It starts promisingly enough, with the instrumental title track segueing into the buzzing Hurts Like Heaven, but quickly teeters dangerously close to ‘Coldplay by numbers.’ Paradise feels overwhelmingly familiar, featuring a semi-chorus that’s better described as nagging than catchy. Even the widescreen ballads that the band have always excelled at seem to suffer. The tinkling, forgettable Charlie Brown and Don’t Let It Break Your Heart seem to suffocate beneath their grand arrangements, though they have the energy, they lack the passion and sparkling clarity of a Clocks or The Scientist.
The album is proof they’re not lacking in ideas, just a solid vessel with which to carry them. Though sonically, it sounds terrific, nothing seems to stick. To be fair, it must be strange to commit yourself to writing a song that will, by virtue of your popularity, inevitably be heard by literally millions of people. But where Coldplay have always managed to offset those gargantuan expectations with their energy and passion, now it seems they’re playing up to it.
BY AL NEWSTEAD
Best Track: Major Minus
If You Like These, You’ll Like This : Codes And Keys DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE, All That You Can’t Leave Behind U2, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds NOEL GALLAGHER
In A Word : Safe
