Suddenly Coldplay don't seem so bad.
Some things, like skinny fit jeans on a rotund teenager, are just too cool for their own good. They are there not because they are worth anything in terms of but image and "buzz" and, in the intervening years of the immediate and becoming classic, they fizzle out and become the worst thing of all, something of their time. The 586, lauded by such hyperboles claims as the saviours modern music, fit into this category much better that the fat youth in denim garments.
There are things that are good about "Rags & Tags" - the juxtaposing boy/girl singing sounds pleasant and the lyrics are half decent. Having said that, the only way to know what the lyrics are is to look them up on the internet because the vocal performances are muffled in what is possibly one of the worst mixed records that I've ever heard. The guitars, bass and drums all meld into one devilish soup of noise, add the singing background effects into that and it sounds nothing short of annoying. There is no respite with B-Side, "Out of Control" as this is not only dogged with the same problem as the title track but seems to have the same hooks.
Those that only buy vinyls and think of themselves as too hip to attend gigs that attract more than twenty-five people then this will undoubtedly sound an like some kind of incredible epiphany. For anyone else it sounds like what it is, affected noise.