Mylo Xyloto
(EMI)
***
Coldplay really like to pack a lot into their music these days. Polyrhythmic, multi-instrumental, wall-of-found-sound pomp came to define them on their last album Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends, and now they've added eurodance blasts of synth chords and a Rihanna cameo, too.
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It's all a long way from that first image of the fey young Chris Martin stumbling along a rain-soaked beach singing the gentle breakthrough hit Yellow.
Martin's voice remains as damp as ever - that's something that will never change, even if the notes are more on the money and the falsetto more ready to soar - but the almost relentlessly upbeat energy of the band's new album, Mylo Xyloto, gives him plenty of opportunity to expand beyond his trademark adenoidal geekiness.
With this album, the band sought to create a concept album about a love story set in a dystopian future full of optimistically rebellious "kids", for whom music will change the world. That the band are in their mid-30s and more than a decade into their career matters little because, after all, kids will always "turn my music up" and put their records on, as the single Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall has it. That song in particular is all very earnest and slightly jittery, like an overenthusiastic teenager with a juddery leg, and those world-music cross-rhythms and the rising melody build atmosphere in just the way Coldplay fans like it, to an anthemic climax. Add a sort of twiddly Celtic reel descant on Jonny Buckland's guitar and Bob's your uncle: a palpable Coldplay hit.
Luckily, not everything on the album is so predictable. Paradise's loping beat and uplifting, almost tribal, wordless chants are begging for a Jay-Z remix with a slow-mo video set in a desert and a few explosions (the actual video is a rather sweet, tragicomic tale of an elephant who runs away from the London Zoo to find its bandmates in South Africa). But Coldplay, like writers too wedded to their thesauri, are unable to leave a chord just as it is, and with each repeat of the verse they introduce alternative harmonies and orchestrations. It's sophisticated, sometimes too sophisticated, though the dogged repetitions of those irresistible hooks do make it work.
Brian Eno's inclusion in the writing team for the album, adding what Coldplay call "enoxification", is evident in all the bubbly, echoey soundscapes, though the big surprise of the album is, of course, the Rihanna track, Princess of China. Combining a chart-friendly electro-synth sound and teen-friendly lyrics ("You stole my star, la la la la laaaa", and so on) with a melody in a pentatonic minor key - a classic folk mode familiar from Ireland to China - it is possibly the perfect song to help them achieve world domination - if they haven't already got there. The brilliantly catchy Charlie Brown will help, too.
Good for them, I suppose, but what they gain in bombast they lose in heart: the slow tracks, such as UFO, are perfectly pleasant acoustic experiences, but could use the sinuous tension of their earlier work, not to mention a bit more of Buckland's heartbreaking guitar.
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Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week
RESULT
West Brom 2 Liverpool 2
West Brom: Livermore (79'), Rondón (88' )
Liverpool: Ings (4'), Salah (72')
Details
Through Her Lens: The stories behind the photography of Eva Sereny
Forewords by Jacqueline Bisset and Charlotte Rampling, ACC Art Books
Student Of The Year 2
Director: Punit Malhotra
Stars: Tiger Shroff, Tara Sutaria, Ananya Pandey, Aditya Seal
1.5 stars
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
Price: From Dh250,000 (estimated)
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'Midnights'
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MATHC INFO
England 19 (Try: Tuilagi; Cons: Farrell; Pens: Ford (4)
New Zealand 7 (Try: Savea; Con: Mo'unga)
MATCH INFO
Day 2 at the Gabba
Australia 312-1
Warner 151 not out, Burns 97, Labuschagne 55 not out
Pakistan 240
Shafiq 76, Starc 4-52
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What went into the film
25 visual effects (VFX) studios
2,150 VFX shots in a film with 2,500 shots
1,000 VFX artists
3,000 technicians
10 Concept artists, 25 3D designers
New sound technology, named 4D SRL
Results
Ashraf Ghani 50.64 per cent
Abdullah Abdullah 39.52 per cent
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar 3.85 per cent
Rahmatullah Nabil 1.8 per cent
The specs
Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now