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
