With the release of Coldplay's most recent album, A Head Full of Dreams, Chris Martin and his merry band of light-alt rockers have suggested that they may be done making music. And for a lot of people, that's a bummer. But for possibly even more, it's somewhat of a relief. "Finally, we can stop hating/pretending to hate Coldplay," they say. A good majority of the population doesn't know if they actually detest this band or if they just think they do, or if they once did but haven't listened to much of anything post-2004 to be able to say for sure. Perhaps no band has earned the contempt of modern music fans like Coldplay. (No, not even Nickelback.) "Coldplay sucks" was a rallying cry that many clung to, despite the band's best intentions of making respectable music and their numerous, admirable attempts to change the narrative. And, sure, there has been a lot to dislike about Coldplay. They were disproportionately angsty, their singles were formulaic, and their core sound always felt like it was less about passion and honesty than it was about getting played in waiting rooms and coffee shops for all of eternity. But too many of us may have been put off by what was on the surface to ever dig deep enough to find that, by gum, there was some genuine talent and craftsmanship underneath that lame exterior. So now, let's all come together and admit to ourselves that Coldplay, at the very least, isn't as bad as we all made them out to be for so many years. They're not the worst thing to happen to music. They're not even the fourth worse thing to happen to music. (That would be "My Humps.") Let's celebrate them for just a little while. Before they're gone entirely and we start to feel that tiny twinge of regret for being too harsh on a band that's supplied us with some pretty solid music over the last 15 years.
