Martybuck Berrychamp

This is going to be a big, huge pop hit. It sounds very Rihanna to me. I hear a lot of We Found Love (In A Hopeless Place) in this song. The chords are played with a similar rhythm and it has that really simple, catchy chorus. I LOVE IT! =) Imagine them playing this live?! Everyone's going to be jumping like crazy.

Magic really hearkens back to earlier Coldplay albums, as far as production and instrumentation goes. This makes me really happy. Obviously, the drum beat is more electronic and more simplified, but this doesn't detract much from the song -- it really develops as it progresses. I love the simple beginning, and how it flourishes into a barrage of magical falsetto crooning, acoustic strumming, atmospheric riffing, and synthy swishing. I love the easy-listening Coldplay -- something you can put on as a background when driving and be completely immersed with the ambience. This is why it seems to similar to their earlier stuff to me! Magic's downfall is its lyrical content. In fact, from all of the songs I've heard from the new Coldplay material, the lyrical content is severely lacking. It seems lazy and underwritten and, frankly, not like Coldplay at all. All of it is completely trite and contrived. You can guess the next lyrics because of the simple and highly unoriginal rhyming scheme. This is not to say Chris Martin has ever been poet-level lyricist, but compared to this stuff -- yes he has. Viva's lyrics are well thought-out and they tell a story. X&Y is vague and cliche, but catchy and expressive. AROBTTH and Parachutes are visceral and heartfelt. Magic's lyrics are poppy and banal. So this is good background music. I'll listen to this on a rainy day when I'm driving around, or when I'm trying to fall asleep and need to relax, but it doesn't speak to me on any deep level. But hey! Isn't that what pop music should be about? Coldplay is making a concerted effort to be more of a pop band, and that's not bad at all -- especially with this stuff from Ghost Stories. Pop music needs to be more dynamic, and Coldplay's really good at writing that kind of music. So I'm going to give this a 7/10. PS: I'm new to this site, but I've been a Coldplay fan for a long time and wanted badly to talk about Ghost Stories! So I hope that was a good review. Thank you!