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New Coldplay eh?

MrMagpie

By MrMagpie
in The World Of Music

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squareonefivesix

squareonefivesix

Posted
Posted
I wouldn't say it's odd, so much as it's "discombobulated."

 

Discombfuckinwhatulated?

 

:laugh3:

 

Hang on, gonna look that one up.... oh, ok disconcerting/confusing. idk, I don't think I'd go that far. Hurts Like Heaven is way more confusing, if you ask me - it can't really work out what genre it wants to be, that track, so it tries several out for size. Up With The Birds is actually fairly straightforward, just a little strange in places.

 

On the whole though, I think the whole album is rather discombowhateveritwasyousaid ;)

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admnistramation

admnistramation

Posted
Posted

I don't know what to make of DLIBYH. UWTB is great, it just took a couple listens to recognize it.

 

What really strikes me about this album is the prominence of the MX melody, it's everywhere. Anyone else see that? Mylo Xyloto, strings in UFO, A Hopeful Transmission, even in Don't Let It Break Your Heart...?

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admnistramation

admnistramation

Posted
Posted

Up With The Birds reminds me a little bit of Native Speaker in the beginning. The varying volume of vocals, the two sets of intelligible and unintelligible vocals, and just that dreamy sound.

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2js8IQkuhE]BRAIDS - Native Speaker - YouTube[/ame]

 

Then it escalates into a standard Coldplay song.

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NumbersGirl

NumbersGirl

Posted
Posted
Discombfuckinwhatulated?

 

:laugh3:

 

Hang on, gonna look that one up.... oh, ok disconcerting/confusing. idk, I don't think I'd go that far. Hurts Like Heaven is way more confusing, if you ask me - it can't really work out what genre it wants to be, that track, so it tries several out for size. Up With The Birds is actually fairly straightforward, just a little strange in places.

 

On the whole though, I think the whole album is rather discombowhateveritwasyousaid ;)

Believe it or not, it's actually a real word. :nod: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/discombobulated
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NumbersGirl

NumbersGirl

Posted
Posted

After a few listens I have gathered my thoughts, so here's my review:

 

 

 

I will preempt this review by saying that with the LP5 era starting with ETIAW, the bar was set pretty low for me. If I had never heard any of the songs and just listened to all of this at once for the first time, I imagine that some of my comments might be a little different... although I'll never know to what degree. I'll start with song-by-song commentary, followed by general observations.

 

 

MX - I like it, but I still don't get the point of having it as it's own stand-alone intro. LiT?... yes. MX?... no. It should just be the beginning of HLH, plain and simple. For those who get the reference, it would be like taking out the end of Codex / beginning of GUTG and having it as it's own track. No. Pointless.

 

Hurts Like Heaven - Not a huge fan, it doesn't do anything for me. And the voice distortion was completely unnecessary.

 

Paradise - I'm going to take the unpopular route and say that this song isn't horrible. The lyrics are incredibly cheesy, but I like the overall chord progression and the bass. Basically if you take a magic eraser to Chris (and hence the lyrics) and throw in a little piano or other appropriate instrument in place of all the vocals, it's actually pretty darn good in my unprofessional opinion. Take the time to listen to it again, imagine that scenario, and report back to me.

 

Charlie Brown - Nice enjoyable catchy tune. I wouldn't even call it a guilty pleasure, because I don't feel guilty enjoying it. I think this will be the "anthem" / arena song of the MX era. They probably intended for ETIAW to fit that "anthem" theme, but I think Charlie Brown will take that place instead (praise whoever).

 

Us Against The World - I really like the song, but I'm a little disappointed that Will's vocals aren't as prominent in the studio version as they were live. Will's vocals add that little "oomph" to the song, and now the oomph is gone. I want mah Will.

 

MMIX (a/k/a Matt McGinn Is Awesome) - I understand why this interlude stands on it's own. Still, I'm just not sure that it's necessary.

 

ETIAW - I will forever be scarred by this song, no matter what I do. My mind will wander to the morning when I forked over the money on iTunes, pressed play and thought "wtf did I just buy?!?" Although I will say that I like the last minute or so of the song... basically after Chris stops "singing" or whatever it was. More commentary regarding the placement of this on the album follows in my general observations below.

 

Major Minus - This song gets a lot of hate, but... I really like it. Sorry. Wait, no I'm no sorry... take that! I love the chord progression, and I like the slightly "dark" feel of it compared to the other songs. Not the greatest lyrics, but I can see past that. I like Jonny's bit too.

 

UFO - This is the requisite acoustic-y song of the album. I like it lots. Not much else to say.

 

Princess Of China - Not a huge fan. The synth stuff was unnecessary. I'm still not sure about the choice of Rihanna. Frankly when I listen to the singing, I can imagine Gwyn singing it (based on the Glee performance). Of course they would never do that though. I just envision Chris talking with his best bud Jay-Z, "Hey man we're thinking of having a female vocal on one of our songs but I'm not sure who we should get." J responds, "how about my protege Rihanna". Chris says, "omg of course, you are a music god so I must do that." Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not anti-R&B. But a different female vocal would have been better for this song... I wonder what Adele would have sounded like.

 

Up In Flames - There's a bit more depth to this than we saw in the live version. I know lots of people are annoyed by the repetitiveness of the lyrics, but I really don't mind it. A nice, relatively simple song to help the album with it's "cool down" phase.

 

A Hopeful Transmission - I'm kind of hearing the MX theme here, just a different version. That being said, once again it didn't even need to be it's own, it just could have been the beginning of DLIBYH.

 

Don't Let It Break Your Heart - Umm, this kind of sounds like HLH too? With a little bit of CB thrown in? I kind of feel like we're getting ripped off here. So we've basically got MX Part 2 and HLH Part 2. I think it's a little better than HLH, but still.

 

Up With The Birds - Overall, really nice closer.

 

 

And now for some general observations.

  • I'm happy that Jonny is making his presence felt more on this album. It's about time! Guy is more prominent than in the past, too.
     
  • Many of the lyrics are just plain cheesy. Not all of them, but a good portion. I thought songwriting skills are supposed to progress over a 10+ year period?
     
  • The flow of the songs seem to be hit or miss. However, I would agree that the general "concept"/story of the album (relationship between two individuals as Chris described) was accomplished well. With that said...
     
  • I still don't understand why Moving to Mars wasn't on the album, and why ETIAW was on the album (well, I do have a guess). The flow would have been much better if they had removed ETIAW completely, and put MTM right after Charlie Brown. Listen to the end of CB; that's the perfect transition for MTM, both in sound and "plot"! ETIAW should have been nothing more than a release for the festivals. But my guess is EMI got their grubby little hands in there and forced them to put it on the album (because of the money, honey), which screwed up the chances for MTM. Some people would say, "oh EMI doesn't have that much say on what goes on the album." I call bull. EMI reps occasionally visit the studio (pretty sure I was sitting next to a couple of them at a restaurant in Belsize Park last year after listening to their conversation), and when someone asked the Oracle recently why MTM wasn't on MX she said, "There were many discussions about whether MTM would make it on to Mylo Xyloto and in the end it was decided to release it as part of the ETIAW ep." Now... keep in mind she didn't say it was only the band in that discussion, so I can pretty much guarantee the discussions included EMI. No, it wouldn't be appropriate for EMI to choose the order of the songs (that's the artists' duty), but EMI can heavily weigh in if there's a single they think needs to be on the album. I hope the band leaves EMI.

 

That's my 2 cents.

 

 

 

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squareonefivesix

squareonefivesix

Posted
Posted

There's a review of MX in this week's NME, not a glowing review either. They give it 5/10.

 

The last line pretty much sums up how I feel about the album too...

There's nothing wrong as such with Mylo Xyloto. It just feels like, once again, Coldplay have done the selfless thing and gone out to protect EMI's share price, and at the end of it remain peering off the edge of a cliff, wishing they had the courage to jump

 

I agree with that really, it's kind of like the album has potential but ends up playing it a bit safe, most of the songs hint at going somewhere or doing something, but then just wind up sticking to the formula. It's a decent album but it's not a great album. There's none of the sparks of brilliance that Viva had. :(

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Corkus

Corkus

Posted
Posted

Fans in the Coldplay section are up in arms over the first negative reviews, having deluded themselves into thinking the only people who could possibly dislike the album are bitter "fake fans" on this forum and that everyone in the professional industry sees it as the same flawless gem they do.

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para-para-parrotdies

para-para-parrotdies

Posted
Posted
Fans in the Coldplay section are up in arms over the first negative reviews, having deluded themselves into thinking the only people who could possibly dislike the album are bitter "fake fans" on this forum and that everyone in the professional industry sees it as the same flawless gem they do.

 

To be fair, it's still early so there aren't enough reviews.

 

That being said, if critical reception to the album is wholly negative (similar to the backlash after X&Y), will it motivate Coldplay to make drastic changes? Or will they continue along the road to mediocrity?

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ivet

ivet

Posted
Posted

I think ... well IMO... the average 6.8 is a really nice place to rate this album tbh....

 

 

And Moving To Mars is easily one of the best Coldplay songs I've ever heard.

I think I cried when I heard it.

Too fucking beautiful

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Guest howyousawtheworld

Guest howyousawtheworld

Posted
Posted
Well, from "reputable" sources (and I use the term loosely):

 

BBC - 8/10

Mojo - 8/10

Spin - 7/10

Rolling Stone - 7/10

Uncut - 6/10

NME - 5/10

 

That's roughly an average of 6.8 out of 10 (again it's still early so difficult to really gauge critical consensus)

 

Should wait for the quality press reviews. The Gaurdian won't like it I'm pretty sure. The Times (of London) could like it.

 

 

Also is it in Coldplay's contract terms that they can leave after LP5? If so - good. With the dire straits EMI are in I feel slightly sorry in that they probably are releasing certain songs that they would rather leave off. If EMI weren't down the shitter then these executives really wouldn't be pressurising the band as much as they would. I can see a greatest hits album being the next major release for the band in a couple of years and then that's it. Mylo Xyloto is about as big and poppy as they're probably going to get so I think they'll make the decision to set up their own label after this. The alternative to that is a massive record deal with another major label which would probably see all sorts of records smashed.

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para-para-parrotdies

para-para-parrotdies

Posted
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Should wait for the quality press reviews. The Gaurdian won't like it I'm pretty sure. The Times (of London) could like it.

 

Also is it in Coldplay's contract terms that they can leave after LP5? If so - good.

 

Completely agree with your first point - that's why I made sure to note that it's still early and we don't know what the rest of the "reputable" critics will think about the album. Well, except for P4k :P

 

Addressing your second point, I actually asked that question a while back and I think someone said they signed with another music label (I want to say Universal).

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