“Mylo Xyloto,” released on Oct. 24, is the fifth album released by the British alternative band, Coldplay.
The new album contains 14 tracks that will fill your ears with a mix of melodies that can only be described as magical, enchanting, and entrancing and with lyrics that match.
In an interview with BBC Radio, lead vocalist Chris Martin described the album as being “about love, addiction, OCD, [and] escape.”
The albums standout love songs include “Hurts Like Heaven,” “Princess of China,” and “Up In Flames.”
“Hurts Like Heaven”‘s upbeat tempo is catchy while Martin echoes choruses of “Oh you, use your heart as a weapon/And it hurts like heaven.” The song focuses on a man who tries to tell his lover that even though they are trying to be torn apart and it hurts that “he won’t let go.”
Another love song on the album is “Princess of China,” a track that features Rihanna. Unlike most love songs, this songs reminisces on the love two people once had and what could have become of it. “I could’ve been a Princess, you’d be a king/Could’ve had a castle, and wore a ring,” is often repeated by Rihanna.
“Up In Flames” is a love song on the album which, like “Princess of China,” reminisces about a lost relationship that is now “up in flames.”
The album also contains a moving group of songs such as “Paradise,” “Charlie Brown,” and “Up With the Birds” that are about escaping the world we live in.
The albums second single, “Paradise,” tells the story of a girl who escapes through her dreams of paradise because “she expected the world/but it flew away from her reach.”
“I stole a key/Took a car downtown where the lost boys meet/I took a car downtown and took what they offered me/To set me free,” are the lyrics that accompany the uplifting opening chords of “Charlie Brown.” This track is about “all the madness in the world,” and “run[ning] wild” from it.
The fourteenth track, “Up With the Birds,” opens with a slow soft tempo that gives the song a strong presence by making the lyrics clear, concise, and powerful. As the song progresses, a sound that could only be described as the “awe-ing” of a church choir rings throughout your ears, creating an everlasting melody. It is the deep meaning of the lyrics though that gives this song its power, such as, “My arms turn wings/All those clumsy things/Send me up to the wonderful world/And then I’m up with the birds” The melodic phrasing and metaphor can only give this song a sense of being poetry.
All in all, the lyrics of this album create a feeling of pureness and realness that make the album as a whole instantaneously relatable. The melody for each and every song is magical while the tone in Martin’s voice is sincere and captivating.
