MUS
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  1. Okay guys here's my review of Mylo Xyloto...

    First of all i absolutely love the story of the album. The love story. Makes the album feel complete and is great to listen to from start to finish. As for the people saying it's over produced i think that is only due to the fact that we've been listening to the live and more "raw" versions for quite some time and it will take a while to adjust to listening to the studio versions. Also with regard to Moving To Mars, yes it is an amazing song but i just don't think it fits in with the whole story of the album. I think it is better as a b-side.

    1. Mylo Xyloto / Hurts Like Heaven: Amazing start to the album! MX sounds a lot more intimate than the live version and is a great intro to the album imo. Hurts like Heaven is amazing but it definitely lacks something from the live version. I think it's the fact that J's guitar is way too distant. But still i love the song!! 9/10

    2. Paradise: It has definitely grown on me this song! Love J's guitar at the end. Kind of saves the song a bit for me. 7/10

    3. Charlie Brown: I think we all knew from the festival performances that this was gonna be a real gem! and it does not disappoint! great lyrics and instruments! And that piano at the end is just amazing!! 10/10

    4. Us Against The World: I must be honest from the festivals this was my least favourite of the new material but on the album i dunno it just has something a little bit extra that i love Backing vocals are lovely and the guitar sets the song very well and the back end of the song builds up very nicely! and then puts us down nicely... 9/10

    5. M.M.I.X / Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall: M.M.I.X is very basic but i think its a good introduction to the song. Creates a feeling that this is the message of the album and i think it is. Still absolutely loving this song! The guitar riff and end of the song still get me every time! 9/10

    6. Major Minus: My least favourite song on the album but i think it breaks the album up nicely with a change of pace. Not a bad song, but it just doesn't do it for me. 6/10

    7. U.F.O: Really didn't know what to expect from this track and it took by surprise. Lovely acoustic track that sounds like it could've been on Parachutes. Great bit of song writing from Chris. Lovely to see that he still has this kind of song tucked in there somewhere. 8/10

    8. Princess of China: I'd just like to say that I have never been a fan of Rhianna but wow this song really is amazing! Her and Chris's vocals go amazingly well together. The song is very well written and is set to be a massive song if released as a single! Great beat! 9/10

    9. Up In Flames: Literally nearly broke my heart the first time i heard this time. Just wow! and after taking in all the preceding tracks and taking in the story and then hearing this was just tear jerking! Amazing piece of song writing and i can see why this was the missing piece of the puzzle for them on this album! J's guitar at the end just caps it off!! 10/10

    10. A Hopeful Transmission / Don't Let It Break Your Heart: Another amazing song! A hopeful transmission is a lovely interlude! The back half of this album really is something else! Don't let it break your heart is a bit Glass of Water-ish and i love it!! Great lyrics and instrumentation! 9/10

    11. Up With The Birds: Just amazing closer to the album! But different to what i was expecting. Again great to see that Chris and the boys still have songs like this in them. Just an EPIC end to the album! Amazing guitar work from J!! He really is a standout on this album!! 9/10

    Overall: 8.5/10
  2. Sitting in my chair listening to MX/HLH for probably the 100th time, and I am dancing like a damn fool in my seat. What a great tune.
  3. I might have figured out the concept of the album. The only thing that semi-baffles me is “Us Against the World”, but I have a way to explain that too.

    Chris has already stated that Mylo and Xyloto are meant to be two lovers’ names, and the album is a concept album revolving around their relationship. It makes listening to the album a lot cooler to me, with these thoughts. Tell me what you think. (Note: For this explanation, I’m going to use “Mylo” for the man, and “Xyloto” for the woman.)

    The album starts from Mylo's perspective. MX is us entering the story, a world apart from our own. He's looking at the world during Hurts Like Heaven, beginning to question the things happening around him and concerning his own life (Do you ever get the feeling that you're missing the mark?). He notices Xyloto, and feels teased by her amazingness (You use your heart as a weapon / And it hurts like heaven, implies that she's teasing him flirtaciously, and it affects him so much that it just might hurt, in the very best way possible). The upbeat tempo and catchiness relays the emotion of his new-found romance.

    Paradise is our first foray into Xyloto's head. Notice that the song begins with "She dreamed of para, para, paradise" and by the end, the lyric has changed to "This could be para, para, paradise". She's met the one she dreamed of since she was just a girl, and Jonny's guitar gives the song a little more emotion at the end, almost as if Mylo has appeared into her life. Also notice the lyric when it is describing Xyloto as a child- "Every tear, a waterfall"- a vision that her and Mylo share, that will later develop/strengthen their relationship in one of the highlights of the story.

    Charlie Brown is a proclamation of their love for each other- they have finally become a couple, and are running wild/riot (not sure what that lyric is yet) in the streets, glowing in the dark. Such a happy tune.

    Us Against the World shows us a much more intimate moment in their relationship. They both share their awareness of the fragile and somewhat broken state of the world they live in, and admit that it really could be the two of them against the world. "You left a hole in my heart" implies that the impact they've already had on each other is so strong, that each others' hearts is their new home.

    MMIX/Every Teardrop is a Waterfall is the first sign of activity. Mylo and Xyloto combine their love, their belief, their art, and their passion to run rampant through the streets, with the children dancing and singing, covering every public space in neon graffiti. They believe that music and art can save the world. Maybe I'm in the black / Maybe I'm on my knees / Maybe I'm in the gap between the two trapeze /....But my heart is beating." Neither care that things are bad, and instead know that things can get better simply because they are still alive. Remember in Paradise when Xyloto expressed that every tear was a waterfall? Mylo and Xyloto take this despairing statement and turn a waterfall of tears into a waterfall of art and love. It's no longer a sad emotion within Xyloto- Every teardrop is a waterfall, and nobody could possibly be happier about it.

    The world, unfortunately, is not in the palm of Mylo or Xyloto's hands. People are always watching, and the world doesn't take kindly to being spraypainted and loved so unconditionally. "Be careful who it is you're talking to." Major Minus is the beginning of the end for Mylo and Xyloto- the paranoia concerning the world they live in is inescapable and it consumes them. "Don't believe a word / It's us against the world / We just gotta show up to be heard /Hear those crocodiles ticking round the world?"...Mylo and Xyloto are trying to remember that it's the two of them against everyone else, but can't help hearing what's going on and fearing for the future.

    U.F.O. is the last glimpse of Mylo and Xyloto's relationship in which we see them as together. Their love has become something alien and unrecognizable from what it once was, completely disfigured by the corruptness of the world. "Lord, I don't know which way I am going". In Princess of China, we hear Mylo and Xyloto's break-up, ending with the two of them both saying to each other, "You really hurt me." Up in Flames is a fairly standard (though obviously fantastic) song looking back on what they had, and how it just went, well, Up in Flames. "So it's over...".

    A Hopeful Transmission/Don't Let it Break Your Heart appears to be a remidner to Xyloto that life goes on, and that the paradise she dreamed of is not lost. "But then someone will play the right song / And you'll dance again"....there will be another chance to paint the town and dance in the streets with the children. Mylo and Xyloto ended up being, after all, a comma- and not a full stop.

    I think Up With the Birds is Mylo looking back on everything, and also looking into the future. Mylo's as optimistic as the message given to Xyloto in Don't Let it Break Your Heart- "Good things are coming our way" ('Our' being the people as a whole, not him and Xyloto).

    That's how I see it anyway. Any thoughts? It's really fun to travel through that world, and let the elements of production that really bother me coming from Coldplay be more of something that signifies we're in a different time and place.


  4. ^

    Best reading of the day for sure!

    Great post Matt!
  5. And I have to say that I loved the cd versions of CB and HLH, but both songs are huge when played live!
  6. Invalid url 'http://[IMG]http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/9201/mylo.jpg[/IMG]'



  7. I saw the artwork on Coldplaying.com, and to be honest, I don't like it.
  8. Its just a disc, I can deal.


  9. You might have just convinced me to listen to it again! In all honesty, I didn't like it after the first listen, but it is growing on me. I loved your breakdown of the story, Matt.
  10. I didn't like it after the first listen either and I LOVE it now. And thanks!
  11. Originally posted by LikeASong[..]

    +1. Can't stop listening to MX/HLH


    I know before you said you had no idea what he was saying, here's the lyrics that I know from the first verse anyway-

    "Written in graffiti on a bridge in a park
    'Do you ever get the feeling that you're missing the mark?'
    So cold, So cold
    So cold, So cold
    Written up in marker on a factory sign
    'I struggle with the feeling that my life isnt mine'
    So cold, So cold
    So cold, So cold

    See the arrow that they shot
    Trying to tear us apart
    Fire from my belly
    And the beat of my heart
    Still I wont let go
    Still I wont let go"
  12. That 'A Hopefull Transmission' track is like U2's Streets intro.
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Contribute to the U2 community with uploading photos or by telling us which shows you have visited.
Contribute to the U2 community with uploading photos or by telling us which shows you have visited.