Coldplay – Mylo Xyloto (2011) [Capitol/EMI/Parlophone] // Grade: C-

Chris Martin is likely the sort of chap that would invite you ‘round his house for dinner and then go to great lengths to make sure the food he served was to your liking. Since their post Rush of Blood to the Head swell, UK rock megastars Coldplay have basked ever more intently in the shower of musical hospitality wherein each passing record seems to have some incarnation of mass appeal like ‘Dear World, here’s our new record, I hope every single one of you want and love it’ stamped atop it.

Earlier this year, Martin stated in an interview that he was, “Alltheistic,” a word he defines as “believing in everything.” This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but when it comes to an outright direction, the tendency of someone to appeal to all sides oftentimes creates a certain mush as opposed to a statement- a pliable form that’s able to fill whatever cracks its user sees fit. A concept album about two oppressed lovers finding their way out, Coldplay’s latest, Mylo Xyloto is a 14-song hunk that delivers a safe, varied and far-reaching part two to 2008’s success Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends. The songs are what most will likely expect- grand, sweeping pop rock backed with Martin’s ever-present piano roll. Across the collection, the quartet touch on everything from whip-snapping guitar bursts, arena-sized hedonism, pulsing, Euro club beats and simple, lulling acoustics (in early press they teased a “stripped down” approach). Throughout the record, the band continues both the ever-encroaching influence of American “pop” and the standby past of their alt/Brit rock creation. Not much on Mylo is left “stripped down” as the band had originally teased. Due to the classical obsession they picked up on Viva, they again partake in those influences using bells, strings and baroque guitar- the record even opens with a 43-second title-track classical suite.

If there was ever some machine tucked away in the offices of EMI/Parlophone which called for “Rock/Pop” the quarter you’d insert could likely bear the name Mylo Xyloto. The metaphors, the rhyming, the subjects, they are all set up to give Coldplay that universal appeal and with thinking big, Martin and the band do so under the (now conceptual) guise of the most personal feeling around— love between two people. The band’s built their career on attainable, listenable grandiosity while injecting a floral and diverse sound to keep up with the times that surround them. There was the well-publicized work and performances with Jay-Z a few years ago and here, Martin sings opposite Rihanna on track “Princess of China.” Two very different songs, take “Major Minus” and the aforementioned “China” as talking points. “China” opens with spiced trance organ and moves from a metal/industrial barbarianism that, just as it gets good, falls flat at the middle with Martin’s, and later, Rihanna’s layered and new age-y lull. Two songs prior is the acoustic-led, bouncing tune “Minus,” that could very well serve as a Radiohead King of Limbs B-side to one that wasn’t listening hard enough.

Impossible to shy away from, Coldplay’s biggest accolade will always be like that of fellow bigtimers U2 in that, love them or hate them, they’ve undoubtedly inspired a legion of imitators. Your first listen to Mylo and you’re thinking about the likes of all these alternative rock bands I know nothing about (Foster the People or Naked and Famous maybe?) and as much love as one can get from being from the music-obsessed UK where rock stars might still exist and their creative output is justified by something more than ringtone numbers or cleavage amounts, Coldplay does in fact deserve some credit and I think after 15 years, we should give it them. Mylo has some career standouts, tracks like “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall” and “Major Minus” that should be included in whatever “Coldplay: a Retrospective” best-of collection that’s soon to drop but for the most part, the band both reinforce what they did on Vida and reference players in the gamut of contemporary scenes to create a record that most fans will find pleasing. Now, if only one of the world’s biggest bands take a step in that other direction and introduce something, err, new, do you think those legions will follow?

- The Holloweyed