The tracklist above for the deluxe edtion of Ghost Stories which appeared online shortly after the album announcement
The three additional tracks Coldplay recorded exclusively for US retailer, Target, All Your Friends, Ghost Story and O (Reprise) were found online earlier today and are in circulation. US Coldplayers, you can pre-order the deluxe version here. As Target do not deliver outside of the US, there is no way to purchase the additional tracks at this moment but there may be more information to appear after the album release. Unfortunately, There are no streams at present to listen so Google or communicating with members on our forums is the only method at this moment. Chris Martin has already stated during a BBC Radio 1 interview, the extra tracks are set to be released in around 5 months from now as part of an EP or even a surprise album possibly?! The details are vague at this moment.
The two tracks, All Your Friends and Ghost Story resemble a less produced, 'old Coldplay' sound which has proved to be very popular with a section of our fans. O (Reprise), only has a length of 1:37 and is played at the start and at the end of each Coldplay gig on the Ghost Stories tour, features Chris Martin's daughter, Apple once more and her friend, Mabel on vocals.
Haruka on the Coldplaying forums voted All Your Friends 7/10.
Definitely has a X&Y vibe, the bass line is great chorus reminds me of Bad Blood by Bastille, Jonny's guitar looks like is missing from this song and Chris vocals are ok.
Overall, I give All Your Friends 7/10.
An enthusiastic review of Ghost Story, (which seems to be the most popular track out of the three) by poeincompany on our forums.
Definitely one of my favorites, so gorgeous and infectious and reminds me of I Ran Away and Sleeping Sun, so good. I usually don't rave so hard over a song, but this deserves the praise. Jonny's guitar and Will's drums are back in full loveliness. And that acoustic guitar line is lovely accompanying Chris' amazing vocal line.
Meanwhile, the critic reviews have started to appear with generally positive verdicts.
Firstly, Here is a review on Ghost Stories by Billboard.com. They have given an excellent score of 85/100
Coldplay's sixth studio album will forever be tied to frontman Chris Martin's out-of-the-blue announcement that he and wife Gwyneth Paltrow were separating, nearly two months before the full-length's release. The timing of the breakup hovers over "Ghost Stories," a short album full of straightforward meditations on heartbreak and helplessness. Instead of hinting at the split and letting listeners spit out theories about the real-life drama that inspired the album, Martin has presented his gaping wound for the world to see, in rather spectacular fashion.
Coldplay's last album, 2011's "Mylo Xyloto," was a shout-along opus that found the four-piece finally embracing the ridiculousness that comes with being the World's Biggest Rock Band; there were canyon-sized synths, rock-opera plot lines and a duet with Rihanna. By contrast, "Ghost Stories" is devoid of big moments, save for the Avicii collaboration "A Sky Full Of Stars," which showcases the producer's pulsating keyboard riffs and pummeling beat drops. But even that flare-up is punctuated by Martin's raspy howl in the chorus, "I don't care, go on and tear me apart/I don't care if you do."
Coldplay's 'A Sky Full of Stars' Soundtracks NBA Ad: Watch
Since arriving 14 years ago with Coldplay's breakout single "Yellow," Martin has had an extravagant voice in pop music, aiming at grandeur more often than mining his songs' intimate moments. On "Ghost Stories," the inverse is true, and it's wholly refreshing to hear Martin try to confide a sentiment instead of bellow it. "Always In My Head" uses quick, cutting lines to convey sleepless defeat, while the central metaphor of "Ink" -- love is a tattoo, and it hurts more to remove a name than to inscribe it -- proves to be affecting. As Martin's voice cracks and careens forward, Guy Berryman's bass chords tether the album to the ground, and Will Champion's drums often crackle before dropping away completely.
Coldplay's 'Intimate' NYC Show: Live Review
Broken pleas like "Just tell me you love me/If you don't, then lie, lie to me," from the song "True Love," can make "Ghost Stories" a difficult listen at times, thanks to the prior knowledge of Martin's failed marriage. But in many ways, Coldplay's sharp left turn is also its most listenable album in years, an evocative concoction of sullen phrases, sparse arrangements and powerful themes. "Ghost Stories" is the sound of Coldplay rejecting its inner Coldplay-ness, at least for one album. Martin and the rest of the band will no doubt spring back to life on future releases, but for once, reveling in the darkness sounds like a great idea.
What songs on Coldplay's latest full-length are the highlights? Check out our track-by-track review of "Ghost Stories."
1. Always In My Head - "Ghost Stories" begins with what sounds like literal ghost stories, as Martin admits to sleepless nights while a faceless voice floats behind him. As guitar curly-q's float upward, the singer sounds more broken than ever, as if every insecurity hurts to say aloud in fear that it will become true.
2. Magic
"Always In My Head" hinted at the downbeat vibe of "Ghost Stories," but "Magic," Coldplay's most unassuming lead single to date also definitively establishes that contemplative mood. The gloomy refrain and pleas over restrained piano flourishes finally give way to the chiming riffs of the bridge, which soon dial back down to the chilliness of the intro.
3. Ink - The pops of percussion are married with pensive guitar strokes as Martin delivers the first line, "Got a tattoo that said 'Together Through Life'/Carved in your name with my pocket knife." When the music swells up, it does so politely, and Martin finally lets his cry escape on the second verse.
4. True Love - There's another mention of "the fire below" as Martin settles in over heavy rhythms, dancing synths and wallowing strings to deliver perhaps the saddest song on the album. Repetition is key on "Ghost Stories," as Martin echoes his phrases -- "Tell me you love me, if you don't then lie" -- to create a sense of begging.
5. Midnight
The first song released from "Ghost Stories," "Midnight" finds Martin actually sounding like a ghost, his distorted vocals croaking requests like "leave a light, a light on." It's not "Kid A" and it's a little too long, but stylistically, "Midnight" makes sense in the middle of the album, and harkens back to shuddering early singles like "Trouble."
6. Another's Arms - Before Martin's normal voice rejoins the album, a female specter croons in and out of focus; it's painful to hear Martin sing about late night TV watching, grasping at memories of shared company. "Another's Arms" is a songwriting gem, although the arrangement is a bit flat, with not much body to the guitar and whooshing keys added to match the stuttering drums.
7. Oceans - A blinking signal reminiscent of a sonar is one of the neat production details on "Oceans," which also smartly echoes the word "trying" when Martin sings, "Behind the walls, love/I'm trying to change." The singer sounds like Nick Drake on the track, his eyes fixed on the ground before the music needlessly noodles around for nearly two minutes after the proper song concludes.
8. A Sky Full Of Stars
The one instance of "Mylo Xyloto"-era Coldplay seeping in, "A Sky Full of Stars" is a joyous dance cut crafted by Avicii, and a honeycomb of energy that the album needs. Martin still sounds forlorn, of course; he sings, "Cause in a sky full of stars/I think I saw you," with "think" being the crucial word.
9. O - Before the hidden track of guitar and ghostly voices (think Bjork's "Vespertine"), this beautifully produced piano ballad poignantly offers a sense of hope and forgiveness. Similar to "X&Y" closer "Til Kingdom Come," "O" is stripped of pretense, and Martin sounds utterly exhausted by the final line.
Stereogum also gave a positive premature review of Coldplay's sixth LP
Ghost Stories is a breakup album, but it’s also a Coldplay album. “Call it magic/ Cut me into two,” Chris Martin sings amidst the iridescent churn of lead single “Magic,” presumably referencing the excruciating pain that accompanied his much-publicized “conscious uncoupling.” But before the song is even over, he’s declaring, “Still believe in magic/ Yes I do,” as if appalled that you would even ask. “Of course I do.”
Of course he does. We’re dealing with Martin, our generation’s foremost earnest arena-rock balladeer, the man who never met a chord progression he couldn’t turn into a Hallmark greeting. His entire career rests on the premise that magic exists and that it sounds like the stars shining for you. So even though almost every song on Ghost Stories seems to directly reference the end of Martin’s marriage to Gwyneth Paltrow, the album isn’t drowning in despair a la Blood On The Tracks or any of the myriad breakup records where the darkness is so profound you can’t imagine it ever lifting. This is a deeply wistful album, a thoughtful reflection on how Martin ended up with a broken heart, but it’s less the sound of wallowing than working through pain and waving goodbye. It is hopeful, if only because a Coldplay album without hope is a contradiction in terms.
Given the circumstances, the subject matter here is darker and more personal, a far cry from Mylo Xyloto’s semi-ridiculous narrative about love conquering all. Martin begins the album singing about not being able to sleep because he’s so possessed by the memory of what he’s lost. On “Ink,” he gets a tattoo as a way of grasping at that fading connection. He lashes out at his lover’s alleged lies on “True Love” even as he strains to bring back the old feelings: “And I wish you would have let me know/ What’s really going on below/ I’ve lost you now, you’ve let me go/ But one last time/ Tell me you love me.” But by the time Ghost Stories gets around to its big finish, Martin is proclaiming that he doesn’t mind being torn apart on the better-to-have-loved-and-lost anthem “A Sky Full Of Stars.” Closing track “O” functions as a comedown and an open ellipsis, the sound of our wounded protagonist imagining a future when he can finally move forward. He isn’t there yet, but he’s entertaining the possibility.
The sounds they’ve conjured to communicate these sentiments are not always immediately recognizable as Coldplay. The band has long since broken free of the Radiohead comparisons that dogged their early years, having taken a right turn at U2 and somehow ended up duetting with Rihanna. But the Kid A references began moments after Ghost Stories hit the internet yesterday, and they’re not entirely crazy. Again, this band is never going to capture the alienation and paranoia Thom Yorke was channeling at the dawn of the Bush administration, but there are times when Coldplay seem to have gone back and attempted to pick up where they left off, trading the cuddlier version of ’90s Radiohead we heard on Parachutes and A Rush Of Blood To The Head for a cuddlier version of postmillennial Radiohead. The songs are encased in a digital exoskeleton, often with busy programmed snare skitters seemingly culled from Yorke’s beloved late-’90s IDM, that meshes with guitars and keyboards to form bleary sonic horizons and warm electro-organic grooves. There’s a general cloud of malaise hovering over the music that had floated out of the picture entirely on the buoyant and bombastic Mylo Xyloto. Somber finale “O” even has an ethereal callback secret track at the end a la Kid A closer “Motion Picture Soundtrack.”
That said, to belabor the Radiohead thing any further would be a disservice to Coldplay and to you. For one thing, there are plenty of other familiar ingredients in play throughout Ghost Stories: Sigur Rós and James Blake are probably more appropriate parallels for the gorgeous celestial drift that is album opener “Always In My Head.” Single-of-the-year candidate “Magic” carries echoes of the xx. And yes, the LP-demarcating “Midnight” still sounds unmistakably like Bon Iver. More importantly, despite all its callbacks to the past 15 years of electronically infused post-rock, Ghost Stories feels like the arena-rock album of the future. Paul Epworth, best known for producing Adele’s unflinchingly retro 21, here reminds us he is also a master of ushering classic sounds into forward-thinking frameworks (see: Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm, Friendly Fires’ “Jump In The Pool,” Foster The People’s “Pumped Up Kicks”). Epworth has some assistance: Timbaland shows up to add “Apologize”-style schmaltz to “True Love,” and the French electronic producer Madeon contributes atmospheric touches to the not-particularly-electronic “Always In My Head” and “O.” Most obviously, the polarizing Avicii collab “A Sky Full Of Stars,” which functions as the album’s climax, successfully grafts Coldplay’s old-fashioned breed of festival-killing splendor into today’s prevailing euphoric thump.
But Ghost Stories often goes a step beyond boilerplate dance-pop into what’s becoming known as “post-EDM,” in which the mainstream electronic dance music that has proliferated for the past half-decade no longer functions as a novelty but as a natural part of the atmosphere. Even when all but the essentials are stripped away on “Oceans,” an acoustic ballad that could almost pass for a Parachutes outtake, the strums are punctuated by computerized blips that sound like OS errors. The sound feels like a natural progression from Mylo Xyloto, but also a retreat from that album’s gaudy concept and translucent neon bombast. Those wild flashes of color have mostly given way to muted tones, the maximal production pared back into something relatively spare. (Hey, if Yeezus can pass for minimalism, Ghost Stories can too.) Creatively, Martin’s breakup couldn’t have come at a better time; after scaling the heights of cartoonish rock opera, where else could they turn but inward?
Coldplay are well into their second decade by now, and as they’ve journeyed from coffeehouse alt-rock toward the center of the musical universe, they’ve arguably become more adventurous, not less. Ever since they steered out of the rut that was 2005′s X&Y with the creative renaissance of 2008′s art-damaged Viva La Vida, they’ve been challenging notions of what an arena-rock band can be without forgoing the pop instincts that got them there. They still take cues from their forebears, but the band’s last three albums are all unique creations unto themselves, far more inspired and in step with modern life than, say, the collection of Stop Making Sense and Zooropa retreads their would-be peers Arcade Fire released last year. Ghost Stories has its drawbacks — the drum programming can be intrusive, and the attempt at a mournful guitar solo on “True Love” feels both out of place and out of tune — but on the whole, the album is a further testament to Coldplay’s unheralded greatness, another knockout punch from a band that has too often been reduced a punchline. Martin may not have realized what a good thing he had until it was gone; let’s not make the same mistake.
Update : The Chris Martin interview on the Ellen Degeneres show has now been moved to Wednesday 21st May when Coldplay will also perform tracks off "Ghost Stories"
"It's been a life changing year for one of Ellen's favorite rock stars in the world, and you do not want to miss this exclusive interview. CHRIS MARTIN is here!
The Coldplay frontman is sitting down with Ellen for his first U.S. interview before the release of the band's new album "Ghost Stories"! The world relishes every flirting falsetto, piano hymn and soaring melody from Coldplay, and Chris is here to share secrets on their brand new project, which is topping iTunes charts before it even hits the streets! Influenced by love, loss, new waves in music and trademark styles, Chris has got so much to tell Ellen about life in the studio, life on the road and everywhere in between! It will also be a preview for the band's upcoming performance on the show!"
google_ad_client = "ca-pub-2178348667918002";
/* [New] Bottom of Article */
google_ad_slot = "6330442176";
google_ad_width = 336;
google_ad_height = 280;
//-->
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.