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By Owen Wesorick
Special for The Squall
When I first listened to the album A Head Full of Dreams, it confused me, because somehow, Coldplay managed to span an entirety of different moods in their music, including upbeat, sad, and everywhere in between; yet every single song managed to sound exactly the same.
That said, there was a definite difference in quality between several songs on the album. Some songs, such as “Hymn For The Weekend”, were actually really good. They included unique background beats and synth parts, which allowed for some much needed variation in the album.
The rest of the songs though, were painful to subject myself to. Partly because of Chris Martin’s voice, which at points, can sound beautiful, and work well with the music it’s accompanying, but mostly throughout the album, just sounds audibly out of place, like he’s singing a different song than the band is playing.
He also goes into higher pitched notes that he oftentimes cannot pull off, resulting in a sound similar to what I’d imagine a turtle makes when it’s dying.
The worst aspect of A Head Full Of Dreams isn’t the bad songs necessarily, but more so just how painfully long some of the bad songs are. “Army of One” was six minutes long, which was three minutes too many. If it was shortened, I might’ve gotten through it even liking the song, but the stretching out of everything kept me zoning out because of my disinterest in what I was listening to.
The best aspect and saving grace of the album was the instrumental noise in the background. Oftentimes I found myself focusing less on the lyrics and singing and more on the drum beats, the keyboard, the synth or the bass.
They were the only things that actually felt like they varied and kept the songs alive. Even they weren’t perfect though, as they occasionally fell flat, or didn’t vary in certain songs. One particular song, “Kaleidoscope,” comes to mind, as they simply played the same few notes for the majority of the song, and then sampled the rest from a low quality recording.
The best two songs on it were “Hymn For The Weekend” and “Adventure Of A Lifetime” easily. These two were my most liked mostly because they actually varied from the rest of the songs, and had rhythms and notes that I felt like I hadn’t heard before.
They included different elements and instruments that weren’t present in any of the other songs on the album. It actually felt like the vocals added to these songs instead of detracting from them.
If the rest of the songs on the album were like this, I’d give it a 5 out of 5, but since many of the songs aren’t anywhere near that caliber of music; Not bad, but too average to give it a high score.
RATING: 3/5 stars
