My Own Little World

I'm in the middle of what's probably my third listen of A Head Full of Dreams , and I cannot decide for the life of me whether I like this record or not. On one hand, this is the upbeat Coldplay that I know and (usually) love back once again with a vengeance to inspire the world to seize the day and make the most of their lives. On the other hand, this is overall the least Coldplay has ever sounded like themselves because of the increasing amount of electronic textures present. Granted, A Head Full of Dreams  pushes Chris Martin and Co. into new directions musically. When I head "Viva la Vida" back in 2008, I never would have thought that we would be hearing Coldplay going full-on disco pop ("Adventure of a Lifetime") or R&B ("Hymn for the Weekend," which also features Beyonce). These areas of experimentation are intriguing and typically work because they're so unexpected. From a band who over the years has been known to more or less st...

I'm back at trying out music streaming services after auditioning both Spotify and Google Play Music. I didn't care for Spotify at all , and Google Play Music, while better,  still had its own issues . I moved onto what seemed like the next best option: Jay-Z's service, Tidal. Tidal relaunched itself this past March with Jay-Z and a slew of other artists (including some personal favorites like Coldplay and Arcade Fire, as well as Beyonce, Nicki Minaj, Daft Punk, and others) touting themselves as co-owners. They all signed a declaration at the launch event that basically said Tidal would revolutionize music streaming as we know it. Here's the problem: it didn't. Tidal didn't catch on with the general public and is generally regarded as a business failure. They're on their third CEO since their relaunch and have failed to attract any kind of significant subscriber base. This really sucks, especially considering that I love the way Tidal works. I love t...