that's a good review! I'm still not super convinced by this album but it's 100% a step in the right direction. glad you highlighted "Daddy" and "Champion of the World", my two favourites
I feel like the double album format suited it because trimming off a few shorter songs would have made the album sound off-base bordering on incoherent, but I love the way it flows. And COTW is a fucking knockout.
I'm not against them spreading out across a double album at all I just wish the shorter songs were fleshed out a *lot* more. I mean some of them sound like home demos; there's a nice rawness there but it jars against the fully produced and full band songs to my ears
Looks like they're already thinking ahead... Anyways, to add to everyone's thoughts about their favorites... Mylo is my favorite followed very closely by Ghost Stories and Viva. Mylo is just perfect a pop/rock album to me. Objectively, I agree with Viva just generally being their most well-crafted album, but my tastes align more with Mylo. Ghost Stories is just so lovely and I love majority of their discography. Amazing live band and a top 5 artist for me. I haven't heard the leak, will wait until tomorrow.
Viva is their most impressive album. Ghost Stories is my favorite. Mylo is their most fun. The first three are inconsistent but have a lot of great songs.
Ghost Stories starts good as hell, and "Midnight" is in their top 5, but it goes straight off a cliff after that. I think I'd even take X&Y over that run from "Another's Arms" to "Sky Full of Stars", yeesh
“Oceans” is terrific and “A Sky Full of Stars” is a classic Coldplay single. “Another’s Arms” is my least favorite song on the record, but I don’t think it’s bad.
I love Another's Arms. It's tough to rank their discography, but I do know that I put Rush, Parachutes, Viva and Ghost in the top 4.
I truly hate "Sky Full of Stars" with every fibre of my being, sorry. completely kills my vibe whenever it comes on. and "Another's Arms" just does "True Love" again but not nearly as good... I guess I don't mind "Oceans" but I find it super memorable, would happily swap it out for "Ghost Story" any day
I too hate "Sky Full of Stars" with every fiber of my being. Absolutely atrocious. I like pretty much all of Ghost Stories aside from that one song though. "Another's Arms" is great. I think the weakest song aside from ASFOS for me would probably be "Ink" or "True Love". I find it super weird though that they leave the song "Ghost Story" off the album when it's such a good song and it's almost a title track and the album was only 9 songs anyways.
"Ink" is so good man, I mean I don't love the chorus but the verses are the chillest vibe ever messed up that both "Ghost Story" and "All Your Friends" missed the cut, two of my favourite post-Viva songs
That is such a great description of "Ink". It's always been the chorus that bugged me but I never really thought about it, but the rest of the song has such a cool sound. I absolutely love both "Ghost Story" and "All Your Friends". I find "Another's Arms" and "All Your Friends" to be pretty similar actually, but I would say Friends is the better song. Plus, I was kinda trying to pick a weakest track aside from ASFOS. I think Ghost Stories in general is a very strong album.
I love A Sky Full of Stars, and I love what Chris had to say about it within context of the album: What that song represents to me on Ghost Stories is the release after you've climbed a mountain or accomplished anything challenging. That's why that song is sort of unashamedly happy and danceable, because that's what it needed to be. It's funny, because I love singing it. I know we didn't break the mold in terms of anything, really, but it's just so fun to play.
Ghost Stories is pretty much a perfect album, it just needs "Atlas" somewhere in the tracklist. The bonus tracks are essential as well.
"Oceans" is fantastic and "A Sky Full of Stars" is my favourite song on the album. Honestly might be my favourite Coldplay song at this point, I think it's incredible.
“Sky” is so important to what that album is. Everything else before it is a huge downer. That’s sort of the acceptance and release, which pairs so perfectly with the resignation of “O.” I think that album is their best sequenced and most cohesive by a lot, in part because of that closing arc of songs.
I feel like I am hearing something different to everyone else. I like Coldplay, especially the first three records, but I just cannot get on with this at all. To me it sounds in places like post gap-year music, like Russell Brand's character in Get Him To The Greek. There is some really cool ideas in here but it just doesn't work for me sadly :(
So, I haven't listened yet outside of the first couple released songs, which sounded good. But, I'm really stuck right now on there being a song called "Arabesque" (which, yeah, I know the definition of that word), & another named in Arabic, & the album art having Arabic aesthetic... And, this came back to mind when I saw that they're promoting this release w/ a livestream from Jordan. That last part there especially is frustrating & weird to me. I really hope they have some honest collaborations w/ actual people from that region (or maybe there's a personal connection to a member that I don't know about). I could see the motivations being pure, & I could see myself still really digging the album. I mean, Ari is my avatar, so I clearly can tolerate a certain level of white artists being culturally messy. But, I dunno, it's weird, & I'm surprised I haven't seen more addressing of how weird it is? Anyways, to the recent conversation, yeah, Ghost Stories is dope, & that pop anthem is indeed dope w/in the context of the whole album. I think that's my second favorite of theirs after Viva la Vida, though I'll always have a soft spot for Rush of Blood.
When Champion of the World comes in... oh yeahhh Also, Coldplay continue their record of legendary album closers. I just wish it had real drums on it.
I'm really digging this. It's very subdued and much better produced compared with the last album and sounds like a cross between Viva and Ghost Stories to me. I'm also amazed at how much better the singles sound in context of the album.
I love how this feels like a pastiche of what they’re good at, but not in the forced summation way that A Head Full Of Dreams was. It’s almost a mixtape in structure.