Coldplay is a band on a journey.
Since 2005’s “X&Y”, they’ve gradually expanded their sound as they’ve moved through various soundscapes, exploring the pop universe. Their newest album “Mylo Xyloto” takes their raw tenderness and polishes it to a high sheen, resulting in some of the band’s most energetic and colorful music. The LP is a study in presentation for the band, but after first impressions “Xyloto” disappointingly yields very little substance.Producer Brian Eno has sent the band on a very different path than earlier albums. Where listeners once found clarity in their minimalistic arrangements, they now have their eardrums filled with a busy swarm of vocal samples, flourishes of synthesizer and thumping, heavily digitized drum beats. That previous serenity is glimpsed only briefly in the album, on tracks such as “Us Against the World” and “U.F.O”. Much like preceding album “Viva La Vida or Death and All his Friends”, it’s clear that Eno likes to embellish at every turn.
For a band that is able to sound so different from album to album, the songs have stayed very much the same. The anthemic ballads are here, and every chorus screams for a stadium. Coldplay has always made music to fill arenas, but the sense of intimacy that their music portrayed so well is conspicuously absent from the LP. The angst-y earnestness that made “Parachutes” so endearing is long gone.
Some fans may despair over this, but the band is simply looking to mature. Frontman Chris Martin doesn’t want to just be a pretty boy singing a nice love song any longer. His charismatic vocals are compressed or laced with effects on almost every track. There are none of the moody romantic ballads which had been the band’s hallmark on this album. In “Princess of China”, Rihanna provides powerhouse vocals that make Coldplay seem out of place in their own song.
The band’s lyrics have continued their progression to a much more abstract aesthetic, making the subject of most songs very vague and hard to discern. This is not all bad, as it shows Coldplay is going from a simple black and white world of love and heartbreak, to a place with shades of gray. Musically it’s easily the band’s most joyous album, while the progreslyrics often allude to imagery that is much more bittersweet, albeit without much prowess.
Their album covers have changed as well, the crisply defined imagery in earlier albums has given way to “Mylo Xyloto’s” indulgent and vivid cover, that focuses much more on textures and ambiguous feelings. In a way, this is symbolic of the way their music has evolved as well.
In that respect, “Mylo Xyloto” has brought Coldplay a long way. They are a band with the sort of international bearing that few other groups can compare with. Unfortunately this has a lot to do with why “Xyloto” doesn’t succeed as an album. They’re leaving their past behind without an original next step.
Where other notable bands tend to challenge their listeners, Coldplay aims to please. By far their most pop album, Eno has removed their restraint and allowed Martin and Co. to indulge themselves to the point where they lose what has made them genuine.
They’re not afraid to use other’s compositional ideas work if it means a hit, taking the piano part of Peter Allen’s “I Go to Rio” to form the catchy hook on “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall”. This technique had been the subject of a lawsuit in “Viva La Vida”; this time around their sources have earned a place in the liner notes.
The title “Mylo Xyloto” has no meaning, the band has admitted as much in interviews. It sounds nice, but has no significance to the band or its members, and it’s left to the listener to interpret its meaning. Their songs seem to be written under the same pretense. “At the end of the day, I’m still a slave to catchy songs,” Martin admitted in a recent interview with Pitchfork Media. In its effort to please the crowds, Coldplay seems to have forgotten its voice.
