Kaleidoscope EP (studio album) by Coldplay

I love All I Can Think About Is You and Hypnotise. But the rest... dear lord

This EP takes a lot of problems that plagued Ghost Stories. Quality inconsistency, painfully simplistic lyrics, and questionable production choices on a few tracks. You can have a song that's among Coldplay's greatest (All I Can Think About Is You) followed by a painfully ham-handed "believe in yourself" message with a tacked-on rapper feature (Someone Special).

All I Can Think About Is You - as mentioned above, some of Coldplay's best work in ages. Funny, since it was engineered to be a throwback song. Chris's vocals soar in the bridge as does the piano part, which sounds reminiscent of A Rush of Blood to the Head, the bass part is smooth and slick at the beginning, and the guitar part is classic Coldplay.

Miracles (Someone Special) - generic insurance commercial fodder. Think of all the uninspired "uplifting" songs on the radio and then imagine if all of their cliches were thrown into one song. You'd get something very close to this. It sucks, when people say Coldplay is middle-of-the-road boring music, they probably think of songs like this. All this song does is reinforce that conception. The lyrics are horribly straightforward and the instrumental is bland. And that Big Sean break is just straight bad.

A L I E N S - Pretty much what you'd expect from an unreleased Viva la Vida track. The band was at their peak during that era, and this song strongly echoes this. Eno's production carries the song a bit, but the guitar part is just as instrumental. The lyrics are curious and well-delivered, and 5/4 in a Coldplay song is always a plus.

Something Just Like This - I don't even know why they put the live version on here instead of the studio mix, they're basically the same thing since there's just so much production involved here. Of all of Coldplay's poor collab choices (Big Sean included), the Chainsmokers may very well be their dumbest. The Chainsmokers are already like diet Coldplay, which says a lot, and they're just riding the electronic synth-y dance music wave so irritatingly present in pop music today. So that's basically two strikes and you're out for me. Chris's lyrics and delivery don't help this song's case, either. The "doo-doo-doo"'s are especially painful, but "I'm not looking for somebody with some superhuman gifts/some superhero, some fairy tale bliss/just something I can turn to/somebody I can kiss," really, guys?

Hypnotised - And this one falls smack dab in the middle of the spectrum between unbearable Coldplay and decent/great Coldplay. Simple chord progressions with production that sounds like someone was listening to some A Moon Shaped Pool, and some fairly dull lyrics mixed with some quite alright lyrics, I'm never certain how to feel about this one. It's certainly long, and feels slightly stretched out (the EP mix doesn't help, which adds thirty seconds of tacked-on ambiance at the beginning which the song is fine without; just listen to the single version), but its long crescendo to the climax at the end is quite subtle and fun. At times it feels forgettable, but you can't help but get sucked up in its glitzy nature that sounds like one of the better songs on Mylo Xyloto.

This is a very diverse Coldplay release, both in terms of style and quality. You have bits of what's clearly Brian Eno's work and generic annoying nonsense from the Chainsmokers side to side. Which is not to say that Coldplay are necessarily at their best when they make atmospheric rock instead of "fun" pop songs, but it just so happens that they are at their best when they make atmospheric rock instead of "fun" pop songs.

The thing that brings the EP down the most isn't the questionable set of collaborators, though, but the fact that Chris' voice sounds like shit nowadays. If back in their good times people were already complaining about him, imagine them now. They must be suffering listening to this. For a matter of personal taste I just happen to be able to stand him, at least for short periods of time (like the lenght of this EP).

To sum up: Take "All I Can Think About Is You" and run away.

From sorry1516 07/14/2017 21:19

What if they say I'm no good? What if they say, "Get out of here kid. You've got no future"? I feel like this is a Coldplay we haven't seen in a while... nostalgia and past comparison come easily to mind.

Following this line of thought, Kaleidoscope EP might be their one of their most diverse works yet. It draws inspiration from lots of songs they did over the course of time: the A Rush of Blood piano driven ballads, the experimental sounds of X&Y and Viva La Vida. Still, the EP fits perfectly in the current era: there's a good amount of the same pop currents they've been swimming into lately, but now, they manage to navigate them better, more maturely even.

As a closing thought: Guy's base hasn't sound so good since the early days of Sparks and compliments the sound they've got going perfectly, Chris' lyrics became more abstract and took a step in the right direction, the piano is put to good use here and there and while I'd lose my shit over a more stripped back sound, reminiscent of Parachutes, I can safely say that I'm very excited too see where they go, if this EP is any indicator of what's to come.

From luigybetis 07/14/2017 18:07

The order of the songs is not well chosen, and Something Just Like This shouldn't be here. But the 4 new songs are pretty good, I'd say X&Y level (most of them). Here's the EP as I would have released it:
1. Hypnotised (9/10)
2. A L I E N S (8.5/10)
3. Miracles (Someone Special) (9.5/10)
4. All I Can Think About Is You (10/10)

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