
X&Y topped it off with angel choirs and synthy strings. Rush of Blood to the Head added more instruments. The band's debut, Parachutes, was an acoustic, autumnal gem, and, for many people, their finest record. Mylo Xyloto isn't a new Coldplay, just a new costume for the band's satisfying 4/4 melodies, arpeggio hooks, and uplift. They are writing for a customer that is interested in feelings, not words. How else could one explain "every teardrop is a waterfall" (what?), or "I coulda been a princess, you'd be a king" (that's not how royal marriage works), "life goes on, it gets so heavy" (oh my God), and "even if your aims are shadows, still we never gonna part" (okay, now we're just marking time with syllables).Ĭoldplay can get away with greeting-card lyrics for the same reason that greeting cards can. Either their lyrics are come by in a manner that is ridiculous, or else they are random. Mylo, he said, is just "a great name." This interview offered an instructive, if not definitive, theory of Coldplay. In a recent interview, Chris Martin explained (maybe jokingly?) that the name "Xyloto" derives from his belief that music comes from everywhere, including one's feet, as if one had xylophone-toes, and so, Xylophone + Toe = Xyloto. Mylo Xyloto is the band's newest album, and what a neon bundle of soothing Hallmarks it is. Then, ah, the satisfying turn: the symbols crash, the strings ignite. You thought that it was over, that everything was lost. You've tried your best but didn't succeed.

Here is the first page, the acknowledgement of hardship. You will recognize the familiar components a Sonic Hallmark. Hall, but it has reached its apogee in the hands of the band Coldplay, which has, since its first album in 2000, conducted a massive international helicopter drop of Feel Better cards on music listeners of the world.

The Hallmark Card was invented in 1923 by Joyce C.
