For a band often criticised as vapid, the way Coldplay have followed up 2008’s biggest album, Viva La Vida, is far from predictable. With an unpronounceable and meaningless title, Mylo Xyloto is a boy-meets-girl concept album set in a dystopian urban environment. Its influences are said to include the film, American graffiti and The Wire, but is this all cover for another collection of insipid, saccharine ballads?
Not at all. Take ‘Every Teardrop is a Waterfall’, the surprising lead single, with its Peter Allen-sampled synth stabs. The metaphor-filled lyrics just about work in the context of the music, with talk of soaring walls and turning records up, but surely nobody can associate with the atrocious “I’d rather be a comma than a full stop.” Making far better use of the electronic formula is the follow-up release ‘Paradise’. A grandstring introduction makes way for a hypnotic beat, and its soaring “para-para-paradise” chorus will soon be filling arenas worldwide.
Mylo Xyloto’s best material lies away from the singles, with the subtle guitar lines of ‘Charlie Brown’ and its vague imagery already a fan favourite. ‘Hurts Like Heaven’ opens with a cannon shot, as dream-like guitars jangle behind robotic vocal effects. As demonstrated by their inclusion in summer festival sets, the right balance is struck between old and new; not shying away from progression and experimentation, yet not completely abandoning previous directions. ‘Us Against the World’ is a pleasant return to the simpler Parachutes sound of just an acoustic guitar and vocals.
The album is certainly not without its faults. Uninventive songwriting, unnecessary interludes and a weak narrative all struggle to hold Mylo Xyloto together. The fumbled wordplay includes such sentiments as “like a river to a raindrop” reaching a nadir with the painfully clichéd ‘Princess of China’. A weak, over-produced venture into R&B balladry, the inclusion of Rihanna alone will result in an undeserved hit. Of course, there are plenty of “oh-oh-ohs” and “la-la-las” thrown in for good measure.
If Viva La Vida was a triumphant step forward by the band into stadium rock territory, Mylo Xyloto is quite the step back. With talk of it being their final album, would it be such a tragedy at this rate?
