Famous Old Painter

This looks so much nicer without the space orgy sleeve. Why couldn't they just release it like that?

Ghost Stories is my third favourite. I even like ASFOS. I apologise for nothing.

Come on guys, let's stop the feuding and the bickering and focus on something we can all agree upon [video=youtube;B8wCJ9A0TUg]

I know this wasn't directed at me, but my AOTY is Get To Heaven by Everything Everything. I mention this because I'm listening to it now and realising how much it has in common with AHFOD. Like AHFOD it has very slick modern pop production, and features lots of electronic beats and synths, disco style guitars, big falsetto sing-alongs and even a tiny bit of English white-boy rapping. Songs like Distant Past, Get To Heaven and S/S/W/D have the sort of pop-oriented melodies and structures made for radio. The band have said in interviews the album was influenced by the likes of Kanye West, Daft Punk and One Direction. They even got the guy behind Madonna's albums to produce it ffs. But unlike Coldplay, EE did a subversive and inventive take on the genre, fuelled by passion and raw emotion. They took the cliches and twisted them in ways one wouldn't expect, whereas Coldplay just played them straight down the line whilst doing a half-assed job at it. It just goes to show that it's possible to make a slick modern pop album and have it turn out brilliantly. You've just got to be creative about it. I have no doubt Coldplay probably have what it takes to make such an album, but AHFOD isn't it.

Warning!!! The following review is scathing. Lovers of AHFOD best turn away now. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Head Full Of Dreams – It sounds like something that would’ve fit snugly on HTDAAB by U2. However, that’s far from my favourite U2 album and U2 are far from my favourite band. I wanted to praise the melodies and it’s probably just a coincidence, but the vocal melody is far too similar to Forever and a Day by The Dissociatives for me to feel comfortable with it. That said I love how upbeat it is, the energy is really powerful, and it’s probably the closest Coldplay come to euphoria on this thing. 6/10 Birds – I appreciate how experimental it seems in context with the rest of the album, and that’s probably why most Oldplayers would gravitate to this one. I just find it boring; the Stargate production hurts more than it helps, Jonny still thinks he’s in U2, and the melody is a pretty forgettable one. And yeah, Under Cover of Darkness is one of my least favourite Strokes songs, which doesn’t help me. 4/10 Hymn for the Weekend – Obviously not the style of music I want to hear from Coldplay, but I don’t mind it so much. It’s a pretty blatant pop tune, but at least they’re not trying to pass it up as anything else this time around. It’s hardly the deepest song ever but I find it catchy and entertaining for what it is – a pop song just cheesy enough to be fun. It’s a huge improvement over POC in that regard. 5/10 Everglow – If it wasn’t Chris’ distinctive vocals, you could’ve told me this was a song by Justin Beiber or Miley Cyrus or someone similar, and I wouldn’t have blinked an eyelid. This is Coldplay at their least original. At least the Stargate production matches the vapid songwriting. 3/10 Adventure of a Lifetime – Repetitive, but fun. Decent enough I guess, but certainly not enough ideas to justify a 4 and a half minute song though. 6/10 Fun – The least memorable song on the album. I’ve listened to it as much as the rest but I can barely recall anything from it. 4/10 Army of One – Ugh... I really dislike this one. I can’t... I dislike nearly everything about it. No. 2/10 X Marks the Spot – I can understand why people hate this one so much, it’s about as far away from a Coldplay song as it’s possible to get. I think it’s an interesting experiment, although not necessarily a successful one. I like the melody, and the production reminds me of Kendrick Lamar which isn’t a bad thing. 5/10 Amazing Day – This one is annoying because there’s actually some pretty good songwriting at the core. The Racer’s version was absolutely beautiful (like a 9/10) but this just pales in comparison. The arrangement is way too schmaltzy for its own good. 6/10 Up And Up – This sounds like it could be used as one of those “We Are the World” style celebrity charity songs. That’s not a compliment. No amount of Noel Gallagher soloing could save this. 3/10 Overall it’s a 4/10. May come down to 3. Easily the worst Coldplay album by a considerable distance. And before you brand me a Newplay hater or whatever, bear in mind I gave Ghost Stories an 8/10. The problem isn’t so much that I don’t like pop music. It’s not the style I typically listen to, but if they’d made a catchy and memorable pop album I could at least go “It’s not my type of thing, but I can appreciate that it’s well made for what it is”. But I can’t even do that. AHFOD is chart pop with all the things that make chart pop exciting and memorable taken out.

Sigur Ros did a pretty convincing industrial metal album. I'd love to hear Coldplay attempt something like that next - wouldn't be any more jarring than AHFOD surely.

The Goldrush just came up on shuffle. I remember that being one of the weaker Viva-era tracks, but it sounds so good compared to what we've gotten since then.

Agreed. I hope Chris has gotten it out of his system now. Chris has gone through a lot over the past few years without much of a breather. AHFOD sounds like he's running on empty right now. He needs to stop releasing music for a couple of years, take a long break to properly relax, meditate on life a little, then come back to Coldplay with a fresh head.

Is there a list somewhere of all the Viva era tracks? I wanna make sure I've heard them all. Death Will Never Conquer came up on shuffle yesterday. I totally forgot that song existed!

The lyrics to Colour Spectrum are pretty good

Umm...

Yup, it's not even close

(quote missing, what the hell?) Agreed. You can't really judge the production properly with the quality we have. The songwriting on the other hand...

I didn't expect anything and was still disappointed!

I know it's not a popular opinion around these parts but I really quite like Ghost Stories, so I'm not one of those "everything Coldplay does now is crap" kind of guys. I wasn't listening to AHFOD to hate it, honestly. I actually wanted to find some nice moments I could add to playlists and the like. Coldplay rarely let me down in that department. But.... :cry: I'm off to cuddle my copy of Viva. Reminisce over the good times...

Truth be told I really like GS, I even prefer it to X&Y and parts of Parachutes. I like every song on it, even ASFOS. But I really dislike MX, and none of the AHFOD songs have impressed me thus far. I don't know if that makes me a vitriolic Oldplayer or what but I'm certainly not hate-listening to the new stuff, I approach it all with an open mind in the hope that it impresses me. But I'm not gonna lie and say I enjoy songs I don't.

In a way this kind of hits the nail on the head. Coldplay were never that original, they were always criticized for ripping off bands like Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Sigur Ros, My Bloody Valentine etc. The difference is those were bands worth ripping off; they made intelligent, emotionally resonant and timeless music, all of which flowed into Coldplay's works. Compare that to today where Chris is getting his inspiration from of-the-moment chart acts, who play formulaic music appealing to the lowest common denominator for the purpose of shifting units. I'm certainly not saying that's what Coldplay themselves are doing, I have no doubt Chris is making this sort of music out of love and sincerity. But it's just sad to see it go like this, considering the taste and judgement they used to show.

Everglow sounds like boyband music :(

Just off the top of my head, Am I Safe by Ryan Adams and Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space by Spiritualized renders this statement blatantly untrue. And that's just the ones I know about.

"He (Chris) has lots of vivid dreams. He still has one that he's been having for years, where Thom Yorke doesn't want to hang out with him."

Is this the shortest gap Coldplay have had between album announcement and release?

Added!

What do people make of the new songs played at Tidal? I er... I really don't like them. Taking nothing away from people who do but... ugh. Thankfully that thread reminded me that this masterpiece exists [video=youtube;EmIgnrAt_rA] :heart::heart:

nah

So, this is the India song?