Better than Ghost Stories, which I thought was super dull. But they did the pop thing better on Mylo Xyloto. I like Amazing Day the most because it actually sounds like a Coldplay song. 3.5/5
I only enjoyed Everglow. The rest of the songs suffer from the same problem as most Coldplay songs post-Viva La Vida. They are just too fucking dull and one dimensional. There is absolutely no character or personality to these songs. Even the songwriting has been very simplistic and unoriginal these last couple of albums.
Well, for those of you who powered through and did not listen to the leak, here's the Beyonce collab "Hymn For The Weekend"! http://www.spin.com/2015/11/beyonce...er&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=spintwitter
You listened to Everglow? You pussy. I'll listen to everything on Friday. I guess. Maybe. If there's FLAC.
Lol, you be waiting for FLAC quality while I'm just gonna listen to it on Spotify. Mike Shinoda would be disappointed.
Am I the only that absolutely loves Hymn for the Weekend? It's just a really well written pop song, and their vocals actually work well together. Anyway, as an album, I'd rate it about 8.5. Turned out to be a lot better than I expected. Digging it! Although X Marks The Spot was unnecessary, in my opinion. Favorites - Army of One, Everglow, Hymn, Amazing Day.
I'm waiting for any feeling of happiness that'd make listening to this album bearable, but that feeling seems to be taking its time with arriving.
I'll say this: I'm probably going to have a differing opinion from most of you guys about the album, because I absolutely adored "Hymn For The Weekend". Can't stop replaying it. It's just...it's SO GOOD. Beyonce was used perfectly, the beat is fire, and it's just...dude. It's definitely in my top 10 Coldplay songs at the moment.
I really like the songs I've heard so far! (Up & Up/Amazing Day live version, Adventure of a Lifetime) I'm going to listen to the whole thing on Friday when it's finally out
Pretty much. It's almost embarrassing to compare their last three albums to their first four. They went full pop, they stopped being their own name. I still think they're great songwriters, but they seemed to have lost any desire to push for anything new. I can't blame them though, making music with Rihanna, Avicii, and Beyonce is making them boatloads of money. Why try when you'll print money regardless? They seem extremely content just making pop and love songs rather than concept albums like VlVoDaAHF and X&Y. I enjoyed this album, I'm happy with it, but it offers you so little. There's nothing here that you can't hear from any other music artist. It's a decent album, but it's a terrible Coldplay album. With each album they're losing that Coldplay touch, and sounding more and more like everything else. All I can say is I'm glad they're taking a break after this one.
In their case, how can you not see how? When a band makes several well-regarded albums and establishes a signature sound, then completely abandons it all to make overproduced songs with Rihanna and Beyonce, how can you still say it's not a clear regression? I don't know how someone could listen to a song like Viva la Vida, then listen to Hymn for the Weekend and say they're still even trying at this point. Like any other music artist/band, they're also businessmen. They know exactly what they're doing, why bother coming up with new ideas when they can crank out overproduced songs with other top 40 artists that will guarantee them a hit? I don't think it's as simple as "Maybe they just like making this kind of music". All I'm saying is that there was a point when they were considered an alternative rock band, they completely abandoned that for something that takes FAR less effort. This is Chris Martin ft Coldplay now.
I haven't listened to A Head Full of Dreams yet, so I obviously can't speak about it. However, simplyfing this down to "they sold out" is completely bogus. They may have had a so-called signature sound, but I'm more than sure that each member of the band is in a much different place than they were 10 years ago in the recording of X&Y, the last album you could call "signature" Coldplay. The band has stated numerous times that they are unhappy with how it turned out, as it was more of a "label" album than an album they wanted to make. They didn't want to be pinned down to that sound. That's why we have an album like Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends. It's been well documented that Chris Martin loves EDM, and Pop music such as One Direction, Katy Perry, Beyoncé etc. It seems to me that he is making music that he likes, that he would listen to, rather than pander to the critics. They may not be trying to do something revolutionary, new, or different, but there's nothing wrong with that. While me stating that he loves Pop could contribute to your arugment that Coldplay is now essentially a Chris Martin solo project, it really isn't. The band during the promotion of Ghost Stories talked about how they're a much more collaborative effort now. For example, Magic was based on a bass riff Guy Berryman wrote, and they built off of that. In Coldplay's early years, everything they wrote was built off of Chris Martin's ideas, his vision. If anything, everything Pre-Viva la Vida was Chris Martin ft. Coldplay, not the other way around. Just because you find their recent efforts to be shallow and commercialized for the big bucks, doesn't mean that's actually the truth. ALSO: You act as if what Coldplay was doing on Parachutes and A Rush of Blood to the Head was super original music. All it is is well done Bends-era Radiohead worship. If Coldplay are trend hopping now, they certainly were trend hopping in the early 2000s.
These thoughts are based on 2 1/2 listens. Maybe I should listen to the album a bit more, but I feel like that is enough to get a good grip on how I feel about this album. A Head Full of Dreams: This is a pretty decent opening to the album. I love the more ambient parts it has, and I love how upbeat it is. However, there's no distinct melody, which is really odd. Having a memorable chorus is key to any Pop song. I would like this one better if it did. 3/5 Birds: Probably one of my favorite tracks on this album. It's catchy as fucking hell, in large part because of the bassline. Hearing tihs makes me wish there were more tracks on this album with prominent bass. 4/5 Hymn for the Weekend: I can say without a dobut that this is my favorite on the album. Like Birds, it's extremely catchy, and the production is absolutely fantastic. It's a completely unashamed Pop song that is done oh so well. I also like the way Beyoncé was used. You definitely know she's there, and makes some great contributions, but she doesn't overstay her welcome. 4.5/5 Everglow: Sounds like "classic" Coldplay with a Ghost Stories flavor. I really like this one, though more could have been done with this track. 3.5/5 Adventure of a Lifetime: Not much to say here. I liked it when it first dropped, and I like it now. I just kinda wish more Funk-like songs like this appeared on the album, but oh well. The only bad thing I could say about this one is that Chris Martin doesn't fit well on it, at least in the way he chooses to sing it. 4/5 Fun: The chorus brought the song down a bit for me. It's not bad by any means, but I was expecting something a bit different based on the intro. If you're going to make a song with a Rihanna sound-alike, you might as well just get Rihanna. Of all songs to have major hit potential on this albu, I feel this is one of them (along with Hymn for the Weekend). 3.5/5 Kaleidoscope: A fine transition. It works, but it's nothing special. Army of One: A perfectly harmless track. It's fine, but it feels so safe, so typical Coldplay. It's just really bland. 3/5 X Marks the Spot: Much to Decay's dismay, I actually enjoy this track. The lyrics are certainly cringe-worthy, but sonically, I really like it. It's cool to see Coldplay try something a bit different, for them at least. 3.25/5 Amazing Day: I enjoyed this track a lot more than I was anticipating. This studio version really is an improvement over the live version played a few months back. It feels less like a wedding track, and more like a track that if you told me was recorded during Ghost Stories, I wouldn't question it. Short, but sweet. 4/5 Colour Spectrum: Another transition track. Like before, just nice. It does its job. Up&Up: What a weak way to end the album. Maybe this track left such a bad taste in my mouth because I hyped it up too much, but it's just wasted potential. The song is almost 7 minutes long, but feels 2 minutes long, and not in a good way. It has a really dumb melody that goes absolutely nowhere. 2.5/5 Additonal Thoughts: This album is a fine collection of tracks, but as an album, it falls real flat. The album is extremely anticlimactic. It's almost as long as Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends was, but doesn't feel that way. It feels like a Greatest Hits compilation of tracks that aren't actually hits. They're mostly good songs, but it just doesn't feel like an album. Album Rating: 3.25/5 Highlights: Birds Hymn for the Weekend Amazing Day