Mylo Xyloto
by Coldplay
  • Record Label: Capitol
  • Release Date: Oct 24, 2011
Metascore
65

Generally favorable reviews - based on 39 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 39
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 39
  3. Negative: 2 out of 39
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  1. Beats Per Minute
    Oct 24, 2011
    50
    Ultimately, Mylo Xyloto feels like a mixed bag of ideas that never really comes together.
  2. Blurt Magazine
    Nov 4, 2011
    50
    The album is not terrible, just not terribly original either.
  3. Boston Globe
    Oct 25, 2011
    60
    For an album unabashed in its intimacy, the bigger moments are all that more rattling. Not everything turns a new corner.
  5. Chicago Tribune
    Oct 24, 2011
    50
    Coldplay has a formula, and formula prevails on Mylo Xyloto despite Eno's presence.
  6. Consequence
    Oct 25, 2011
    50
    Mylo Xyloto feels like the group's mid-life crisis.
  7. Drowned In Sound
    Oct 24, 2011
    50
    It's popcorn music, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But trying to dress it up in big concepts only belies the belief that it's somehow lacking, which leads to its undoing.
  8. Entertainment Weekly
    Oct 21, 2011
    58
    What's missing is the innovation that made Viva La Vida so dynamic.
  9. musicOMH.com
    Oct 20, 2011
    60
    Rihanna's appearance aside, Mylo Xyloto is everything you'd expect from a Coldplay album.
  10. New Musical Express (NME)
    Oct 24, 2011
    50
    It just feels like, once again, Coldplay have done the selfless thing and gone out to protect EMI's share price, and at the end of it remain peering off the edge of a cliff edge, wishing they had the courage to jump.
  11. No Ripcord
    Oct 21, 2011
    60
    Mylo Xyloto does have its unpredictable moments, some of which work more effectively than others.
  12. NOW Magazine
    Oct 27, 2011
    60
    It's wrapped in a confused concept--future lovers (the album title's characters) under siege by some kind of dystopian oppression--but several tunes will surely ignite stadium masses.
  13. Paste Magazine
    Oct 25, 2011
    60
    It's a moment of stirring calm amid a sea of blaring showiness, and this well-intended mixed bag, despite its lovely surfaces, could have used more of that variety.
  14. PopMatters
    Oct 24, 2011
    40
    Unfortunately, this is the kind of sequel where nothing new is introduced, no great revelations are to be had, and the things that made the previous installment so great are nowhere to be found.
  15. Prefix Magazine
    Nov 7, 2011
    60
    Producer Brian Eno has guided them towards more expansive instrumentation and bombastic atmosphere, but the center of the music often lacks real heaviness.
  16. Slant Magazine
    Oct 24, 2011
    60
    While the melodies on Mylo Xyloto are some of the strongest and most memorable in the band's catalogue, it's the shortcomings in their lyrics that keep Coldplay from packing the kind of emotional wallop their sound really demands.
  17. The Guardian
    Oct 20, 2011
    60
    A lot of it just sounds like standard-issue Coldplay, replete with echoing guitars, woah-oh choruses and vocals that signify high drama by slipping into falsetto.
  18. The Independent (UK)
    Oct 21, 2011
    40
    The results are smoothly pallid even by their standards, the usual modes of exultant melancholy and epic sympathy exacerbated by the earnest thrumming of acoustic guitars that punctuates the familiar piano vamps.
  19. The Independent on Sunday (UK)
    Oct 24, 2011
    40
    It takes no chances. This is a record that browbeats and bullies you into submission with its sheer massiveness, courtesy of producer Brian Eno.
  20. The Observer (UK)
    Oct 24, 2011
    60
    It's a bit uplifting, but ultimately insipid.
  21. Uncut
    Oct 18, 2011
    60
    There's no shortage of decent tunes. [Nov 2011, p.83]
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Awards & Rankings

8
#8 Most Discussed Album of 2011
17
#17 Most Shared Album of 2011

User Reviews

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User Score
7.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 487 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 358 out of 487
  2. Mixed: 84 out of 487
  3. Negative: 45 out of 487
  1. mohamedfayyad
    Oct 26, 2011
    10
    i know that many people are disappointed but this is why coldplay is agreat band as the fans don't accept any other thing but perfection.i know that many people are disappointed but this is why coldplay is agreat band as the fans don't accept any other thing but perfection. though the album is great maybe the songwriting isn't so good but the music is very amazing and unique… Full Review »
  2. Robnads
    Oct 24, 2011
    3
    Mylo Xyloto is a huge disappointment. Yes, it is terrific production, but other than the single, "Paradise", Chris Martin's songwriting isMylo Xyloto is a huge disappointment. Yes, it is terrific production, but other than the single, "Paradise", Chris Martin's songwriting is surprisingly weak and the album lack the cohesion of "Viva La Vida". It's a foray into cheesy contemporary pop and electronica. Growing musically is great, to latching on to a genre that creates worse music than they do is a huge mistake. As a Coldplay fan, I think I'll pretend this album never happened and hope Martin goes back to putting songwriting first on the next one. Here, it feels like he's scraping the bottom of the barrel.… Full Review »
  3. Tremor2005
    Oct 24, 2011
    9
    "Mylo Xyloto", Coldplay's 5th LP, was supposedly influenced by New York graffiti - a theme visible from both the album artwork and the video"Mylo Xyloto", Coldplay's 5th LP, was supposedly influenced by New York graffiti - a theme visible from both the album artwork and the video for first single "Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall". Strangely enough, it is also very much audible in the music. Unlike the symphonic "Viva La Vida" and sonically overwhelming "X&Y", "Mylo Xyloto" revels in synth-based, warm, unabashedly pop melodies. The wonderful opener "Hurts Like Heaven" (discounting the title track intro) bursts with energy, lyrics flying past in a manner not heard in any Coldplay song before. It is an intoxicating indicator of things to come on perhaps Coldplay's most immediate album to date. If "Viva La Vida" was a bit of a grower, "Mylo Xyloto" instead wastes no time setting its stall.

    Unexpectedly perhaps, the star of this uptempo, smile-inducing, hell DANCEABLE album is the lavish guitar licks provided by unsung Coldplay hero Johnny Buckland. Whilst Martin is undoubtedly the face of Coldplay the rest of the band are, well, not just "the rest of the band". Faster and more complex than before Buckland is beginning to carve his own niche sound - a skill beyond measure for a musician - and the speed, dexterity and subtleness of his playing is more valuable than Martin's enthusiastic if slightly wobbly lyrics.

    Drummer Will Champion also demonstrates his own abilities to perfection, alongside his own beautiful vocals on album highlight (and "Parachutes" throwback) "Us Against The World".
    For any Coldplay fans afraid of the change the group are going through, they should be reassured slightly by the presence of such a song, alongside the quietly beautiful "U.F.O", "God Put A Smile"-recalling "Major Minus" and "Up In Flames", a disarmingly simplistic but nonetheless gorgeous ballad. These fans are going to struggle to stomach the collaboration with Rihanna, a polarising debating point that I hope does not overshadow the brilliance on show on this album. "Princess of China" is the closest to RnB that Coldplay have ever got, with its bass heavy synths and stomping beat, and it does take some getting used to.

    If "Princess Of China" doesn't do it for you then other highlights "Charlie Brown", "Paradise" and "Every Teardrop", each song buoyant with hope, showcase a simple truth: like them or not, Coldplay are probably the best band in the world at what they do, and "Mylo Xyloto" is the band at the top of their game. A point has been deducted for some slightly dubious lyrics ("I turn the music up, I got my records on") and the unnecessary separation of "M.M.I.X" from "Every Teardrop", but these are minor quibbles on an otherwise superb album. If anything else it should finally shut up their detractors who moan that "everything sounds the same" - whilst Brian Eno's work does bare some familiarities to "Viva La Vida" in places ("Life In Technicolour" for example), the differences far outweigh the similarities. "Mylo Xyloto" is an uplifting, foot-tapping joy set to soundtrack many lives, mine included, for years to come.    … Full Review »
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