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“Hurts Like Heaven” might be the first Coldplay tune to which you can bust something resembling a move. On the rave-tinged “Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall,” Martin imagines a revolution powered by dancing kids. Here, Coldplay rage in their own lovably goofy way. Martin says Mylo Xyloto was inspired by 1970s New York graffiti and the Nazi-resistance movement known as the White Rose – it’s probably no coincidence both were about young people embracing art in times of turmoil. But where that album sometimes seemed like a self-conscious attempt to diversify their sound, with a world-music vibe and U2-style sound effects, this time Coldplay have integrated the “Enoxification” (as they call it) into their own down-the-middle core: Check out the cascading choral vocals that augment Martin’s soaring refrain on “Paradise.” Prominent elements prop up the sonic cathedrals: Jonny Buckland’s guitar, which is riffier and more muscular than ever, and Euro-house synths that wouldn’t sound out of place at a nightclub in Ibiza. It’s a bear-hug record for a bear-market world.Īided again by Brian Eno, Coldplay are still dabbling in the kind of cool-weird artiness they truly went for on 2008’s Viva La Vida.
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On Mylo Xyloto, the choruses are bigger, the textures grander, the optimism more optimistic. and U2 made Achtung Baby – so it comes as no surprise they’d want a zeitgeist-y, big-statement album of their own. But Coldplay’s fifth album – and most ambitious yet – suggests Martin cares too much not to at least try to help.Ĭoldplay recently entered their second decade together – the same point Springsteen made Born in the U.S.A. A cratering economy, riots from Tahrir to Tottenham, the prolonged ubiquity of the Kardashians – these are things that can’t be solved with a lullaby, even from the biggest band to emerge in the 21st century. In the three years since Coldplay’s last album, the world’s problems have gotten a little more urgent.
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