Though I Try My Heart Stays Still, it Never Moves

In the post Beyoncé world, I have become fascinated with album rollouts. Sure there are only a small handful of artists that could also pull off a surprise album (Kid Cudi, the only recognizable artist who has tried since turned out to not be one). Coldplay is probably one of them. Much like Beyoncé they were the biggest act in their respective genre about a decade ago but each successive album was selling less and less while younger act stole their crowns.

But that did not happen. Instead they released they released Midnight with nothing more than a weird video at midnight in Ulan Bator, Mongolia of all places. After being considered the pop version of Radiohead, Midnight sounded like actual Radiohead if they were fronted by Bon Iver. Was this a new direction for the band? Nope. A week later the band released Magic, a more traditionally sounding pop song even if it sounded like the least Coldplay single they had ever released with a bouncing bass and Chris Martin not singing in his traditional falsetto voice.

With the release of Magic came a traditional album rollout, the album Ghost Stories would be released two months later. In the meanwhile the typical promotional campaign would happen, talk show appearances, NBC special, Target ads. Then came a non-traditional, and probably inadvertent bit of promotion for the album: Chris Martin announced a “conscious uncoupling” from his wife Gwyneth Paltrow.

Duran Duran lead singer Simon LeBon was once asked why rock stars date supermodels to which he replied, because they can. The only problem is dating the most beautiful women sometime makes for bad music especially in the hands of singer-songwriters. John Mayer worst album Battle Studies was the concept album about dating and then breaking up with Jennifer Aniston. So it is hard to listen to Ghost Stories without looking through the prism of the conscious uncoupling. It is the most evident on the opening track Always in My Head. It seems pretty clear with this and the subsequent songs, that the conscious uncoupling may not have been his idea and there will be no spiteful breakup songs here. The song is even followed up my Magic with its chorus, “I don’t want anybody else but you.”

Those songs also set a musical mood that is much more moody and airy compared to their grand stadium anthems of the past. Magic is not the only song where Martin opts not to go in his signature falsetto which leads to more honest song. And the drum machine sound from that sound also permeates the whole album. The only song that sounds out of place is A Sky Full of Stars. The song, produced by Avicii, sounds it would have been a better fit on their more dance leaning album Mylo Xyloto. But then again it may sound way too much like that album’s Every Teardrop I a Waterfall to the point you have to wonder if A Sky Full of Stars is just the Avicii remix of Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall.

Song to Download – Magic

Ghost Stories gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.