This succinctly sums up how I feel about Coldplay.

I've since deleted the tracks because of low quality. Is that the one where the lyrics go boom boom boom?

If it's not, the whole boom boom boom shit made me want to turn the music off and vomit. How could Chris Martin write something so abysmal and pass it off as a main album track?

A Head Full of Dreams Review


To quote the great rock journalist Greil Marcus, "What is this shit?"


The Good

A Head Full of Dreams - It reminds me of early 90s guitar work by U2. Stuff like "Lady With The Spinning Head" and other works off Achtung Baby and Zooropa. Keeps the trend of very strong material kicking off Coldplay albums.

Birds - I could see a song like this on Viva La Vida. Fast paced, driving and not too over the top with gobbledygook.

Adventure of A Lifetime - This is exactly the type of lead single I expect Coldplay to release these days. Bordering on rock and pop rock. Could have easily been on Ghost Stories if it wasn't so damn upbeat. Chris mentioned while promoting Ghost Stories that he had just written an incredible new tune that he was originally going to give to American Idol or X-Factor but decided it was too strong. I believe it is this song but I could be wrong. Haven't read too much on the origin of these AHFOD songs.

Colour Spectrum - I've generally enjoyed all Coldplay instrumental tracks. Ranging from "Postcards from Far Away" to those found on Mylo Xyloto. It's just a shame something like this is so short and not further developed. The title got me excited but it's more of a tease than anything else.

Up&Up - Coldplay's take on "Hey Jude" and "Tender" by Blur. This will probably end their encore sets on the upcoming tour. Big sing along potential in an arena or stadium. I'm surprised the guitar solos sound so low in the mix. One would think you'd raise them even higher to show it's power and to show off special guest Noel Gallagher. Then again, maybe the copy I have is not of high quality. Who knows. I say if you have Noel Gallagher playing a guitar solo on your album you best pimp it out strong.

The Bad

Everglow - Can you believe Chris Martin once wrote "Trouble" and "The Scientist" on piano as a young man? Seems like that was an alternate reality at this point. This is a very generic piano ballad. Sounds like the band is trying to have this song be it's safe top 40 adult song. What's up with the R&B beat underneath the song? Is that really needed? If it wasn't announced that Gwyneth Paltrow sings on the song, nobody would have ever known.

Army of One - Prime example of Coldplay being the new Maroon 5. Not that Maroon 5 ever had strong indie rock cred to begin with but Coldplay has evolved into being an extremely poppy band without much deeper substance. That's Maroon 5. Safe. Predictable. A favorite of soccer moms.

Amazing Day - This song is just plain boring. I didn't want to judge it too much based on that New York festival gig from late September but the finished product does nothing for me. It's so generic I feel like I could fall asleep listening to it. Chris Martin could probably write 100 of these in his sleep each night but that doesn't mean he should!


The Ugly

Hymn For The Weekend - Coldplay has officially jumped the shark on this one. I know you could say the same for "Princess of China" but at least that song had cool ideas buried within it. These guys wrote "Shiver", "A Whisper" and "Square One"? You'd never have known that after listening to this hot mess. Without a doubt a song like this was designed to be played on hip-hop and R&B radio stations/websites.

Fun - Daft title, daft song.

Kaleidoscope - This is a real shame. I actually like the background music. I wish Chris developed sparse vocals for it with good lyrics. It's wasted with that poem being read by a guy with a not so pleasant voice in my opinion. Reminds me of what Bright Eyes did on their album The People's Key. Many of the songs on that recorded ended with Denny Brewer speaking on various dimensions, aliens and the nature of life. It was bizarre then and it's fucking weird for it to appear on a Coldplay album. Also, what's the point in sampling President Obama singing "Amazing Grace" if you can't even tell it's him singing it? Not to mention it's not from the popular part of that song that made the news when it first happened. Fucking hell Coldplay what are you doing these days?!?!?!?!

X Marks The Spot - When Chris Martin eventually releases his solo album, it will be filled with tracks like this. He wants to be Justin Timberlake and Adam Levine at the same time. This is the type of song that could easily land on a Justin Bieber album. Hence why he is now an influence of Chris Martin or whatever he babbles on about these days in interviews.


Bonus Song

Miracles - My "copy" of A Head Full of Dreams contained this song at the very end. I know it came out over a year ago in an attempt to be nominated for an Oscar for the film Unbroken. That never materialized and I'm not surprised. When first hearing it 12 months ago I had a similar reaction to it as I did with Amazing Day. Generic and boring but in retrospect, after listening to this album, it's actually a lot better than that. It's more simplistic and back to basics. I feel like I'm just listening to Chris, Jonny, Guy and Will play in a room. They don't make many songs like this anymore. It's now gotta feature high profile production and guests. To me that stuff dilutes what made the band so special. That being Martin/Buckland/Berryman/Champion.


Overall Impression

Like Mylo Xyloto and Ghost Stories before it, I will probably just keep 4-5 songs on my iPhone/iPad. I'll delete the rest or store them on an external hard drive. So many songs I never see myself revisiting sadly. I get the feeling this record was engineered for several genres all at the same time. It seems very cheap in places. Like I said just prior, an album like this dilutes what the band Coldplay has to offer. That is the core four of Martin/Buckland/Berryman/Champion. They need to be up front and center at all times. We don't need a dozen guests and fancy producers from Norway. Stargate? Really? I use to think that was just a shitty movie. Now it's also a shitty production team.

Is this the best you have to offer Coldplay? Say it ain't so Chris?

Can't believe the same guy that wrote this also wrote X Marks the Spot. Can someone explain to me how this happened? 

Ghost Stories does not sound so bad now, does it? At least it sounds like Coldplay. I quite like that album to be honest.

I can't stop listening to it because it's so "car-crash". Everytime I find another WTF moment!

One of my favourites is "feeling drunk and high so high high, shoot across the sky (sung by Beyonce). Right up there with "I can see a liar sitting by the fire". Or even better the Obama thing with Obama singing Amazing Grace at the end of it. :facepalm:

They wish

(well,I wouldn't mind seeing Noel AND Coldplay either)

yea, think it would be cool, like i said Im sure he will play with them at some point, this is probably my favourite version of what a like, chris martin on piano brings it to life at the end, they seem to make a good combo.

Stand up for us Oldplayers here and give the Justin Bieber fans hell over there.

Speaking of this song, does anyone else notice that this song bears a slight resemblance to Miss You by The Rolling Stones in some places? Like, at 3:43, with the way Chris sings in falsetto, it sounds like the "Woo-ooh-woo-ooh"s from Miss You. Plus, it also feels like it has a similar feel to that song, just with a tempo that's a bit faster.