Don't get me wrong, I don't say that MX sucks or such, it's just that I have to shrug my shoulders as I seem to have expected more/better ... and I feel really awful for that ... :embarrassed:

 

You shouldn't feel awful at all. It's not your fault you feel that way. :hug:

HOW DID I NOT SEE THIS THREAD UNTIL NOW?!?

 

D:

 

 

 

I'm having a hard time putting a number ranking on the album right now; but, I don't have a hard time saying (imho) that it's their worst thus far. I posted my review in the "New Coldplay eh?" thread a few days ago, but I'll post it here since this is probably a better spot for it anyway:

 

 

 

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'll be glad when the band leaves EMI.
  

 

That's my 2 cents.

 

 

 

I gave it a 3, I think... There are some nice songs but it's a very inconsistent album. It could do with less noise..