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Re-interpreting the album under the light shed by the comics

Heinrich42

By Heinrich42
in Mylo Xyloto (2011)

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Heinrich42

Heinrich42

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Okay guys, it's time. Now that we know a little bit of the comics' story, I think we should try to analyze the album's lyrics once again looking for connections, much like we did once MX was out (although at that time we had no clue of what was coming whatsoever).

 

I must admit that I have not yet read the first comic because I'm just waiting for our dear fellow coldplayers to scan all of it, since it's gonna take some time for me to lay my hand on an actual copy of the comic. So, It'd be nice if we had the help here of those who have already read the first issue.

 

For example, after watching the videos from Comic Con, the information there gives a whole new meaning for CB's lyrics "Be a cartoon heart", "light a spark" and "We'll be glowing in the dark"

 

The spark thing is obviusly about the art made by sparkers, which glow in the dark and move. I wonder if CB's lyrics are about Mylo, because "I saw the lights go down at the end of the scene/I saw the lights go down and standing in front of me" surely does sound like the part where he sees Fly making a spark. I don't know if he actually stole a car to go there, though. The part where it says "Took a car downtown and took what they offered me/To set me free" makes me wonder if this drug the person takes is actually colour and sound. It could also be the Hypnofeed, but it doesn't look like so because I don't think the lost boys have a Hypnofeed. Or do they? At this point It would be very nice if someone who read the first issue gave an opinion...

 

Well, that's what I have for now. Let's go and analyze everything. I only interpreted CB's lyrics because it's what popped into my mind and it's a nice starting point, but you can give your interpretation about any song. Go, go, go!

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nathondetroit

nathondetroit

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With only one issue between now and March, all we can really do is dig deeper into the characters and early plot points that correlate with the album. Once it's available to purchase online, then hopefully everyone can join in on some great discussions.

 

I'm really looking forward to better understanding MTM. I always assumed "tearing us apart" meant meant Mylo and [Fly], but there was also something mentioned recently about a species going extinct. Perhaps Major minus is trying to move an entire race to mars? Or is it just a metaphor and Mylo gets captured so the fear and tension split them up? We may not know for a while, but I'm looking forward to learning more about the government and Major Minus.

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Heinrich42

Heinrich42

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I do agree that it's too soon to make any deep interpretations regarding the whole album, but (assuming everything is in chronological order) we could at least start with the first songs in MX. Also, another thing that's been bugging me is that there are all in all six issues. I don't know about you, but it seems to me that six issues are enough to tell a larger and more intrincate story than eleven songs (and three instrumentals) can provide. This adds up to the fact that the third or fourth issue (can't remember) is called "Up With The Birds". Does that mean that the story the album tells goes as far as that in the comics?

 

My hypothesis is that they are still going to realease many B-sides (or an EP, who knows) which will carry on the task of telling the story. MTM is an example. It's very possible that its lyrics are somehow correlated with the comics, as pointed out by nathondetroit. Since it was released before the album, maybe it's something that happens prior to the comics. Maybe it's about how Major Minus' race got to Silencia in the first place. Maybe there will be some kind of clue in HLH's video. Maybe the B-sides will be realeased in a very specific and important order...

 

Sorry guys, it's just that I love speculating things. It kind of revives the feeling I had when we were trying to find out things about the album with the few hints we had.

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wabbit

wabbit

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I thought MTM may be about the origin of Silencia... Aiko and Lela feeling the start of the oppression and becoming Sparkers? Maybe baby Mylo sees them feeling this and being captured...

Either way i think MTM is about Mylo's parents :)

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Wyrd

Wyrd

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Okay guys, it's time. Now that we know a little bit of the comics' story, I think we should try to analyze the album's lyrics once again looking for connections, much like we did once MX was out (although at that time we had no clue of what was coming whatsoever).

 

I must admit that I have not yet read the first comic because I'm just waiting for our dear fellow coldplayers to scan all of it, since it's gonna take some time for me to lay my hand on an actual copy of the comic. So, It'd be nice if we had the help here of those who have already read the first issue.

 

For example, after watching the videos from Comic Con, the information there gives a whole new meaning for CB's lyrics "Be a cartoon heart", "light a spark" and "We'll be glowing in the dark"

 

The spark thing is obviusly about the art made by sparkers, which glow in the dark and move. I wonder if CB's lyrics are about Mylo, because "I saw the lights go down at the end of the scene/I saw the lights go down and standing in front of me" surely does sound like the part where he sees Fly making a spark. I don't know if he actually stole a car to go there, though. The part where it says "Took a car downtown and took what they offered me/To set me free" makes me wonder if this drug the person takes is actually colour and sound. It could also be the Hypnofeed, but it doesn't look like so because I don't think the lost boys have a Hypnofeed. Or do they? At this point It would be very nice if someone who read the first issue gave an opinion...

 

Well, that's what I have for now. Let's go and analyze everything. I only interpreted CB's lyrics because it's what popped into my mind and it's a nice starting point, but you can give your interpretation about any song. Go, go, go!

Yes, yes, yes, great idea!

 

It is too early for a full analysis, sure, but we can already clear up some things that were not clear to us before (or simply seen differently without the comic).

 

About your Charlie Brown analysis ... I also think this is from Mylo's perspective. I don't think he talks about the hypnofeed, because the Sparkers are against that mind-numbing device. It is what spreads the lies and keeps the people dumbed down. The hypnofeed might also work so well because it is such a contrast between the real world in which color and sound are bleached out. If the real world would be so colorful (both visual and soundwise) than the hypnofeed has nothing substantial more to offer. The Sparkers being the Lost Boys, they should not feel a need for the hypnofeed. They create their own colorful world. It is not a drug - the hypnofeed, that is what the drug is that the common people use. The Sparkers have art and can express themselves enough to not need mind-dulling feeds. The first pages in the comic already reveal that hypnofeed works as a drug and is highly addictive. Silencers are not supposed to use too much of it, Rex says, yet Mylo cannot suppress his need to use it. The way he lays in that ally makes me think of a trippin' junkie. I am sure that that was the intention of the drawer. I think that the song Charlie Brown does not belong to this part, but will come later on. Perhaps when he decides to take a look into the rebellion world.

 

I don't know how you, wabbit, came with the idea that Mylo's parents were Sparkers. Was it said somewhere? I can only recall that Mylo was raised an orphan and that Aiko and Lela were his parents. I like the idea though and hope it is like that.

 

- Anyone wondering if this ability to create Sparks is in any Silencian but that those (bands) shown on the fingers and numbing by the hypnofeed somehow supresses the ability in them? I think Sparks are not only a metaphore for music and visual art, but also of creativity in general, philosophy and thinking for yourself, criticism and skeptism.

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Coeurli

Coeurli

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I don't know how you, wabbit, came with the idea that Mylo's parents were Sparkers. Was it said somewhere? I can only recall that Mylo was raised an orphan and that Aiko and Lela were his parents. I like the idea though and hope it is like that.

In one of the videos Jason posted from Comic Con, they quickly show how Mylo's parents look like, and I don't remember if they actually say they were Sparkers, but they definitely look like Sparkers.

I think Mark Osborne says they were a part of the beginning of the Sparkers movement (or something like that) and that they were quite famous...and then he says it might recall some people there something, because apparently it was mentioned a lot on fansites :lol: (I think he meant Car Kids or Famous Old Painters)

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wabbit

wabbit

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Yep, this video shows Aiko and Lela, the "first sparkers" around 5:40

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m8eiD8Bvc4&feature=relmfu]Comic Con 2012: Mylo Xyloto Part 4/5 Panel Discussion (Coldplay) - YouTube[/ame]

 

Around 1:59 they show baby Mylo who has "been influenced at a very young age by seeing some of the sparkers but has forgotten over the years"

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ft3kpoVwGc&feature=relmfu]Comic Con 2012: Mylo Xyloto Part 5/5 Panel Discussion (Coldplay) - YouTube[/ame]

 

And then the interview with Mark Osborne mentions they are Mylo's parents and were killed in the war:

Tell us a bit about Mylo Xyloto himself?

Like many Silencers, he was raised in an orphanage and conditioned to be a Silencer from a very young age. Legions of Silencers were created after the Great War of Colors took many lives, including the lives of Mylo's parents Aiko and Lela. That war threatened the safety of the citizens and strict measures were put in place to ensure it would never happen again. At the start of our story, Mylo is not so sure that all the propaganda and strict measures are legitimate, but he keeps these concerns close to his vest since they are just vague feelings that even his best friend Rex can't quite support.

 

So Mylo was orphaned after the war but still saw Sparkers, and maybe witness his parents be taken or killed?

 

I think Charlie Brown is where he realizes he too can create sparks (he does have the genes after all)

 

Light a fire a fire a spark

Light a fire a flame in my heart

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Coeurli

Coeurli

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I've just taken a look at the excerpts from Chris' notebook for the first time since the revelation of the comic, and boy was that thing in front of us THE WHOLE TIME! :nod::facepalm:

 

I mean, there's even a page with the names of the characters and things that we still haven't heard of yet, but definitely comic-y:

Zorin

Aiko

Lela

Mylo

Rex

Fly

Boom Boom (everywhere on the notes...ugh, and the way it is written and drawn even just with that we could have guessed they were gonna make a comic! :bomb: )

1ook (that's everywhere too)

MC²

Major Minus

 

Oh, and I noticed something really interesting. On one page there's a tracklist of MX, from 2010:

GE (I guess this is Great Expectations)

CB

W (This one I don't know :confused: )

HLH

[MMIX]

[Major Minus] SOUNDTRACK

MTM

CK

AHT

ETIAW

 

That's right, SOUNDTRACK. I guess Major Minus was supposed to be a soundtrack for the movie...

 

Oh, and also, a few lyrics from The Man Who Swears are written on a page entitled MAJOR MINUS (and there's a little drawing of an angry face):

There's a man who swears he's God

But I'm pretty sure he's not

There's a man who walks around

Like he owns the fuckin lot

 

Maybe it tells us a bit about MM's personality...(or this song could be something the Sparkers like to sing :surprised: )

On this page, from what I can read, there's also:

"takes his time, playing with your mind"

"crocodile clock"

"all the while

tell you that you're climbing

pulling the ladder apart

saw the boss hogg"

 

Now it's even clearer how the development of the comic and the album are connected

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Wyrd

Wyrd

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Wooh, thanks Wabbit! I saw the video's but sometimes didn't get all the guy was telling (he tells so monochrome/boring - sorry). Yep, he says indeed that the parents of Mylo were the original Sparkers. Thank you for clearing that up!

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wabbit

wabbit

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So what caused Mylo to become a silencer? Hmm....

 

He probably didn't have a choice? Maybe all orphans have to become Silencers?

 

"Like many Silencers, he was raised in an orphanage and conditioned to be a Silencer from a very young age."

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