Coldplay - X&Y: I finally got around to listening to Coldplay's new album, X&Y, on the way to Austin on Friday - but only after I tired of listening to Jamiroquai's Dynamite about 5 times continuously. Never before have I been so disappointed by a major-label, superstar-level band releasing a third major-label album. I should have been alert that Friday afternoon - it was a short drive to Round Rock and all the caffeine and Jamiroquai had me in a fantastic mood. Then, after passing Waco, I put on X&Y.What a mistake. After the truly emotive Parachutes album and the truly Coldplay-sounding Rush of Blood to the Head, I expected something between the two. What I got, as Maddox so eloquently puts it, is the soundtrack to a coma. I'd like to nominate this album's 12 tracks for the '12 worst songs of 2005' award - and I wouldn't be surprised if the Che-worshipping everything-hater gave this album the honor himself. This entire album sounds, from start to finish, uniformly uninspired, unartistic, unambitious, and entirely like a clever U2 knock-off. And yes, listening to this album on the road was a mistake - my state of alertness faded to drowsiness after a mere third of this album to the point where the textured lane and shoulder markers were jolting me back to consciousness. This should not happen to a young driver in good physical health. First I hated Coldplay for the annoyance that was Yellow. Then I liked them for their non-annoying, unique Rush of Blood. Then I fell in love with them for discovering the rest of Parachutes and finding a powerful song underneath a very restrained, relaxed sound. Now, I'm fed up with them for cranking out a bunch of loud nothingness 12 times over and calling it one of the most important albums of the year. Guess what, Coldplay: we did loud nothingness 15 years ago; it was called grunge. And U2 did your 'new sound' 20 years ago. Now get back in the studio and *stay there* for a good 3 or 4 years before you try anything again.Telepopmusik - Angel Milk: The second candidate for 'album of the year' in as many weeks. I'm overjoyed and almost overwhelmed by the musical goodness I've encountered in the last two weeks, thanks to this album from the electronically-inclined French trio. Most people who know Telepopmusik know it from the Mitsubishi commercial that ran 3 years ago that used the song "Breathe." The rest of the album was, well, a bit different. Ambient in places, jazzy in others, hip-hoppish still in others; 'Genetic World' was an album that had something for everyone who ever fancied anything so long as it came with a twist of eccentricity. This album takes Genetic World and makes it, oh, 10 times better. It's missing a major club hit like Breathe, but what you get in exchange is a retooling of the trademark 'tpm' sound that's more electronic, more jazzy, without the hip-hop, and much more pleasing to the ear. Do you miss the awesomeness that was Breathe? Listen to 'Into Everything,' the new album's lead-off single. It's cut from the same cookie cutter that Breathe was, but it's still not going to be heard in any of the big clubs you visit. But for a mellowing sound that still strangely gets your heart pumping, it'll calm your senses but tense your adrenal glands. But for the real treat, skip back a track to the third one, 'Anyway.' It still uses all the same electronics that tpm has always used, but its chord progression is much more like a chilled jazz tune. From there you'll find lots of Billie Holliday-esque vocals, plenty of awkward chords and a sound that always leaves you more relaxed than when you started listening. More essential tracks: Don't Look Back, Stop Running Away. But really, you'd be selling yourself short by not getting the whole album. It'd be like doing a half-session of therapy and quitting before you're truly better. And you will be a better person for listening to Angel Milk. Somehow your blood pressure drops, problems melt with each passing chord, and the club-styled electronics make you feel alive and alert. Who needs psychotherapy - or psychotropics - when there's Angel Milk?