Coldplay behemothic sixth studio album Ghost Stories hits the airwaves today so we decided to take a look at some of what has made Coldplay a defining band of the 21st century. Coldplay first formed at the University of London in 1996, and although six albums in eighteen years doesn’t sound like a lot, they have definitely proved the old mantra about quality over quantity. With their beautiful debut single Shiver, Chris and company set the bar pretty darn high for unrequited love songs in the new millenium, with Chris’ pitch defying vocal quality and a complex guitar riff he later attributed in more than small part to listening to Jeff Buckley. Coldplay’s break out tune was undoubtedly 2000‘s Yellow, which featured (by now pretty familiar) footage of Chris looking miserable on a beach. Parachutes, the album which spawned these singles, was a startlingly good debut which garnered the boys a Grammy for best album in 2002.
A Rush of Blood to the Head, Coldplay’s sophomore effort, featured the clanking piano-heavy anthem Clocks which scooped them another Grammy in 2004 for Record of the Year. This was becoming something of a habit, but Coldplay took everything in their stride, releasing X&Y, which sold 8.3 million copies worldwide in a time when people were still actually paying to purchase music, making it the biggest selling album of the year. The follow up, Viva la Vida, scooped Coldplay not one but three Grammys! Mylo Xyloto was released in 2011, and featured a collaboration with inimitable pop darling Rihanna – Princess of China. To this date Mylo Xyloto has sold 8 million copies, worldwide.
So … the expectations for Ghost Stories aren’t too high then? Magic, the lead single from the album, was released in March and wound its way to number 24 in the Billboard charts, impressing us with its uncharacteristically stripped down sound. We’re pretty intrigued to hear the Avicii produced Sky Full of Stars, because although it seems dangerously like Coldplay may be trying to hitch their wagon to the EDM craze in the interests of cashing in, the fusion of two such acts of pop pedigree surely can’t fail to be a hit maker. For the rest, we’re hearing good things about Midnight, which is said to be remeniscent of Bon Iver, with a disarming lack of the binary verse/chorus form which has served Coldplay so well until now. As soon as we get our grubby little mitts on the album we’ll be listening for any audible sign of Chris Martin’s conscious uncoupling from Gwyneth Paltrow as we know that their Chris’ most seminal music always comes from a place of angst, so we are expecting, well, more ‘Magic’!