AmbroseCadwell

Still needs more prominent electric guitar to totally win me over but this is the best thing they've put out since Prospekt's March, definitely. Sounds more like the acoustic direction they were supposedly taking before those sessions turned into Mylo Xyloto. No idea why they put BrokEn inbetween Trouble In Town and Daddy, breaking up the 'heartbeat' transition. Seems like there were some last-minute sequencing decisions on this one. Great to hear so much more emphasis on Guy's parts. Still think Everyday Life needs more of an outro to not feel like an anti-climax, Champion Of The World isn't quite catchy or memorable enough to be up there with the big singles from AROBTTH and X&Y like some seem to be comparing it to, it's closer to DLIBYH for me. But I love Trouble In Town and Church, if AHFOD sounded more like the latter I wouldn't have minded nearly as much! This is what Coldplay doing pop should always have sounded like. The production on Church reminds me of "Ray Of Light"-era William Orbit, definite early-00s vibes. And the mixing and mastering is some of the best I've heard on a Coldplay album. I imagine the focus on piano and acoustic guitar helps that a lot. Does anyone else think that Church and Everyday Life sound as if they have the same chords/melody? Cool bookending technique if so.

^^This :/ B-sides wouldn't hurt, either... more like 'Moving To Mars' and 'Ghost Story'.

The main thing I want to know is whether it has more guitars overall than MX/Ghost Stories, or less. Really feels like Jonny is barely there for more than the occasional flourish on some of these songs.

I know it's a pipe dream, but let's have a b-side for the love of all that is good.

What I want for LP7 is more guitars. That's what's been missing from their recent output. I don't expect AROBTTH 2.0 or anything, but right now the 'innovative' thing would be turning back to rock music, not co-writing with Avicii and using an entire track by Jon Hopkins and passing it off as their own. The GS bonus tracks prove they're able to mix old and new styles perfectly well. Plus more b-sides. Look at the reactions to Moving To Mars & Ghost Story. [video=youtube;Q0mdwB2gv7Y]

Both have a significant decrease in the quality of the lyrics. Survival most notably. In the interest of balance I'll agree that both have very good production work though.

I disagree with the idea that you have to leave everything good about your past behind to stay relevant. Other guitar bands such as Suede and Maximo Park have incorporated more electronics into their albums while still keeping plenty of stripped-down rock songs and in the best cases, combining both within the same songs- and their last couple of albums have debuted in the top ten just fine.

Viva La Vida & Prospekt's March was their finest hour IMO, exactly the right balance of a lot of different elements. MX was sort of half-and-half, some classics like Charlie Brown but some duffs like Up In Flames. Then we have Ghost Stories, which I can't stand. What was there in full force on VLV, only there to a much lesser extent on MX and absent from GS? We need Brian Eno back in a major role.

I think it's optimistic tbh... the band have only done something like this once before (Prospekt's March) and that was kind of spur-of-the-moment... if they'd done b-sides or anything for MX I would say it was more likely but as it stands I think they're trying to have the album 'speak for itself'. Though I wish we had b-sides.

Yes! Wish they'd release b-sides for every single too so we could see what other treasures they're sitting on, I feel starved compared to X&Y era...

It might not be too crazy to put O Pt. 2 before O, Glasvegas put a 'Part 2' song before a 'Part 1' song on their second album, a relic of an earlier sequencing I imagine.

Round 1: Always In My Head Round 2: Cemeteries of London Round 3: Magic Round 4: 42 Round 5: Lovers In Japan Round 6: Viva La Vida Round 7: Violet Hill (NO contest) Round 8: Oceans Round 9: Death And All His Friends GS: 3 VLV: 6 Where are Chinese Sleep Chant or LiTii in all of this? Two of my favourite Viva era tracks, would definitely vote for them in their respective rounds...

Should have posted my ranking... VLV or Death And All His Friends/Prospekt's March A Rush Of Blood To The Head Parachutes Ghost Stories / X&Y MX Despite some good songs I rank X&Y quite low as I think it has a similar problem to Ghost Stories musically, even if the emotions in the latter come from an honest place. Felt like they were trying to fit in with trends of the time as opposed to the experimental/rock tightrope they treaded perfectly with AROBTTH or Viva.

Overbearing electronic beats + not enough guitars. Bringing in Avicii and replacing lead guitar with synths wherever possible (with the notable exception of True Love's solo) is less like innovation and more like jumping on the pop bandwagon when all the other "pop" guitar bands are doing the same thing. Also, no b-sides. Why? What do they gain by not releasing more material? Chris hailing One Direction, Bieber and all that lot as impossible to criticise because they're "fun" gets on my pip, too. It's a similar situation to the movie industry, when people go and see big, brainless blockbusters and you can't say it's poor quality because people are enjoying it. Viva era got the balance right between pop, rock and experimentalism, and was fun as well as clever. ~ Also Midnight being composed pretty much entirely by Jon Hopkins, and the bookending synth noises (arguably one of the best moments on the album) by the producer dude. The collaborative spirit is fine but they should have at least advertised it a bit more openly that yeah, Midnight is basically Amphora with vocals.

This is why we need b-sides...

It's a totally unheard and unreleased track the producers and suchlike on MX were enthusing about during the making of the album, saying how great it was, and the letters 'CK' were written on Chris's outfit for the tour & were the logo for the song Us Against The World. Everybody was hoping it would get released as a b-side or a bonus track but it never was.

I couldn't agree more :( 'A Spell A Rebel Yell' is a really interesting song IMO. It shows Coldplay experimenting with electronics without it being the slightest bit 'pop'. And 'The Goldrush' is another favourite. And imagine if we'd never had 'One I Love' or 'See You Soon'. I guess we're getting a couple of bonus tracks- if you're in the US or can afford an import, but it's a shame to think that the band may just be sitting on material we'd actually love because they don't see b-sides as a necessity. We'd probably have 'Car Kids' by now if they'd done b-sides for all the MX singles.

I don't think anyone here is trying to say mainstream = bad, just that there is some overlap- dependent on WHY something is mainstream.

It's not exactly 'one song'... since the Viva era finished there's been a certain duet that riled a lot of people, and 'Midnight' is hardly a Coldplay original composition given it was the leading single for this album era. I agree Always In My Head and Oceans are much less 'mainstream' in style, but it's hard not to notice the lack of prominent guitar in a lot of what we've heard so far. One band changing their sound like that is totally fine, but with lots making the same decisions at once it feels more like a bandwagon than artistic innovation and evolution. I'm not convinced the changes in Coldplay's style here have been made by for the right reasons.

To be honest, every record seems to get broken every other day these days, so with the word-of-mouth hype building up from their 'surprise' tactics on this one it will probably still debut at #1.

Not too comfortable about the "techno" description...

If the lyrics are intentionally simplistic, that still doesn't make it okay necessarily. Suede did the same thing on Head Music for a different reason to the theories above (to make the songs more "pop"-sounding and to create a carefree mood) and it's generally seen by their fans as one of the worst creative decisions in their career.

1. I Ran Away 2. The Goldrush 3. Moving To Mars 4. The World Turned Upside Down 5. For You I wish they still did b-sides :(

1. Life In Technicolor ii 2. Prospekt's March / Poppyfields 3. 42 4. The Goldrush 5. A Spell A Rebel Yell (I just love how unusual it is for them, I wish they still did b-sides :()

Actually I'd say the ambient guitar that kicks in halfway through is very very reminiscent of Eno's Apollo album.