True Love - Coldplay's heartbreaking love story - Ghost Stories

True Love - Coldplay's heartbreaking love story

The fourth track off Coldplay's emotional album, Ghost Stories, has a distinct sound and feel from the previous fun and upbeat track, Ink. The tone change is reminiscent of Fix You proceeding White Shadows. The ending of the latter with the haunting organ sound provides a great transition to the anthemic ballad, while in probably the most cohesive Coldplay album to date, the start of True Love is a more of quicker transcend into darker side of the Ghost Stories, one which dominates the core of the album. Lyrically, True Love is perhaps the most open song Chris Martin has ever written. You get the feeling that this is what Chris wanted to 'get off his chest' the most. The link to his personal life and the 'uncoupling' with Gwyneth Paltrow could be interpreted with the lyrics, "and I wish you could have let me know, what's really going on below, I've lost you now, you let me go" and the heartbreaking lyrics, "remember once upon a time, when I was yours and you were blind, a fire would sparkle in your eyes, and mine". Possibly looking back to the love which was once so bright, portrayed across during the first three tracks. True Love is Coldplay's heartbreaking love story, an emotionally powerful ballad which does not end on a high. It is heartbreaking part of this wonderful ghost story.

Guy Berryman formed the bass line of the second track, Magic, which was the backbone of the song, while Jonny Buckland's heartbreak guitar solo towards the end of True Love, really captured our hearts and the feel of the song. It feels like Jonny is reaching out to his best friend Chris and saying 'I feel for you Chris, its ok', for something so personal, to still have that 'Coldplay soul' to it is tremendous. Of course, a song like True Love, which is emotionally very deep, the meaning can be looked at in a variety of ways and Chris prefers to leave the lyrics to our imaginations!

From mysterious beginnings to the 3rd single

True Love was one of the low key tracks off Ghost Stories. There was little hype, even after the secret shows, where surprisingly, no one was descriptive of the track, we mainly knew there would be a 'slicing' Jonny guitar solo, which for some Coldplayers, was enough for love at first sight! It was still the polar opposite of A Sky Full of Stars, which had received such unbelievable hype. Fans who were the lucky ones at the Beacon Theater, in New York, heard the track for the first time in public. Even then, Chris asked everyone not to record the final track (to which Chris described as the best track he had written) on the night, to which the majority complied. A low quality recording was leaked on the internet and this was days before Ghost Stories was about to stream to iTunes and didn't reach further than the odd link on Twitter and the private message boxes of some Coldplayers. Within the first few days of streaming, True Love received a great fan reception, ranking within the top 3 Ghost Stories songs, as measured via the main site and forum polls.

True Love turned out to be a regular feature in Coldplay's post-release setlist, even appearing during the album release party at iHeart Radio out of half a dozen tracks performed on that evening. The multi million dollar screen at the secret show in LA, then broadcast as the Ghost Stories film on TV stations across the world, featured a beautiful burst of colour during the band's performance of the emotional song and it was very much a highlight of the intimate and magical show.

On July 1st, news escaped via Twitter that the official video for True Love was being filmed and the rumours of True Love being the follow up to A Sky Full of Stars were looking to be certain. The video is set to feature a couple of ballet dancers. Chris, who was interviewed by 'Elliot In The Morning' (featured below) on 30th July, commented that a 20 minute edit of the official video for True Love has been filmed.

The band are set to appear in 'strange costumes' for the official video, perhaps tying in with Chris' comment of a special costume coming through the mail last Friday, suggesting a live filming of Chris rocking the outfit to cap off the video (similar to Paradise!) and it appears True Love is likely to be released to coincide with the upcoming iHeart Radio music festival in Vegas this September!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cYBBn6OhSE

The date of the official video or even the release of another EP are unknown but it is believed to be after the summer promotion of the current single, A Sky Full of Stars, most likely in September, when Coldplay will visit Las Vegas for their iHeart Radio music festival appearance and are also strongly rumoured to be featuring at the iTunes festival in London.

Influences and recording

Paul Epworth, who was one of the producers working on Ghost Stories, was largely influential during the recording of True Love and before the album release, posted a picture on instagram of the orchestra recording Coldplay's fourth track from the new Coldplay.

Star producer, Timbaland, who has appeared alongside Chris Martin in person previously, gave the band a helping hand by recording the bass drum line for True Love. Chris talked about Timbaland with Zane Lowe, during the revealing interview a few months ago and said he spent a day in the studio with Chris working on the song.

Fan reviews

Lets have a look at a selection of fan reviews. True Love, since release, has consistently being rated within the top 3/4 songs of the album by fans.

A very positive review by RhysBP

True Love would have to be one of the three best songs off the album. It can be compared to older Coldplay as it sees the band going back to pre-Viva days when strings wouldn’t make such a dominating presence.

At first, the song sounds like it is continuing on with the upbeat vibe left over from Ink. However, as Martin takes centre stage, you can tell it’s going to be another story of separation agony. The chorus is made up of Martin asking his lover that even if she doesn’t love him, she should lie to him anyway. Ouch! From then on, you can tell that True Love is one of the saddest songs on the album.

In similar fashion to Strawberry Swing, the percussion heard on True Love is very minimal but very effective. Featuring a mix of electronic drum beats and a bass drum from an unlikely source in Timbaland, the riff is capped off by what sounds like a hand clap. It doesn’t change much from that formula but its repetition doesn’t seem to drag the song down. You can almost thank the string arrangement for being played at over the top of it.

There are two really shining moments on this song, the first being Martin’s falsetto. He doesn’t sing pass the three minute mark but in that short time, his falsetto is magical. It is well exemplified in the chorus, where he draws out the world ‘lie’.

The second part occurs not long before the end of the song. Buckland comes in with a demanding guitar solo from that literally slices through the song like a hot knife through butter. If it wasn’t for this solo, the song would’ve petered out very quickly.

Overall, this song is so heartbreaking but so addictive to listen to at the same time. I won’t be surprised if this was released as a single in the future.

RATING - 5/5

Another from getithom

And a more critical review by the_escapist

Although it starts with kind of some upbeat notes, from the moment Chris starts singing the lyrics one notices that it is going to be heartbreaking song. Probably for such reason, throughout the first minute, the attention is centered on Chris voice and lyrics while those same notes that started the song provide a sense of ambient which suits perfectly. This song is Coldplay at what it probably does best - mellow and sad songs. Will's backing vocals suit perfectly and while listening to the chorus, once can really feel the pain behind the message that the song is trying to convey. And last but not least, and probably out of nowhere, Jonny comes out with the most heartbreaking and original riff he has made up to date. Sounding a bit out of tune, the guitar screams pain and sorrow while Martin sings the last notes and the song ends abruptly. A solid song for a great record. 7/10.

True Love received votes of 9/10 or 10/10 from the majority of Coldplayers on the forums!

In the darkness, before the dawn

It was the first track he had heard from Ghost Stories and was quite the statement! On the album, it provides the ambient 'cushion' following the emotional rollercoaster. Midnight will be the next ghost story article!

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True Love - Coldplay's heartbreaking love story