I honestly had no idea what to expect from this album as I was anticipating its release. The two singles Coldplay had released prior to the release of the album, “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall” and “Paradise”, were good, but seemed like a radical departure from the band’s previous musical style. I was almost afraid it wouldn’t sound like Coldplay anymore. As a huge fan of the band, this would have been simply unacceptable.
It turns out that my fears were unfounded. The instant Mylo Xyloto was released on iTunes, I downloaded it and proceeded to listen to it. Within moments I was enraptured by the music, totally in love with it. The sound was distinctly the band’s famous, platinum-record-selling sound, simply with a new twist of electronic influence woven into it, and it seemed totally, absolutely perfect. In my opinion, there was no better route for the band’s sound to take on their fifth studio album.
However, there were a couple of songs on the album that I wasn’t a terribly huge fan of. First, there was “Princess of China,” which featured Rihanna. Although it was well-made and the instruments were actually quite interesting and cool sounding, it was too much like a traditional pop song for my taste. I have heard much worse from the pop genre though, and in fact the song is probably quite good when looked at in the context of a pop song, as opposed to an alternative or soft rock song.
Another song that wasn’t to my taste was “Up in Flames,” the track immediately succeeding “Princess of China.” For one thing, there was almost a complete lack of instruments; most of the song featured nothing but an electronic kick drum, a piano, and lead singer Chris Martin’s voice. These two songs are easy to skip, though, and the rest of the album is just so fantastic that I completely overlook them when judging it.
In the end, I simply can’t resist playing Mylo Xyloto over and over again. There are very few albums which are in my personal list of “Awesome Albums,” and I’m proud to say that this is one of them. Martin and the rest of the band members and team who created this should be, as the Brits say, “chuffed to bits.” Anybody who dares to give the album less than an A should be locked in prison for a million years.