Oh, Manchester, So Much To Answer For

I know there are a lot of coldplay haters out there (especially in blogland, it seems), but their new (u.s.) single, "clocks," is majestic. the elegiac piano, and bass, remind me of mid-'80s u2 (yes, that's a good thing), and chris martin's vocals swoop and swirl like a ribbon of caramel in snickers ice cream. yeah, it's a low-key song - that's what they do. but they do it so well, oh yes. not to mention that since it just went top 10 on billboard's modern rock tracks chart, I'd imagine it really is quite the breath of fresh air, surrounded by all those salivas and chevelles and other similar, nondescript, soon-to-be-appearing-on-a-"modern rock of the early '00s" comp near you.