Photo by:
For the past three albums, Coldplay has been, at least on paper, a band of extremes. Love. War. French revolutions. X & Y. Vida or Death. But even as Coldplay’s themes and lyrical constructs have driven themselves skyward, Chris Martin’s songwriting has remained pretty constant, not to mention simple – vocal-heavy, pop-rock tunes with lots of choruses. On the 2008 song “Viva La Vida,” Martin may have been playing the role of a deposed ruler; however, he was still a ruler squarely centered within the confines of a pop song. And that’s okay.
Mylo Xyloto, the group’s latest LP, can be seen as a pivotal record in Coldplay’s canon. For the first time, listeners can hear not just one development within the group’s sound, but traces of two: development in terms of production and development in terms of songwriting. Essentially, these can be thought of as attempts to expand not only what Coldplay can sound like, but what Coldplay can actually do.
The results of this two-pronged development are similarly twofold. While the album’s production developments tend to work in Coldplay’s favor, the attempted expansion in songwriting practices reveals Martin’s weaknesses as a songwriter, making Mylo Xyloto Coldplay’s most interesting, but also most inconsistent, album yet.
On Mylo Xyloto, the influence of producer and electronic pioneer Brian Eno manifests itself more than ever before. Whereas on Viva la Vida, Eno generally helped craft sonic backdrops, electronics now often take the driver’s seat, and in the vein of electronic dance music, the band’s instrumentals are bigger and more pounding than ever before.
This shift has been a long time coming, and the band sounds remarkably comfortable when flexing their electronic muscles. The steady build of “Waterfall” makes for a blissful few minutes, and the almost dubstep-like drops and hooks of second single “Paradise” are as catchy as they are massive.
The best of the bunch is pseudo-opener (there is a short introductory track) “Hurts Like Heaven,” which features a CPU-frying amount of electronic tinkering and as much vocal manipulation as any pop song you’re likely to hear. The layers upon layers of studio twists and turns never quite overshadow the song itself, and as a result, “Hurts Like Heaven” is not only one of the strongest Coldplay songs to date, but it’s the type of song the group simply could not have come up with a few albums ago.
Perhaps the most interesting bit of Mylo Xyloto is the surprising collaboration with pop princess Rihanna, who duets with Martin on the aptly-named “Princess of China.” The hook is strong, the electronic beats are massive and the swirling guitar is explosive and biting – this will undoubtedly get strong rotation in the coming months, as a single release is inevitable.
Hence, on Mylo Xyloto, when the songwriting is focused, the utilization of a more electronic palate is successful. It’s when Martin tries to do too much with his songs that the combination of expansive production and more creative structuring becomes muddled.
This is most apparent on tracks such as “Charlie Brown” and “Don’t Let It Break Your Heart.” Both start promisingly, with beautiful, driving instrumental sections and impassioned vocals from Martin. However, as the songs unfold, they also unfurl. Martin tries a few too many songwriting twists and as a result, neither songs’ chorus gives nearly enough payoff as its opening section suggests. These are two songs that could have (and should have) conquered the world; instead, they just conquer your eardrums.
As well, the record’s slower moments are also its weakest, not so much changing the pace as choking it. The lyrics of acoustic-guitar focused “Us Against the World” seem like a compilation of as many clichés as Martin could muster; by the time he talks about “Daniel in a lion’s den,” you’ll undoubtedly have had enough of his rambling soapboxing. “Up In Flames” similarly suffers, with a chorus that’s repetitive to the point of being flat-out irritating. Thankfully, it’s over pretty quickly.
Closer “Up With the Birds” is also somewhat of a failure, but at least it’s an interesting failure. Its slow, piano-based opening quickly leads to an explosion of electronic bits and pieces that sound like the sonic equivalent of a supernova. But the song’s second portion, which develops almost exactly like Viva la Vida’s closer, “Death and All His Friends,” feels rather tacked-on and is nowhere as near as strong as its first part. Where Viva la Vida ended on a career-defining high note, Mylo Xyloto simply deflates, and “Up With the Birds” ends up sounding like a cheap attempt at combining the past and present.
Mylo Xyloto has all the makings of a number-one record. It’s got razor-sharp production, huge turns and twists, a few single-worthy tracks and more still that will lend themselves well to a massive stadium tour. But unfortunately, several of its songs sound rather muddled and the slower moments prove to be a bit stale. Perhaps out of fear of alienating too many of its long-term fans, the band seems afraid to really dive into its new sound, and as Martin sings about topics as massive as war, his band sounds like it’s at war with itself. If Coldplay really wants to conquer the world again, it’s going to have conquer its own past first.
