Originally posted by ahn1991:[..]
Oldplay was great, but honestly speaking you can't make a musical career by doing the exact same thing over and over again. The first three albums have a lot of classics, but musically and thematically those three albums may have easily came from the very same recording session. With a band like U2 that has been around for a long while, you can tell just by listening to different songs that they belong on different albums. When I listen to Coldplay's first three albums, they don't sound different at all.
Viva was their first true departure, but even that doesn't compare to MX in terms of directional shift. MX was great because it was a flashpoint of success that put them on the map unlike any album they've had prior. Let's be honest with ourselves, the only exposure Coldplay had on mainstream media was "Fix You" being played during elimination segments on reality game shows. This isn't to say that bands should strive to make it on every radio station or have their songs played in every show, but when your band is literally known for just one song that's beyond overused in popular media it's not really the best place to be.
Ghost Stories as an album was totally genius, in my opinion. I have yet to find an album that plays so well as a cohesive unit from start to finish. Ghost Stories is an album that I can set in my proverbial CD player and let it play without touching it to skip a song or feel that the track order is off. To me, it is a display of their musical flexibility. Even better is the live album in which every track on Ghost Stories is performed. I wish they had promoted this album with a proper tour instead of limiting it to a small number of shows in very limited capacity venues. Granted, I'm certain the experience of seeing Coldplay in that setting must have been something else.
A Head Full of Dreams is an interesting album to me because I initially rated it very poorly, dismissing it simply as an announcement from Coldplay that they are "still releasing music" and haven't retired yet. However, after listening to it for a long while I think my opinion has drastically shifted. I would actually rank this album above MX and probably on par with Viva. It won't match Ghost Stories as a whole, but AHFOD does have a few tracks that I think could contend for some of the best Coldplay has ever released. It should be no surprise that those two tracks are Up&Up and Everglow. I like these two tracks because I feel they represent the culmination of Coldplay's growth up to this point. Everglow proudly displays the piano driven melodies we're used to hearing in something like The Scientist. Up&Up features amazing guitar work and a melody that seems to catch you and draw you in. Also, the lyrics in Up&Up are amazing. I mean, look at this. It's more than just words that sound good together.
[..]
Anyways, I think the point of all this is to say that if Coldplay had continued to release albums identical to their first three we probably wouldn't be having this conversation since there's no way they would've lasted to this point with only one style to offer.
Someone take the koolaid away from this guy
