--no life. It's a corporate production (which can be amazing, I'll give you that [see Katy Perry]), and it feels cold. It's not a single take. It's not a labor of love. It's not even technically difficult. It was created by a team of wizards who figured out how to make iPads play on backpacks of instruments and a visual team that either had a shoestring budget or a desire to look like it. It features a band so corporatized that their defining trait is popularity.
But honestly? The thing I liked least about the video was how it made me feel about myself. I saw some grown man hopping down the street, smiling his head off following one of the blandest bands in the world. Do you know what I thought? "That guy looks like a fool." Yeah. That guy, not the fool at the keyboard who literally is so jaded that the sight of someone enjoying something turns him off. Oh, the humanity. Who have I become? I look at something that was actually awesome to see--the world's sexiest vegetarian grinning his head off and a work of art being created--and I think "well, that guy's stupid for enjoying himself." Wrong. Double wrong. But . . . wait. I'm not getting the same experience he is. As good as this song is, I want to be hearing what he's hearing right now. This is crap! And so I look, and I find out that the backpacks were fake. The audio was worse at the live event. Everything is corporate and I was right to hate that guy's stupid smile.
What, support those corporate shills? I wouldn't buy this.