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Singled out
Coldplay – ‘Violet Hill’
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The new Coldplay single enjoys its release as a paid download this week, but who on earth is going to buy it? Already 600,000 people have nabbed it for free from the band’s website and it’s not as if they’ll get any pretty artwork – they can get that with the free 7” mounted on this week’s NME (out 7 May). So it’s clear that Chris Martin and the lads are rather keen for you to hear ‘Violet Hill’, and why not? It dispenses with the wishy-washy blandness of X&Y and its attendant singles for a crisper, more strident sound, thumped along by chunky piano and dirty guitar. Martin’s lyric is a little submerged but experience tells us that’s a good thing.
Death Cab For Cutie – ‘I Will Possess Your Heart’
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Nearly 10 years down the line, Washington state’s Death Cab For Cutie are still hunting down that big break, and perhaps new album Narrow Stairs will deliver. ‘I Will Possess Your Heart’ is the lead single and is rather infectious in its subdued, insistent way. A clattering rhythm track is offset by bluesy meandering guitar and Ben Gibbard’s soft yet clear vocal. There are no histrionics, but the tone is forceful and slightly threatening – the absolute conviction that if you “spend some time” with the lad, he will “possess your heart”. Lord knows what he plans to do with it, but it all sounds quite groovy - and at half the length of the mighty eight-minute album version, it's neat and tidy too.
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