There's a lot of speculation on the tracklisting for MX - I thought I might take a crack at it based on the concept of it - namely, two people fighting against an oppressive power through an underground movement or on their own. I'm going to pick from the new songs we've heard so far from the festivals -

 

MX - for sure will be on there and I'm curious if it was like Life in Technicolor that it has lyrics and is probably much longer - I mean it is the album title - and perhaps the protagonist's name as some are suggesting (although I thought Major Minus, like major tom, would be the character's name, but based on Chris's interview, Major Minus might be the big brother element). Honestly I think Mylo Xyloto may be the name of the underground movement or the slogan/principle behind the movement based on my take of the meaning (check out the other thread). If it does have lyrics, we could get to hear the legend of Mylo Xyloto or the original intent of the movement. Anyway all speculation, but it's fun to, right?

 

Hurts Like Heaven - now there's speculation that this may be left off. I don't think so - it has the running man in it for one, which people are finding may be found in the album cover in bits and pieces. Well lyrically, I feel like it's the opening or at least near the beginning, akin to Neo from the Matrix waking up to the reality of his world, that it's not real per Morpheus.

 

The protagonist in this case, is starting to question his life/world/the powers that be, and feels like what's his purpose. Then he sees these messages or images from graffiti or street artists, and begins to start getting the message that all is not what it seems. He begins to partake in the graffiti, although perhaps alone at first with his spraycan soul. It's about keeping control of your life from outside influences and starting to "make his mark" on the concrete canvas. Perhaps he also had a relationship with someone, and his need to express himself and take up this cause is causing the split (hurts like heaven or it could be about that person using their love to manipulate him, and he knows it, but it still feels like heaven bc he loves them.

I think this will track will make it, it has to, it fits in perfectly with the whole beginning to the story/theme - Plus it has the walking/running/flying man who represents the main character's transformation into to waking up and being free, perhaps.

 

Next up, Charlie Brown - absolutely on there, it was almost the next single released but am thankful they went with something else just to keep up the anticipation. CB is about being initiated into this underground movement (car kids or the lost boys). And also perhaps meeting a new love interest, and falling in love with them. That connection/love being the light in the dark oppresive world they live in (we'll be glowing in the dark). Perhaps the cartoon heart lyric references both the illustration of a heart a la valentines day (not the actual heart organ) reflecting the innocence and humanity of the new found love. Great track, will be a good single, just not the next one.

 

Major Minus - definitely on the album - introduces the villain as Chris alluded in the Billboard intrvw. It's dark filled with paranoia and people out to get these subversives that our protagonist has joined. Perhaps the Major Minus Network is the same as the Big Brother propaganda machine in 1984. The crocodile reference is obvious to the Peter Pan story - incl the Lost boys. Another inspiration perhaps for the album - innocence and youth fighting against the tyranny of the old. The crocodile with a ticking clock though representing that time is running out and evil is nearby or that time is running out on Major Minus. either what an amazing track - Jonny rocks on this one, and really brings out the ominous feel to the whole track with his guitar lines, harmonics, solos, etc. he is a guitar hero for sure.

 

Us Against the World - on it for sure, referenced in other songs - it is a quiet interlude with the protagonist and his love interest in the movement feeling like it's just them fighting perhaps after some disagreement with other members. Or perhaps he loses that love interest to Major Minus, and he's going to try get them back, but longs for life to be much simpler, slower where they could live their life peacefully. Or the guy is captured, and he is being questioned/tortured by the villain. Anyway, beautiful song.

 

Princess of China - sounds like it will be left off - reading the lyrics - it doesn't really fit in with the theme for me, unless the couple got offered a deal to a great life from the oppressive power in exchange for giving up the lost boys or the underground movement. I don't know - would welcome other theories. it's 50/50 with this one, but it may be a b-side per Phil Harvey's tweet.

 

Moving to Mars - love it, great track. how it fits in may be a stretch. Perhaps he gets captured and he is being sent to Mars, or on his way there. But the song mentions a gov't being overthrown so it could still tie in. Or the earth has become so uninhabitable, people are being sent Mars. I really don't know where it would fit, and feel like it probably be left off, but then again who knows.

 

 

ETIAW - is a definite on the album, and perhaps i could see it as the closer based on their interviews and their thoughts on sequencing making the album a hopeful one or a hopeless one. This song is about hope in a time of despair, and not giving up. Perhaps the protagonist is captured, or killed, but the movement lives on in the next generation/group of kids starting to question life and what is happening both socially and environmentally. It will be on the album, and deservedly so, and likely a closer bc it leaves you on a high with its great buildup. The opening synths and chords totally could be an ending to a movie, like the fight continues or is reborn with the next group of people/kids/lost boys etc.

 

Paradise is on it obviously being the next single - perhaps this is their 2nd ace song in the hole they've been holding back. Can't wait to hear it - it's another anthem per Billboard, don't know the lyrics so can't really comment on it, but perhaps it's a speech about why the group is fighting for a better world, and perhaps their version of paradise. Anyway, can't wait to hear it.

 

Up in Flames sounds like it's going to be on the album, they rush recorded it - and the last one they did that for or at least as Phil tells it was clocks bc it was so appropriate to the theme of a A Rush of Blood. It's bass heavy so is the song where Guy really lets loose, and has some killer bass lines a la Rio by Duran Duran (one of the best bass lines in music history). Don't know what it's about, but should be interesting, perhaps about a rising phoenix, or a successful mission against Major Minus - i don't know.

 

Up with the birds - sampling leonard cohen, whoa - interesting to see which sample, or did they duet with him. maybe another charlie brown type song thematically with innocence, love, etc. Based on Cohen's Hallejuah, perhaps.

 

A hopeful transmission sounds like it will be on the album - Again, the theme of alternative media/communication to the masses looking for some sort of revolution or sign that all will be well or better than their current lives in this regime. Likely on album.

 

Great Expectations - I have no clue about, until the lyrics, even the song title doesn't really lead me in any particular direction unless it's near the end of the album, or right before the group executes their big plan to bring down the gov't or Major Minus Media. I think it will be on it based on the buzz from fellow members, and interviews from before.

 

Tomorrow - sounds like it runs in the same vein as Great Expecations - like there will be another day to fight again, or tomorrow things will be different. Maybe part of the Great Expectations subplot or 2nd act of the album.

 

U.F.O - have no clue, saw some of the graffiti artwork from previous promos and it's there. could be about the gov't trying to distract and scare people with thought of extraterrestials out to get you, kind of like war of the worlds did back in the 30s. Also, could be about taking responsibility for our own lives, rather than believing some higher power is going to come and save us from the stars. Could be part of the Major Minus theme of songs w/ propaganda/conspiracy/etc.

 

Sex and violence - don't know about this one - again part of the major minus themed batch of songs - perhaps foreshadowing torture, and control over the people with regards to sex much like 1984/ a brave new world. might be on the album, i mean jon hopkins is on it, his track was a great addition to the viva la vida album

 

Anyway, again i love to analyze, and welcome all thoughts, opinions, comments - it's fun for me, and had got me excited to see the final tracklisting. This could be an Ok computer meets the Wall type of album. We're due for one of these anyway especially from Coldplay.

OMG that's huge

 

*goes to read*

tl;dr

 

I don't see why people can't just wait until the tracklisting is released. . . :|

I quite like this theory--I could definitely see MX unfolding as you described it. If the album turns out to be like this, I'm going to love it :D

 

I honestly think that ETiaW can be made better by putting in the right place within the tracklisting :nod: As a standalone it's rather unremarkable, but if it's just one chapter in a story . . .

tl;dr

 

I don't see why people can't just wait until the tracklisting is released. . . :|

 

a lifeless bunch, says I...:thinking:

a lifeless bunch, says I...:thinking:

 

That's pretty rude.

:angry:

yeah lifeless - i have 90 posts in over 8 yrs - hey what can i say this album has me excited, and i like that they're doing more of a story with this one, and perhaps in my interpretation of the album title - i'm building my own story that coincide with theirs, no harm or foul. You're free not to comment, just my speculation, i'm having fun with it.

I hope that Moving to Mars is NOT on the album...it SO doesn't fit the theme. It's also my least favorite of the new songs. :(

^WHAT. :( Moving to Mars is one of my favourite songs ever. And I think bdevil fits it with the story decently, the idea that somebody is tearing you from your loved ones.

 

And I really like the Up in Flames phoenix idea. Redemption and stuff like that could certainly be a theme.

This is the only time any of the songs have made perfect sense in the form of a story. I would like to hear Hurts like heaven, princess of china, sex of violence and others. I'd like to see where they take the story. I'd also like to hear Up In Flames cause it sounds hard rock-ish to me.

Agreed. I like your reasoning behind all this madness. I'm not sure if Coldplay will go for an all instrumental MX. That worked with LiT, but knowing how these guys work, they won't want to start two albums off on the same foot, so I'm anticipating a good 4:00 opener (w/ lyrics). HLH is a definite, the Running Man is too symbolic and obviously imperative to their new live acts, not to mention it's my favorite new song. I see Major Minus as an antagonist as well, not so much an individual, but rather, an anti-movement, or the oppressive force causing the "Lost Boys" to rebel. Charlie Brown is obvious also, though I think the song is more one on the recovery/ maintaining of innocence and hope amidst all the dispair. "Be a cartoon heart", at least to me, is a cry for normality, and all that once was. UATW I think is about struggling to find hope and light beneath all the evil and darkness. It's about feeling alone in a dystopian world. I don't think PoC will be included, B-Side like A Spell a Rebel yell (maybe). ETIAW is an absolute closer. The first thing I thought when I heard it, was of Concentration Camp survivors after WW2 and how they must've felt being free people once again. MTM, when heard in context with the rest of the album, could be more of a metaphor for adapting to a new way of life; ie an oppressive, big brother-esque one, and having to deal with this government governed by fear and control. I don't think it will make the album, but if it does, it'll be one of the 1st 3 songs.

Moving to Mars could also serve as a preface to the actual album. A bit of foreshadowing, or maybe to serve as a background for the events taking place in MX.

Umm I agree with you except for Princess Of China. It's THE best song yet. It's like leaving Viva La Vida off LP4. I can't stop listening to it!

Moving to Mars could also serve as a preface to the actual album. A bit of foreshadowing, or maybe to serve as a background for the events taking place in MX.

 

Hmm . . . I see it as maybe the final track--summarizing all of the events that happened. Their resistance movement was successful and the government was overthrown but in the process of a very long, very bloody war, their country was destroyed and is now unfit to live in so they're being moved as refugees to another country (or planet, I suppose :P)

 

 

EDIT: Actually, I think the story of the entire album could rest on what the final track is. If they choose ETiaW then the ending was happy (perhaps a bit bittersweet) but if it's MtM then the ending is a great deal darker and less joyful. I'm very interested to see which route the guys take.

Hmm . . . I see it as maybe the final track--summarizing all of the events that happened. Their resistance movement was successful and the government was overthrown but in the process of a very long, very bloody war, their country was destroyed and is now unfit to live in so they're being moved as refugees to another country (or planet, I suppose :P)

 

 

EDIT: Actually, I think the story of the entire album could rest on what the final track is. If they choose ETiaW then the ending was happy (perhaps a bit bittersweet) but if it's MtM then the ending is a great deal darker and less joyful. I'm very interested to see which route the guys take.

Interesting take...very interesting. I'm gonna go with ETIAW, 1. Because I'm an optimist, and 2. Because Chris said that they would leave us feeling happy (at least I think that's what he said, reference back to his comments on the sequencing of Parachutes for the Billboard interview).

Interesting take...very interesting. I'm gonna go with ETIAW, 1. Because I'm an optimist, and 2. Because Chris said that they would leave us feeling happy (at least I think that's what he said, reference back to his comments on the sequencing of Parachutes for the Billboard interview).

 

I'm such a huge optimist :awesome:

 

Plus, ETiaW has mentioned to be the final track several times--although it seems that the guys are having quite a bit of trouble figuring out the tracklisting, even at this point in time.

Yeah - the moving to mars was actually made for a film about refugees going to a different country, so in that context, yeah i could see it as a precursor, as a person being brought to oceania, and starting to live there (perhaps the gov't is overthrown in his home land or whatever). Or it could be an epilogue of sorts -

 

great ideas, keep the discussion rolling. Oh yeah, sex and violence could also be a song about propaganda, kind of like the masses are kept in a dull state after consumption of violent or sexual imagery through traditional media (i.e. movies, advertisements, magazines, etc.)

^ You know, I've always thought that 'Sex and Violence' was actually called 'Sea O' Violence'

 

I think we first saw it written on the piano on the 60 Minutes interview, and to me it looks more like 'Sea O' Violence' :shrug:

 

Sorry, off-topic. Just thought I'd put that out there.

I think you're spot on, but I’d go further. Coldplay has always attempted to bring something unique to their music that is afforded them by the combination of Chris's searingly personal vocals and the band's supremely cavernous sound. Most Coldplay songs aspire to impel the listener into the starry vault while simultaneously picking the lock of his soul. For Martin especially the disparity between the large and the small has always been of fundamental importance, and much of the band's music seems determined to collapse this distinction which must seem, to its members, as an arbitrary and illusory invention of perception. Therefore, it is useful to think of ETIAW not as inspirational but rather as an immensely personal struggle- made moreso by the juxtaposition of this insularity against a vibrant soundscape. The implicit thematic conclusion of the song is that revolutions happen within as well as without, and very often the revolutions going on around us are only mirror images of the revolutions going on inside, the sirens and the flashes of reality mimicking some extant doubt about the makeup of one’s own conscious. This is evident, too, in Major Minus and Moving to Mars. Major Minus is as much about the pair of eyes that watch you from without- government, corporations or whatever other large and impersonal forces one can conjure- as it is about the pair of eyes that watch you from within, convincing fear to wrest you from your precarious calm and upset a balance which you had a sneaking suspicion was untenable in the first place. The pervasiveness of the ideal of distinctions is manifest in the main character, who even in defending himself against metaphysical threats must still guard himself against the internal and existential doubts which plague and pervert his thoughts. Finally, Moving to Mars speaks of a world so immeasurably far in the future, not in terms of years but in terms of progress, that one can scarcely understand it. What thread of human nature will survive then, asks Martin implicitly? What of our humanity will endure the precipitous fall into the void? We imagine a lonely freedom-fighter sitting up at night listening to the radio, hoping in vain for some figment of hope to reveal itself and subsisting, in its absence, on the dregs of a progressive ideal heralded by some men in some country who already possess the liberty he desires. He is impressed by the closeness of the future, but at the same time discouraged by its distance. And this is his world- at all times governed by some inner incommensurability for which he must scream and rebel (or wash his hands over and over if anyone gets the point). Because, and this is a key element in Coldplay’s psyche, rebellion for freedom is laudatory, but in the end it is not a universal expression of that freedom but rather a personal expression of our yearning for it. Truly, freedom is wholeness, some undivided sum in which the individual and the world in which he resides are united into a commensurate transcendence. But freedom is therefore necessarily illusory. It is a logical, platonic necessity but an existential non-reality- not unlike God, as we discovered in Cemeteries of London. Thus while we must praise freedom fighters, we must also understand that their rebellion is internal as well as external. It takes place in the domain of the real as well as the domain of the self, and in this sense it is a perfect metaphor for the difficulties of living with a mind which, like Martin’s, is zealously self-critical.

 

Also, a note about Major Minus: look at the name. Its an oxymoron, a manifestation of polar opposites working within a whole. And, if we are to assume that it is villainous, then we should also assume that the band called the antagonist Major Minus because it chose to comment on the damning feature of social progress, a theory whose hyper-idealized variants included the fascistic and communist regimes against which our protagonists are ostensibly rebelling. This flaw is that it attempts to add to humanity by subtracting from it that which is human in the first place. Its supporters are not aware of this subtraction for, if they were, their own esteemed dialectical logic would account for it. Rather, Major Minus perverts and distorts humanity by falling prey to that most ironically pivotal human tendency to think of things in terms of categories instead of particulars. The ultimate truth is that Major Minus is not different from the protagonist- they both struggle with defining the world against two insufferably incollapsible polarities- large and small, this and that, me and the other. Where they do differ is the protagonist is unflinchingly honest with himself about this struggle while Major Minus remains ignorant and effete.

Interesting take...very interesting. I'm gonna go with ETIAW, 1. Because I'm an optimist, and 2. Because Chris said that they would leave us feeling happy (at least I think that's what he said, reference back to his comments on the sequencing of Parachutes for the Billboard interview).

"I remember on our first album, we went to Paris and a guy had a version of "Parachutes" that was in a different order, and he basically said, "this album is so depressing." So I was like, "oh fuck," and we changed the sequencing around to make it a bit more optimistic. And at the moment we have a group of songs there's sort of three different routes from beginning to end, and I'm a little bit lost today on what to leave off."

Whoa. EPIC first post, dude.

"I remember on our first album, we went to Paris and a guy had a version of "Parachutes" that was in a different order, and he basically said, "this album is so depressing." So I was like, "oh fuck," and we changed the sequencing around to make it a bit more optimistic. And at the moment we have a group of songs there's sort of three different routes from beginning to end, and I'm a little bit lost today on what to leave off."

 

Three different routes?

 

So . . . it's either going to be happy, depressing, or . . . bittersweet? :confused:

Yowza! I think I may need a PHD to analyze that post - it's amazing how music can ignite discussion, isn't it?

Yowza! I think I may need a PHD to analyze that post - it's amazing how music can ignite discussion, isn't it?

 

:lol:

 

See, this is why I love Coldplay :D

I think you're spot on, but I’d go further. Coldplay has always attempted to bring something unique to their music that is afforded them by the combination of Chris's searingly personal vocals and the band's supremely cavernous sound. Most Coldplay songs aspire to impel the listener into the starry vault while simultaneously picking the lock of his soul. For Martin especially the disparity between the large and the small has always been of fundamental importance, and much of the band's music seems determined to collapse this distinction which must seem, to its members, as an arbitrary and illusory invention of perception. Therefore, it is useful to think of ETIAW not as inspirational but rather as an immensely personal struggle- made moreso by the juxtaposition of this insularity against a vibrant soundscape. The implicit thematic conclusion of the song is that revolutions happen within as well as without, and very often the revolutions going on around us are only mirror images of the revolutions going on inside, the sirens and the flashes of reality mimicking some extant doubt about the makeup of one’s own conscious. This is evident, too, in Major Minus and Moving to Mars. Major Minus is as much about the pair of eyes that watch you from without- government, corporations or whatever other large and impersonal forces one can conjure- as it is about the pair of eyes that watch you from within, convincing fear to wrest you from your precarious calm and upset a balance which you had a sneaking suspicion was untenable in the first place. The pervasiveness of the ideal of distinctions is manifest in the main character, who even in defending himself against metaphysical threats must still guard himself against the internal and existential doubts which plague and pervert his thoughts. Finally, Moving to Mars speaks of a world so immeasurably far in the future, not in terms of years but in terms of progress, that one can scarcely understand it. What thread of human nature will survive then, asks Martin implicitly? What of our humanity will endure the precipitous fall into the void? We imagine a lonely freedom-fighter sitting up at night listening to the radio, hoping in vain for some figment of hope to reveal itself and subsisting, in its absence, on the dregs of a progressive ideal heralded by some men in some country who already possess the liberty he desires. He is impressed by the closeness of the future, but at the same time discouraged by its distance. And this is his world- at all times governed by some inner incommensurability for which he must scream and rebel (or wash his hands over and over if anyone gets the point). Because, and this is a key element in Coldplay’s psyche, rebellion for freedom is laudatory, but in the end it is not a universal expression of that freedom but rather a personal expression of our yearning for it. Truly, freedom is wholeness, some undivided sum in which the individual and the world in which he resides are united into a commensurate transcendence. But freedom is therefore necessarily illusory. It is a logical, platonic necessity but an existential non-reality- not unlike God, as we discovered in Cemeteries of London. Thus while we must praise freedom fighters, we must also understand that their rebellion is internal as well as external. It takes place in the domain of the real as well as the domain of the self, and in this sense it is a perfect metaphor for the difficulties of living with a mind which, like Martin’s, is zealously self-critical.

Has Mr. Harvey joined the discussion?