Oh dear. There are a lot of temptations when you’re one of the biggest bands in the world and you need neither money nor further success. Hence many bands turn to the dreaded conceit known as the ‘concept album’.
Sometimes they can pull it off – to wit, The Beatles with Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Most of the time they tend to go horribly wrong and you get what ends up being the proverbial smelly stuff you accidentally step on in the park stuck to your shoe.
Coldplay aren’t resting on their laurels as one of the most commercially successful and artistically bland groups on the planet, so they are teaming up with producer Brian Eno to make a concept album. Front man Chris Martin told the BBC “It’s from the point of view of two people who are a bit lost. Two like-minded outsiders who meet in a very difficult environment and therefore have a journey together.”
Hmmm, he’d better be careful – he doesn’t want to lose all those Dan Brown and Jodi Picoult bored housewife fans with something too highbrow or out there.
