Review: Coldplay: Mylo Xyloto

Now that I’ve given a ‘couple more’ listens to Coldplay’s song ‘Paradise’ (about which I wrote a just-as-much sentimental and romantic piece over here), all the blinded passion that it caused when heard for the first time (correction: the first fifty times), have not at all gone away. They rather transformed into some general appreciation, and some moderate looking-forward when it came to the subject of this review, the album, ‘Mylo Xyloto’.

I did not even listen to the songs when they were offered for streaming one-by-one, day-to-day before the album’s release on iTunes. On the other hand, pre-ordering was an almost compulsory thing since ‘Paradise’ was not just a well-written and flawlessly produced song, but also a pledge and promise: Coldplay are going to twist on their style and put out an album which redefines them just as much as reaffirms their signature songwriting and instrumentation known, recognized and acclaimed throughout  their career.

In that sense, the album delivers. Without doubt. We get both sides: incredibly crisp and polished, yet creative and uplifting, sometimes almost ethereal production – soundscapes, arrangements, sounds, mixing, the whole package – paired with the oh-so-well-known and oh-so-loved signature instrumental solutions from the band, and the sometimes overly romantic, yet very straightforward and lovable lyrical content Gwyneth Paltrow’s husband and his lot are renowned for.

Take the song ‘Charlie Brown’, for instance. I sincerely think this song is the quintessence of everything Coldplay have ever recorded and published. I could easily enumerate which segment or layer of ‘Charlie Brown’ conjures up which era, album, sound and piece of character of the band (beginning with the 4/4 rush of the drums, the dynamic and dense bass reminiscent of ‘X&Y’, the guitar melodies which could have been left on a hard drive or tape from the sessions of ‘A Rush Of Blood To The Head’) but that would be lengthy and pointless since it would give the general public the biased and untrue notion of ‘Mylo Xyloto’ being a repetitive and dull album and ‘Charlie Brown’ being the only good song on it. Or the only song whatsoever.

But that’s not the case. The album’s second side puts the stakes even higher. Rihanna’s featuring on the song ‘Princess of China’ could be perceived as some sort of a clever marketing decision, instead it becomes the album’s most dangerously experimental song but the most surprising as well: Rihanna’s not here only because of her exotic voice – on the contrary, the Barbadian singstress stays on par with Chris Martin’s lead and steps out alone into the spotlight only in the coda at the end. Then comes ‘Up In Flames’, one of the album’s four ballads with minimalistic – mainly acoustic – instrumentation. Then, after ‘A Hopeful Transmission’ comes the album’s climax ‘Don’t Let It Brake Your Heart’ after which we go ‘Up With The Birds’, an uplifting epilogue to the story of two lovers, Mylo and Xyloto.

‘Mylo Xyloto’ is an elegant, yet daring concept album with slow ballads, driving bursts of emotion, mixing rocking guitars and bass with drums in many places inspired by hip-hop, and much, much electronica put in place with extreme sense of proportionality, care and artistic bravery.
Besides that, it’s an emotional story, lovely and vivid story which gets you out of the war-torn (war porn-torn), alienated, overly digital and mechanic, everyday life.

And it’s also the first MONTHLY MUST.

Feature Review: Coldplay: ‘Paradise’

(image taken from stereogum.com)

I know song reviews are not that frequent amongst music critics (let alone being feature articles) but when something so beautiful, stunning, mind-blowing and unexpected happens, you just have to let it out. But to understand this you, kind Reader, should understand two things: how I grew to love Coldplay, and how I lost faith in them.

The first Coldplay song I heard as far as I remember was ‘The Scientist’ – actually I saw its video on MTV (formerly known and loved as Music Television) – and I was blown away instantly. The heart-squeezing lyrics and Chris Martin’s voice and hypnotic piano riff was definitely something to listen to with great joy… and when sour times came, cry to with hope. And Coldplay’s then-latest sophomore effort ‘A Rush of Blood To The Head’ made no difference. Emotional and empathic songwriting, elegant and modest, yet airy and inspiring arrangements and solid instrumental technique, guitarist-singer-pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jon Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion made a huge mark on the popular (let it be ‘pop’, rock or alternative) music of the noughties.

I tried to get to know where they had come from so I downloaded ‘Parachutes’ and absolutely loved it: it didn’t really have the sometimes-grandiose feeling ‘A Rush of Blood To The Head’ at some points aspired to achieve, instead had this cosy, friendly and direct atmosphere to it, and delivered exactly accordingly: 4 English guys come together, write songs that are part playful and relaxed, part soulful and emotional, and play for us.

It was also at that time that news about the third album ‘X&Y’ started to surface so I was looking forward to it with the eagerness of a 6-year-old lurking around a candy shop. ‘Speed Of Sound’ was something much different with synths and the epic sonic architecture Coldplay has grown to use since then. The album however was a disappointment for me. There were songs like ‘Square One’, ‘Fix You’ or ‘Speed Of Sound’ that showed serious development but the album as a whole was full of more mellow songs (I don’t want to use the word ‘filler’ but imagine I did..) which tuned it down.

Thus, ‘Viva La Vida’ was not something I wanted to know everything about, I did not even wait for it. I didn’t like the lead single either, in fact, I kept my fingers crossed for Joe Satriani to win. That album was the low-point for Coldplay. Overly artistic songs, inconsistent solutions concerning instrumentation and production, it was Coldplay’s trip to a time and place where they are geniuses. Instead of that trip, they could’ve worked to be actual geniuses. ‘Prospekt’s March’ was something of a face-saver for the band with songs like the promising ‘Life in Technicolor II’ (though at first listen, I bet most of us thought that tablas are truly and utterly uncalled for in pop-rock music), the nice etude of ‘Postcards From Far Away’ and the exciting new rendition of ‘Lost’ with Jay-Z. Again, no definite memorable moments.

News started to come in about the new Coldplay album, the peak of those being the release of the song ‘Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall’ which is a joyful and really liberating song with U2-ish guitars, Chris Martin’s acoustic strumming and Brian Eno’s ‘enoxification’ (something which he is credited for on the album) and with a songwriting solution that made me fear that the scenario (both in terms of happenings and album quality) will be the same as in the case of ‘Viva La Vida’. The album title came in: ‘MYLO XYLOTO’. Sounds exotic. And just today, as I was browsing through the newly opened Hungarian iTunes Store, I came across ‘Paradise’ and downloaded it on impulse, sort of as a last chance.

Then came THIS:

And then I went ‘Oh My God’ in the most Janice-like way there could be because this song is the definition of mind-blowing. Who would’ve thought that Coldplay would come up with a song containing hip-hop-like drum beats and synth (or at least a synth-processed) bassline that is thicker and more solid than a set of bricks laid into concrete, Chris Martin’s narrative singing and a chorus that kicks us in the face just to make us fly to heaven. If this song, by any means, is a benchmark of what’s yet to come on ‘Mylo Xyloto’ then we are very fortunate.

And Chris Martin was right: they had to make their best album. I definitely think they have.

Here’s a live version of the song performed on ‘…Letterman’ just to enhance your listening pleasure: