Coldplay: Mylo Xyloto (Track-by-Track Review)

Staking the Claim
Quick: you're one of the biggest bands in the world; you've garnered success over the last decade by writing sincere lyrics and making subtle changes to your soft-rock sound so that every album is noticeably different, but still unmistakably you; your last album was a major shift in sound and style that included vivid lyrics and instruments foreign to Western pop music, leaving some to marvel at your brilliance and others to wonder what they just wasted 45 minutes on; what are you going to do next?


Why, a paper-thin concept album influenced by electro-pop, of course! Coldplay's fifth album, Mylo Xyloto, is apparently the story of people (specifically two lovers) trying to survive in a hostile world (a completely original concept, of course), but good luck trying to glean that from the lyrics. The Dickens-inspired imagery from Viva La Vida is nowhere to be found on Mylo Xyloto; generic characters with no clear motivations abound, and the state of their world is never outlined, leaving the listeners who care to wonder why they should. In another jarring move, the uncommon instruments (and most of the interesting guitar work, for that matter) have been replaced by too much of producer Brian Eno's "enoxification" (an almost clever term, rendered unnecessary with the realization that Genesis coined one eerily similar nearly forty years ago).


Start Panning
Mylo Xyloto- A pointless, forgettable collection of pretty sounds. The only reason it was separated from the second track is because bands today think people would flip out at having to listen to an intro section that runs longer than ten seconds. 6/10 
Hurts Like Heaven- This is Coldplay as produced by Owl City: obnoxiously poppy with nothing substantive to say. Lyrics that might've potentially carried some meaning or poignancy are lost in the lack of subtlety that would've made them work on an earlier album, not to mention that Chris Martin's voice can barely be made out under the instruments, and the fact of the song's tempo (around 176, with the melody in the verses being mostly 16th notes) doesn't help any. At a normal four-minute length, it blazes by before it can become memorable. 6/10 
Paradise- Few things ruin a concept album for me like repeated themes and lyrics being revealed by the release of the first single (which I know this is not, but it uses the lyric "Every tear, a waterfall," which is an obvious reference to the lead single); it happened last year with A Thousand Suns, and it's happening here. It's like starting a Sherlock Holmes story with the arrest of the bad guy, it takes the fun out of finding these things for myself. The song tries to introduce one of the characters in its love story, but it does a pretty poor job of giving me any reason to connect with her. Who exactly is she? Why did she "expect the world"? I don't know, and apparently all Coldplay thinks I need to know is that she wants 'MORE!'. And here, we've officially hit Disney-knockoff territory. The string-based hook is great, and the melody is nice, but it gets buried in the choruses, which are otherwise the most enjoyable sections. 6/10 
Charlie Brown- .... Seriously? What assumptions am I supposed to make about that? Does the song have anything to do with Charlie Brown, or Peanuts in general? Is it supposed to suggest that the character is wishy-washy, or that he has a beagle who thinks he's a WWI flying ace? Here again, nothing concrete is offered about the character; vague, generic lyrics about wanting to stand out from an unspecified crowd. An unfortunately poor choice for the first track with music I legitimately enjoyed. Ignoring some Chipmunk background vocals at the beginning and bridge, the music is quite pretty; the guitar hook borders on anthemic, and almost makes up for the lyrics. 7/10
Us Against the World- Finally, a chance to sit back and breathe. Mainly an acoustic-guitar-and-vocals song, some organs are brought in near the end and gently swell, and drop out to let Martin finish what he started. It has the least memorable melody so far, but it stands out with Martin mostly singing in his lower register, lending the song a mellow atmosphere. The lyrics are unclear (though, by this point I've come to expect it) and don't really feel like they move the story forward or say anything significant about the characters, but for once the fact is forgivable. 6/10 
M.M.I.X.- Even more unnecessary than the opening track. Without anything remotely melodic to save it, it's just an uninteresting collage of windy sounds, until the last six seconds when it starts building up to the intro of "Teardrop". 3/10 
Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall- If the previous songs had been more like this, I would've enjoyed them a lot more. The echoing instrumentation creates a great atmosphere, the lyrics finally offer some kind of characterization, and both elements work with the melody and drumming to make the song sound as passionate and grand as its metaphoric title. 9/10 
Major Minus- The sporadic grungy guitar riffs feel like a missed opportunity; they hint at the possibility of an actually hard-rocking song, but instead shift back into the expected atmospheric territory. This one appears to be at least partly from the perspective of a villain, but it's as vague and cliche as any of the other tracks. The band feels the need evoke thoughts of Captain Hook in the lyric "Hear the crocodiles tickin' round the world"; are they saying that the villains are pirates, or is it just a general metaphor with no clear explanation? I'm beginning to think that writing in character isn't Martin's strong suit. 6/10 
UFO- Follows the pattern of "Us Against the World" by being nothing but acoustic guitars and singing until the middle, when this time strings are brought in. I would've thought that having some acoustic tracks would be a good break between sets of over-"enoxified" tracks, but it's actually annoying having to switch like this, especially when the acoustic tracks are as forgettable and out-of-place as these two. Thankfully, "UFO" is both short and lyrically spare, so the vague sentimentality here actually works, unlike longer songs that don't further the story or provide insight to the world or characters. 6/10 
Princess of China- I'm not crazy about Rihanna's songs, but she is definitely one of my favorite voices in pop music today. Unfortunately, she doesn't really get a chance to show off in this song; the one element Coldplay chooses to hold back on, and it's what would've been one of the best things about the album. The song goes through several sections that range from "loud, fuzzy and annoying" to stripped-down and pretty, and everything in between. It's a course of ideas that don't really work for me as a whole. 5/10 
Up In Flames- Any drama this song might've had is completely undermined by the unnecessary drumming; having such a basic beat looped in the background ruins the effect of just the piano and vocals. The only time it works is after the strings and guitar are brought in, but everything before that point would've been better off without it. 5/10 
A Hopeful Transmission- Reminds me of one of the instrumentals on I-Empire. It's pretty, and this time actually works really well as a transition into the next track. 7/10 
Don't Let It Break Your Heart- The melody is buried under the instrumentation (and the lyrics can barely be made out), there's no hook I can remember after listening to it five times in a row, and it's way too loud; I'm sure it's a crowd-pleaser when played live, but this isn't live. 5/10 
Up With the Birds- This is another that I wish the rest of the album had been more like; it opens with piano and vocals over a single held synth note that eventually fades out, and is replaced with a swell of synth and organ work that surrounds the vocals in a way reminiscent of "The Escapist" from Viva La Vida. From that point, guitars are brought in, and finish the second half of the song with a tenderness that was even missing from the acoustic numbers. 8/10


The Daily Haul
Partly influenced by graffiti, Mylo Xyloto is a colorful collage of experiences; unfortunately, Coldplay apparently forgot that pop music is not a visual medium. Mylo Xyloto fails as a concept album because nothing about its world is established concretely, the characters are barely half-baked, and the supposed story is almost non-existent (something that can be explained away, though not forgiven in my book, by the little fact that the album was intended to be a soundtrack). Musically, the band swaps their trademark drama and subtlety, which might've saved several of these songs, for over-produced atmospheres and unearned sentimentality. 
OVERALL RATING: 61%

Review: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys

My Chemical Romance- Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys

In the two years after New Jersey natives My Chemical Romance released their third album, 2006’s rock opera The Black Parade, all signs pointed toward a return-to-roots rock album being in the works as the follow-up.  The Black Parade b-sides, their cover of “Desolation Row”, and a pair of untitled bootlegs that made their way around the ‘Net indicated that the band was going back to the no-frills post-hardcore of their first two efforts.  And frontman Gerard Way told MTV, “I think there’s going to be [a] lack of concept . . . It’s not going to be hiding behind a veil of fiction or uniforms and makeup anymore. . . . People who were really big fans of our first record, they’ll find things they’re really going to love about the new material – and not because we sound like that first record at all, it’s because there’s a purity to it.  There’s less happening.”

Well, that lasted about ten seconds.

Not that Danger Days is a bad album by any means.  It is, however, the farthest thing from the album fans were expecting.  The punk and rock elements are still at the forefront, but a style completely new to MCR’s catalogue is put to use: synth-pop (I’d love to call it “synth-rock”, but the songs have more in common with the Killers than Pink Floyd).  And, despite the promise of a “lack of concept” this time around, the guys have punched out another collection of songs with similar themes.  It’s not a linear concept album, because a definite storyline can’t be found in the lyrics, but it’s impossible to deny that they’ve created a world which is supposed to be represented by the album.  The band uses its website, YouTube account, and a site for the fictitious “Better Living Industries” (symbolically abbreviated as “BL/ind.”) to flesh out its world; the foursome plays the role of the titular Fabulous Killjoys, a group of guys who chose to live in the desert outside Battery City, which is under BL/ind.’s control.

Pros:     The guys have released what they set out to make: an album that’s just all-around fun.   Other bands talk about capturing the energy of their performances on an album, but none have accomplished the task as well as MCR.  They’ve applied the classic- and arena-rock elements they first used sparingly in The Black Parade to an entire album; the songs sound enormous through the earbuds, and make you wonder how much better they’d be live.  Several songs are highlighted by unexpected guitar solos and vocal arrangements that keep the album from being classified as “predictable”.  Adding to that fact, the album features a number power ballads and bright mid-tempo songs – a noteworthy difference from the dark rockers the band’s built a career on, but everything feels surprisingly natural.

Cons:    Everything, except “Planetary (GO!).” Normally, the synth-tinged songs come across as standard fare because the synth doesn’t overtake the rest of the instruments, but this song could easily be mistaken for a release by any number of today’s pop divas.  And if you picked up this album expecting Tommy or The Wall, you’re going to be disappointed.  The world that the band’s created mainly exists in the Internet; there’s no story to be found in the lyrics.  Odd, then, that they chose to include an intro and two updates by Mindless Self Indulgence’s Steve, Righ? as “Dr. Death Defying”, who informs us that two of the Killjoys were taken out by an “exterminator,” and that, for some reason, he has to “start running.” The character works well in the opening track, but the album would’ve been far better off without the distracting interludes.

Partway into the initial recording sessions, My Chemical Romance decided to scrap the material they’d written up to that point and take a different direction with Black Parade’s follow-up.  The result: twelve songs (and three trips the Doctor) that prove the band’s ability to change both its style and image without feeling like a different artist.  Danger Days could be the start of a whole new era for My Chem, or it might be a one-time experiment; either way, it’s a great addition to their discography.

Review: 21st Century Breakdown

I thought I'd break the monotony (mostly my own... I've been doing this for hours now) with my first posted review.

Green Day: 21^st Century Breakdown

Say what you will about American Idiot’s plot, the tight narrative helped keep the album from turning into an unfocused mess.  21^st Century Breakdown, on the other hand, is as musically consistent as ‘98’s Nimrod; not necessarily a bad thing, until you finally notice that, despite being marketed as another “rock opera”, remarkably little happens to its characters.  Once the lack of a plot becomes apparent, the eclectic songs based solely around the ideals of two polar-opposite punks start sounding more and more like the angry rants of three thirty-something rockers who just might be losing their touch.

The guys opted out of having longtime collaborator Rob Cavallo produce, and brought in Butch Vig, the man behind Nevermind.  The only evidence of his work with Nirvana is in the quiet-loud-quiet-loud structure of “Christian’s Inferno;” the rest of the album (even “Inferno” itself) is sonic black ice unlike anything Green Day’s ever put out.  The slickness works well with the pop-punk/glam-rock numbers and “21 Guns” (Breakdown’s answer to “Wake Me Up When September Ends”), but it feels wasted on most of the album’s midsection.

Starting with “Christian’s Inferno,” ending with “Restless Heart Syndrome,” and excusing a few decent tracks in between, Breakdown becomes as overblown and boring as Olympic knitting.  One of the two ballads included in the sequence, “Last Night on Earth”, is a piano-and-reverb love song that shows the sensitive side of disenchanted male lead Christian, while simultaneously cementing itself as the most undramatic work ever included in a rock opera.  The other, the aforementioned “Syndrome,” is essentially a re-working of “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” only with two minutes-twenty of acoustic-and-string-backed crooning in the way before it becomes remotely interesting.  “Last of the American Girls,” Breakdown’s version of “She’s a Rebel” (sensing a pattern yet?), may be the worst song Green Day’s ever recorded, largely due to the awful guitar tone used after each run of the chorus (and the flavorless melody, guitar work, and bass line).

But, they say that all that matters is that you start strong and finish strong.  For what it’s worth, Breakdown does open and close with its strongest songs.  The title track is as close as the album gets to unobtrusively merging Idiot’s rock-opera grandiosity and punk attitude with the shine that Vig brought to the table; “Know Your Enemy” and “Horseshoes and Hand Grenades” find the band toying with hair metal, and “Viva La Gloria!,” “The Static Age,” and “See the Light” prove that they can write pop-punk for the 21^st century while being far ahead of their contemporaries.  Unfortunately, a third of the album is surprisingly mediocre; despite all of its shiny production, Breakdown is a dull addition to a collection of brilliant gems.