My Own Little World

I'm in the middle of what's probably my third listen of A Head Full of Dreams , and I cannot decide for the life of me whether I like this record or not. On one hand, this is the upbeat Coldplay that I know and (usually) love back once again with a vengeance to inspire the world to seize the day and make the most of their lives. On the other hand, this is overall the least Coldplay has ever sounded like themselves because of the increasing amount of electronic textures present. Granted, A Head Full of Dreams  pushes Chris Martin and Co. into new directions musically. When I head "Viva la Vida" back in 2008, I never would have thought that we would be hearing Coldplay going full-on disco pop ("Adventure of a Lifetime") or R&B ("Hymn for the Weekend," which also features Beyonce). These areas of experimentation are intriguing and typically work because they're so unexpected. From a band who over the years has been known to more or less st...

When I saw the music video for "Midnight," the first song released from Coldplay's new album Ghost Stories , I was more than a little perplexed. This song was like nothing I had ever heard before in its eerie vocals and sweeping synths, but I just did not like it. Then the first official single, "Magic," was announced along with the album. Seeing the track listing and the running time made me even more curious. Well, Ghost Stories  has been released, and I could not be more convinced that you'll love it. The beginning of the album is surprisingly down-tempo and melancholy. With previous openers such as "Hurts Like Heaven" from Mylo Xyloto  and "Life in Technicolor" from Viva La Vida , I expected something much happier than "Always In My Head." That is when I started listening to the lyrics to see why this might be, and I found out exactly why: this is a breakup album. As some of you may know, Chris Martin, Coldplay's fro...