Coldplay Tries New Things on Mylo Xyloto

One of England’s biggest musical imports returns with their first new effort in over three years, and show they aren’t afraid to incorporate new sounds into their own sound.  Now don’t get scared, because Coldplay still sounds like Coldplay.  It’s hard not to when your frontman is Chris Martin.  I’ll admit that after listening to this album I do prefer Chris Martin’s voice when it is not just accompanied by an acoustic guitar. 

I didn’t really start getting into Coldplay until “The Scientist” was released as a single off of “A Cold Rush Of Blood To The Head.”  After that was “Clocks,” and then I got into their “X & Y” album.  With “Mylo Xyloto,” the strongest tracks in my opinion are the more upbeat songs whose sound would fill up an arena.  Songs like this are the fast paced lyrically and melodically “Hurts Like Heaven,” and then there’s “Paradise” which is the first Coldplay song I know of that includes a Young Jeezy style hip-hop beat, and the surprising Rihanna collaboration of “Princess Of China.”  The reason I say surprising is because I don’t think many people would think of Rihanna being on their list of people they’d want to collaborate with.  However, I do enjoy the song and would love to see the video if they were to release it as a single.  It’s just another example how boundaries are constantly being pushed in music these days.

I think it’s a pretty good album, but I also believe the band shines more on the upbeat songs than on the slower songs.  That isn’t a bad thing either, because a majority of the songs on this album are pretty upbeat.  It’s nice to hear from these guys after the break they’ve had, but I don’t think it’s their best full album to date.  Forunately, I don’t see Coldplay hanging up their instruments any time soon.

My grade: 3 out of 5 stars