Monthly Archives: May 2014

Music

Coldplay – Ghost Stories

When Ghost Stories was released 5 days ago, it was around midnight here. For some reason I can’t seem to sleep that night. I didn’t even remember I already pre-ordered it some days before. *New mail notification* *opens* OMG my order was confirmed it said. And I was to download the whole album on my iPod, to commence as soon as I receive the confirmation email. It was the best news. I haven’t been buying Coldplay’s 2 albums back (Viva La Vida & Mylo Xyloto). I’m a guilty Coldplayer since all I ever do is listen to them for free on YouTube. I miss the heartbreak and lost I felt from the older albums. So when I put up my earphones and listened to Ghost Stories, first song that came was of course, Magic. It gets a fair amount of airtime on radio. But…yeah it’s a good song but it didn’t picture the album.

Magic. Then, A Sky Full of Stars came on…True Love, O, Always in My Head. Then Midnight, etc.

I was gently surprised at the difference of this album. Chris’ voice, it’s on many different tones unaccustomed to the Coldplay that we knew over the years. The whole album has no climax if it wasn’t for A Sky Full of Stars. The whole album was done in a levelled way, like it wasn’t meant for anything too big or to prove something. In all its nonchalantness, it made me heavy with feelings. Made me reminisce and cry. It was a personal album. As we all know Chris Martin and wife was technically apart very recently, and you just can’t separate this event in Chris’ life with the mood of the album. The sequence of the songs are even more interesting. Starts with I think of you, I haven’t slept ends with looking up to the sky, thinking of love (A flock of birds just hovering above, that’s how you think of love) Before the longing of wanting to fly next to that love, A Sky Full of Stars exploded with sure sounds and sing along tunes. The in between songs are slow (except Ink) and poetic, just working to enhance the overall album. Upon travelling through all the tracks for the first time, I bloody well get it.

Ghost Stories sounds unlike Coldplay so much as it were before. It isn’t experimental though. It doesn’t felt like when Keane released Perfect Symmetry. The moody album is not the kind of bad moody album that you’d avoid when you’re in a cheered mood. It’s a remembrance of what we’ve gone through once or some times in our lives, it felt very real, the love you once had, is celebrated in this album. It doesn’t felt like giving up but, resolution and making peace with yourself. The theme of a love lost somewhere in a long hard fought battle, is very relatable to a lot of us. If you have ever loved someone as much, you would understand and listen to your stories laid out in this album where you could endlessly drown into no end and wish you could write better about your life tragedies! For sometimes the biggest heartbreak  can be the best inspiration. Being in the melancholy and able to fish yourself out is a glorious thing. And for this fact I always thanked Chris Martin and the guys.

Showstoppers : A Sky Full of Stars and Always in My Head.

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