Speed of Sound turns 21. It still sucks.

November coverCoffee Shop Confessional Explore the covers

A different cover. Same bad attitude.

The notebook changes its cover every month. Each one takes its cues from a different corner of music, paper and internet culture. Explore the collection below.

January

Chrome Daydream

Chrome stars, jelly hearts and holographic colour. A nod to the glossy, optimistic graphics of the early web.

February

Mixtape Romance

Cassette ribbons, red-pen hearts and pink paper. For anyone who ever put too much thought into a mixtape.

March

Botanical Noise

Vines wind around the speakers and flowers take over the margins. Spring gets the volume knob.

April

Arcade Fever

Pixel ghosts, cherries and electric blue meet the notebook doodles. A little arcade cabinet in the margins.

May

Original, Turned Up

The pink splashes, coffee ring and black doodles that started it, with the volume turned up. The notebook's home colours.

June

Sticker Riot

Peel-and-stick chaos: skulls, butterflies, hearts and neon lightning. Think of the back of your favourite battered laptop.

July

Cut-and-Paste Club

Torn tickets, halftone fragments and bright scraps. A cover that borrows the rough edges of a wall full of gig flyers.

August

Xerox Afterparty

Black ink, torn paper and acid-yellow sparks. A love letter to photocopied zines and the flyers you kept after the show.

September

Beautiful Overload

Stars, speakers, tape and every loud colour at once. Back-to-school stationery with absolutely no restraint.

October

Haunted Notebook

Moths, little ghosts and crimson ink creep through the black flourishes. The notebook has a late-night alter ego.

November

Coffee Shop Confessional

Coffee rings, headphones and warm paper. A cover for the long walk home and the track you play again when you get there.

December

Cosmic Margin

Moons, moths and constellations spill across midnight-blue ink. The margins drift into space; the music keeps going.

Last drop just now · Mauro Picotto - The Twilight Zone (V2)

9620 days since Coldplay released anything not bad

low-cal opinions, full-fat tracks

May 23, 2026 at 6:28 AM 1 min read

Speed of Sound turns 21. It still sucks.
21 years ago today, Coldplay released “Speed of Sound.” It still sucks.

It’s Clocks. Same piano arpeggio, same key, same Chris Martin emoting at you with his whole face like he’s about to say something important and then doesn’t. They had one formula, got scared to leave it, and repackaged it. The marketing team worked harder than the songwriters on this one.

Here’s what you should have been listening to in 2005:
- Chemical Brothers – Galvanize — Q-Tip rapping over a drum machine in a song that actually has forward motion
- Pendulum – Tarantula — DnB that makes your chest hurt in the right way
- LCD Soundsystem – Daft Punk Is Playing at My House — James Murphy understood the assignment on the first try
- Röyksopp – What Else Is There? — the kind of emotional sweep Coldplay was reaching for, actually achieved
- Gorillaz – Feel Good Inc. — De La Soul, a windmill, an actual vision
1 min. About as long as it takes Chris Martin to find a falsetto.

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📼 From the vault

This Week on coldplaysucks: Nov 1 - 8

Nov 2026 — Sixty-three music posts in one week. House ran the table with thirteen, drum and bass brought the heavyweights, Mauro Picotto apparently woke up and chose violence...
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