Before digging out the Ouija board and tipping the glasses upside down to try and solve the mystery of Coldplay’s ‘Ghost Stories’, let’s first look at where the other greats were by album #6. (Because, love them or hate them, there are now only a handful of artists above Coldplay when it comes to Great British musical acts, both commercially and critically.)
U2 – arguably Coldplay’s go-to band for many of their decisions, or at least the earlier ones – were on ‘Rattle And Hum’, a collection that mixed live recordings and covers with new songs, throwing a spanner in the works of the general LP running order. Oasis – with Liam Gallagher the fuck-ying to Chris Martin’s yang – released ‘Don’t Believe The Truth’, offering a crisper, more honest version of the band (with all members writing), a similar situation to The Beatles and ‘Rubber Soul’, while The Rolling Stones’ ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’ split the critics, and Chris’ favourite Take That had finally managed to create music to fill the stadiums they were selling out, with the Stuart Price produced ‘Progress’.
In a way, ‘Ghost Stories’ is all of these things; almost experimental due to its simplicity – considering the curveballs they usually throw; both small-sounding and intimate compared to the buzz of ‘Mylo Xyloto’ yet built on a blend of drum beats and bass strong enough to sound convincing in venues of any size. It’s an album that has both the confidence of their last album and the innocence of their debut and is to them what ‘Hail To The Thief’ (also a #6) was to Radiohead; bridging together the bookends of their works and everything that has been written in between.
A third of the nine tracks had already been previewed prior to last week’s streaming on iTunes (does anyone not stream an album anymore?) which showcased three different types of stories from this anthology. ‘Midnight’, easily the band’s most experimental moment, floats like smoke; Martin’s vocoded vocals lingering over minimal electronics that replace the anthems usually associated with first releases (‘Speed Of Sound’, ‘Violet Hill’). Channelling the delicate elements that make up Sigur Ros and Bon Iver compositions, it’s far from “single release” territory, but does make for an atmospheric break in the middle of the album. (A remix by Giorgio Moroder – not included on the album – turns the track on its head, creating a deliciously majestic disco anthem that has more in common with Pet Shop Boys’ 6th, ‘Bilingual’.)
Official lead single ‘Magic’ swapped the hip-hop influences of previous releases for trip-hop snicks and snacks beneath folk-like guitar, creating a more recognisable sound, yet still one without the stance of previous singles, while ‘A Sky Full Of Stars’ (a collaboration with Avicii) is equal parts Chris Martin melancholy and the “folktronica” that Tim Bergling has used to create hits including ‘Hey Brother’. It’s undoubtedly, purely and simply a dance track, making it the sore thumb of an album otherwise focusing on finger-plucking and softer synth-settings, but as experts of their field it undoubtedly works.
Of the rest of the album, ‘True Love’, ‘Another’s Arms’ and ‘Always In My Head’ give hints of the influences surrounding the song writing, namely Chris Martin’s “planned separation” with Gwyneth Paltrow. With a stark guitar solo in the style of George Harrison and lyrics that don’t shy away from simple, honest love, ‘True Love’ (“So tell me you love me, if you don’t then lie to me”) channels The Beatles, with strings that sweep but a rhythm section that thumps. “All I know if that I love you so, so much that it hurts,” Chris sings during ‘Ink’, offering one his most angst-driven vocals; giving heart and soul to these Ghost Stories, and emotion that it’s difficult not to empathise with, perhaps more so with “The pain just rips right through me,” during Another’s Arms.
‘Oceans’ is the biggest step back from the globe-trotting journey they’ve taken since ‘Parachutes’, built on the bare bones of their first singles, with the gentle wave of synthetic strings during the middle-8 the only reminder of how far they’ve come since then. Closing the collection, ‘O’ is similarly stark, trading the guitar of ‘Yellow’ for the piano of ‘Trouble’, in a slow, sleepy final chapter comparing love to “a flock of birds”, with the hope that “maybe one day I’ll fly next to you.” As with Lykke Li’s latest effort, heartbreak seeps through every song in a way that makes for a guilty pleasure in the strongest sense, yet few writers could bring their ghosts back to life as convincingly as Chris Martin, while few bands could support his sorrow and surround his songs with such euphoric energy as Coldplay do.
4.5/5
Dan Bull
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