Super. Duper.

Albums Of The Year: 3.

Mylo Xyloto- Coldplay.

“I’d rather be a comma than a full stop.”

That’s the kind of awkward sentiment that for better or worse, defines this band.

As a painfully uncool human being, of course I love Coldplay. I didn’t always but you can only resist a giant, wordless chorus for so long. There aren’t a lot of bands like them at the minute in that they’re a band who can sell out stadiums, headline Glastonbury, perform on the X-Factor and duet with Rihanna and somehow all of this kind of makes sense. They exist in two separate worlds (the Top 40 pop world and mainstream rock which at the minute are two vastly different places) but do so cohesively. And I think the reason is this: they do everything they do completely earnestly. They don’t sneer at the pop world but also don’t try to toughen themselves up in the rock world. Chris Martin is the living embodiment of ‘Can’t we all just get along!?’. Everything Coldplay do, from naming an album Mylo Freakin’ Xyloto, wearing Sgt Peppers garb to the Grammy’s or unabashedly naming a song ‘Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall’ is done with the sincerity of a five year old who just wants to tell you how amazing dinosaurs are.

This album is really good. I think the Coldplay formula has been perfected to the point where it can be altered and coloured slightly differently enough to be an interesting change without the band falling flat on their faces. I guess this has a little more synth going on than previous efforts. It is a pop album much more than a rock album but when you’re the biggest pop band in the world, what else are you going to do? But it’s not a cynical effort to make a pop album, Chris Martin is far too idiosyncratic a writer to make that work. He just writes what he feels will move people and that’s why ‘Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall’ with its “I’d rather be a comma than a full stop” sentiment works from Coldplay but would sound ridiculous from anyone else. They’re a very endearing band. You accept that they mean it, so why shouldn’t you? Not gonna lie, I get weirdly inspired by the intro to ‘Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall’ and I have no idea why. It’s just an oddly uplifting moment. Coldplay’s power comes in their ability to make people think “YES! That is so me!” even when if the message came from anyone else you would think, “That is not me. I’m not sure that’s anyone in the entire world. Who calls themselves a punctuation mark? That doesn’t really make sense. I’m baffled right now.” Well played, Martin. Well played.

Musically, the band are going to be forever underrated. Jonny Buckland is an amazing guitar player. I’m not going to pretend to be the world’s leading authority on rhythm sections but Will Champion and Guy Berryman seem to hold it down pretty well. They do interesting things too. It would be very easy to write an album of ‘Fix You’s and just go through the motions of an album cycle but they always seem determined to make something different and that should be applauded. I HAVE YOUR BACK COLDPLAY.

I think people who hate Coldplay don’t actually hate Coldplay so much as the idea of Coldplay. …You get me? Like, the idea of the world’s biggest band who specialize in belting ballads to the rafters and to an extent that is what Coldplay do but they do so much more and they do that so well too.

There. I said it. I love Coldplay with all my heart. COME. AT. ME. BRO.

Standout Tracks: Hurts Like Heaven, Paradise, Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall, U.F.O, Princess Of China, Up in Flames.