Monday, July 2, 2012

'Music' Review: Coldplay



Band: Coldplay

Album: Mylo Xyloto

Over the years, it’s become hip for self-professed ‘serious’ music lovers to hate Coldplay; even vocalist Chris Martin has mocked himself and the band multiple times. Why, we hear you ask? Is it because Martin is a whiny and annoying man-child who will never reach the emotional depths of Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke? Maybe, but Mr. Martin does his best to dispel all notions of Coldplay being an insincere and inferior version of Radiohead in Mylo Xyloto, and the comparisons should finally stop now.

The reason for all the hate directed towards Coldplay is most likely the simplest answer (Occam’s razor and all that), which is that they genuinely do suck. The album has its fair share of promising moments, but since the band has pimped it out as a ‘concept album’, we are forced to judge the sum, and not the individual parts that constitute Mylo Xyloto.

The Good, the Bad…

In an attempt at building up a semblance of street-cred, Coldplay has once again managed to rope in Brian Eno (pretty much the father of Muzak/ambient music) for a collaboration, and the album is littered with beautiful instrumental passages of serene landscapes. These strings and synthesizer-laden tranquil moods fade in and fade out, pockmarked as they are by Martin’s jarring interventions and his insistence on cheesy lines of painful faux-depth. “Paradise” kicks off with an imperial strings section and a groove that trudges along just fine, before Martin interrupts, crooning: When she just was a girl/ she expected the world…Dreamed of para-para-paradise (the album is filled with such profound ge-ge-gems of wisdom). We threw up a little in our mouths, but the infuriatingly catchy melody of the vocals kept us hooked, before the pretty strings returned for partial respite.

There is some stellar (but nothing more) guitar playing on Mylyo Xyloto, fitting in snugly with the overall just-a-tad-bit-experimental pop-rock sound that the bands goes for, with a charming guitar solo adding just the right amount of sparkle to a nice and lush backdrop towards the end of “Major Minus”. “U.F.O.” is probably the finest song off the album – a sweet little acoustic guitar-driven ballad where even Martin’s ‘vocals’ sound enjoyable over the up-marketly opulent strings. In fact, the album seemingly picks up in the second half, but don’t worry, it’s merely a false dawn. Also, a word about the so-called ‘concept’ behind Mylo Xyloto; it’s the story of Mylo and Xyloto falling in love in a dystopian world. “Princess of China” springs forth a pleasant surprise as Rihanna pops up in the otherwise predictable duet with some grating 80s synth sounds thrown in for good measure.

The songwriting tends to get predictable and banal once Coldplay-fatigue sets in, and the penultimate song “Don’t Let It Break Your Heart” showcases the band at its tedious and most contrived best. However, the gentle and bright early-morning soundscapes that are built up on “Up with the Birds” come as an amiable flourish to a distinctly average album. However, the band’s attempts at critical acclaim do provide another nice surprise in the last song, as they sample “Takk”, by the Icelandic post-rock wunderkinder Sigur Ros (it’s hip to love Sigur Ros, even if one has never heard them, which pretty much makes them the anti-Coldplay).


and the Ugly
Chris Martin.

Rating: Ugh

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