My thoughts on Coldplay’s album, “Ghost Stories”. Again, I know this is late, but, again, busy life. deal with it. ANYWAAAAAYYYY… For quite a long time now, I have a been a great admirer of the music of Coldplay. While they very much cater the single’s-band crowd, they are certainly much better than the majority of acts out there. In fact, a lot of their musical craft is similar in quality to indie bands, and of course their most obvious inspirations (U2 and Radiohead) to an extent. And they continue their ongoing successful grand but indie scale in a more toned down fashion with their most recent outing, “Ghost Stories”. This album, while typical of the Coldplay fashion of dreamy music and vocals, just felt very lightweight compared to their previous couple outings. Don’t get me wrong. It is nice that Coldplay is scaling back on their scope after a while of large production, but… I don’t know… this album, while pretty good, felt like it needed more content as a whole. I can completely understand what Chris Martin and the gang were aiming for here, seeing as how from the lyrics, this is obviously a break-up album in reference to Martin’s divorce from Gwyneth Paltrow. I mean, seriously, it’s almost impossible to mention this album without mentioning that fricking break-up. It’s literally synonymous with the album. Anyway, it is clear to see that the toned down atmosphere this album provokes is the same feeling you get when isolated after a break-up, but it suffers a lot from cliché romance lyrics, and I don’t think having a constant calm tone is something Coldplay’s best at, after hearing “Ghost Stories”. Sure, they had their calm moments in there first two albums, “Parachutes” and “A Rush of Blood of Blood to the Head”, but those albums also had a balance of all-out alternative rock anthems. And sure, many artists like Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake have stuck with a clam environment many times, but they do a very great job with that. Coldplay’s had their share of great soft songs, but they just can’t hold a gigantic amount of satisfaction when that softness is elongated to the majority of a +40-minute runtime. With all those cons aside, the album is still a finely produced set of mood pieces that are sure to entertain your emotional and atmospheric side for a little while. Living up to their greatness for singles, Coldplay is sure to have the singles “Magic” and “A Sky Full of Stars” become as much of classics of their repertoire as “Yellow”, “Clocks”, “Viva la Vida”, and the like. Most of “Ghost Stories”, in my opinion, is certainly better than what was spat out in “Mylo Xyloto”. I mean, that album had too much going on in it and not enough genuine charisma, especially with some corny use of electronics. This album, however, while borrowing from the electronic aspects of that album, uses it in a more clever light that adds to the soothingness, however it is used to the best effect in “Midnight”, where the band goes all-out non-radio-friendly with a haunting feel, electronically distorted vocals and strangely clever EDM beats near the end. That one is easily the best track in the album, in my opinion. Overall, “Ghost Stories is not as good as “Parachutes”, “Rush of Blood”, and “Viva la Vida or Death and all His Friends”, and the whole product is a bit underwhelming, but it is still a pretty nice listen for Coldplay standards. It blends a little bit of their old synthesized indie style with their newer experimental orchestrated scope that gives an interestingly fresh take on an already diverse group. I just hope they step it up more on quality next time. ***.6/***** Tyler Guillory Joseph Steingold Sandy Lulu H.c. Kyle McGrath Arian Behboodi
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 01:40:44 +0000
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