Let me preface this review by saying this: I am actually a Coldplay fan. Though I don’t particularly enjoy “Parachutes”, or about half of “X & Y”, the majority of “A Rush of Blood to the Head” is excellent, and “Viva La Vida” is a truly magnificent LP. What has always stood out to me about Coldplay, especially upon the release of their last album, is their ability to sonically experiment and craft genuine emotion in their songwriting. The release of “Mylo Xyloto” sees the group make somewhat of a radical change in direction towards a more commercially appealing sound, and almost completely abandon much of what made them so intriguing in the first place.
In terms of songwriting, Coldplay has always stood out to me as being able to craft hit pop tracks that were also sonically appealing. Take for example their megahit, “Clocks”. This song not only reached out to a mainstream audience, but contained enough emotion, intriguing chord progression, and complexity in production to soar to the closed ears of others. Viva La Vida marked a peak for the group creatively, offering 10 tracks of sonic experimentation and masterly crafted song structures. Rather than continuing to sprint down this path of sonically interesting possibilities, Coldplay here has opted for a sound that, most of the time, will only reach as far as your local pop hits station. Need convincing? Check out the third track and also lead single, “Paradise”. Rather than offering any deep synth textures, or anything else to hold the interest of a listener who isn’t driving their kids to soccer practice, the track provides our radios with an overused chord progression, constant repetition of a single word, and lyrics so dreadful you’d think that ARK Music Factory penned them. Tracks such as “Princess of China”, “Up In Flames”, continue this trend to an extreme degree, resulting in a mess of cliche and overall unimpressive songwriting.
“When she was just a girl/she expected the world…this could be Paradise,” or “All the boys, all the girls/all the madness in the world,” pretty well represent the majority of the lyrical content here. I’m usually indifferent when it comes to lyrics, but lyrics this bad have a habit of sticking out like a sore thumb. Case in point, the title track. According to Chris Martin, this LP is actually conceptual, and follows the story and character development of two lovers. That being said, the album is much too focused on providing cookie-cutter put-ups and cringe-worthy metaphors to put any emphasis on an actual story. True, some of the lyrics here aren’t all that bad. Tracks like “Up With the Birds”, or “Major Minus”, the latter of which is actually a fantastic song, offer up words that only compliment the music that has been recorded, and sound just fine. Still, over two thirds of the words on this record could’ve been written by an eleven year old, not to mention how vague everything is in actually getting any form of a narrative across.
At least production values aren’t a problem. Under the continued guidance of Brian Eno, Coldplay have created an electronically-focused atmosphere full of reverb and lushness. The record could easily be described as stadium-sized, especially in comparison to the group’s previous works. Tracks like “Charlie Brown” are meant to be played live, and every instrument is reverb-packed and turned up to the maximum. This could have been problematic if the mixing were sub-par, but as it every instrument is clear and audible. Only on the track “Up In Flames” does this production actually overshadow the song itself, when the instruments are incredibly minimal, therefore directly contrasting the way this LP is produced. Still, for the majority of this album, the production is absolutely fantastic.
All in all, the most I can say about this album is that it’s an incredibly mixed bag. A couple of the songs here are enjoyable, but the album as a whole amounts to a mess. There’s just no consistency here, and Coldplay fans are left with an LP that lacks solid progression, peddles a vague and uninspiring narrative coupled inelegantly with childish lyrics, all capped off with dull chord progressions. Viva La Previous Coldplay, I guess.
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