Ghost Stories, the sixth studio album of “multi-platinum” record selling band Coldplay hit stores with a mellow and generally unimpressive bang. Regardless of this fact, after its release on May 19, the album quickly became the band’s fourth number one record and the current highest selling album of 2014.
It’s no secret that the band’s lead singer, Chris Martin, and his movie star wife of 10 years, Gwyneth Paltrow, called it quits with their “conscious uncoupling” two months prior to the release of this new record. With the obvious consciousness of the couple’s split, some may believe that this breakup record might be more self-motivating than lonely and depressing.
Unlike previous Coldplay records, Martin isn’t going for the empowering Viva La Vida-like anthems, except for the apparent odd track out, “A Sky Full Of Stars”, that starts with a pumping piano riff.Instead, this album, for the most part, takes on more of a heartbroken and melancholy theme, struggling between depression and acceptance of his newly single physique.
Right off the bat in this album, we begin to hear the ghosts of Martin’s past relationship in the song “Always in My Head”. We listen to the lead singer croon on his lack of sleep since she’s been gone, and in proceeding tracks like “Magic”, we continue to hear the singer’s dynamic struggles of his torn heart.
That being said, Ghost Stories, while dramatic at times, does a good job capturing the overly emotional time during a difficult breakup without becoming an all around sappy break up album. Though the lyrics prove the singer lovesick and broken, they are poetic enough to not seem overly dramatic or especially whiny.
For example, the raw quality and honesty encompassed in songs such as “True Love” are small sparks of musical mastery many have come to expect from Coldplay. According to Rolling Stone magazine, that track in particular, with its impressive guitar solo and tortured lyrics, is the band’s favorite song they have ever written.
As well as the lyric value encompassed in the album, the musicality, mostly quiet and understated, at times is haunting and technically sound. The pulsating guitar riffs, especially on songs like the metaphoric “Ink”, are sparks of positivity on an all-around saddening album. The track “O’s” piano motifs rise and fall with the torn lead singer’s emotional status, and by the end leaves him sounding emotionally exhausted.
Coldplay’s sharp left turn from their usual anthems and other technical ballads may be a loss to some people, and it’s true that the record itself can be difficult to listen to at times because of its heartbroken nature. That being said, the record itself has some of the most powerful themes ever seen in a Coldplay album, dealing with loss, acceptance, heartbreak, and overall depression. Though Ghost Stories is seemingly not one of the bands more accepted and praised releases, there is no doubt that the band will bounce back with more multi-million selling records that people have come to love and expect from such an iconic group.
