Listed below are the overall rankings for the best albums in history as determined by their aggregate positions in over 59,000 different greatest album charts on BestEverAlbums.com! (Chart last updated: 6 hours ago).
"I listen to an album like this and wonder why Wishbone Ash wasn't bigger. Super crisp instrumentation highlighted by the band's always excellent guitar work, made both accessible enough for casual listeners and intricate enough for deeper fans. Talk about a band full of hidden gems"Reply
"Earlier this week I was blessed with an absolutely crippling case of insomnia and, in my dazed, "can't fucking believe I'm awake at 6am" state, I figured I'd give that darned new Coldplay record a shot. "Ghost Stories" had actually landed pretty nicely on my ears just a few years prior and all, s...""Earlier this week I was blessed with an absolutely crippling case of insomnia and, in my dazed, "can't fucking believe I'm awake at 6am" state, I figured I'd give that darned new Coldplay record a shot. "Ghost Stories" had actually landed pretty nicely on my ears just a few years prior and all, so...why not give it a go? "Experimental" was a claim I was never going to buy: we all knew what this "double album" was going to be before launching in.
...Or did we?
Welp, turns out, we basically did. Everyday Life is not pushing pop-rock-anthem boundaries another band hasn't pushed (and pushed more successfully) before: U2 has been doing this shit since "All that You Can't Leave Behind." That said, after a decade of half-hearted attempts at more straightforward pop, it seems that Martin and co. have finally chosen to (belatedly) acknowledge that their strength lies in tender balladry and chorus-driven anthems. This plays to their advantage. Chris Martin, despite his desire to front a neo-disco outfit, has not lost his superhuman touch with the sentimental: "Orphans", "Old Friends", and "Champion of the World" all pluck heartstrings with greater force than any of the next-best Coldplay tracks of the 2010s (Charlie Brown, Always in My Head...Magic?). Frankly, I don't see much use in delving in to the more traditional highlights: what's to be gained from reminding you that Coldplay is really fucking good at being...Coldplay?
Except that's not really all that happened.
Oh no. Not at all.
No, this record is bizarre, and what's damn bizarre about this record is the borderline-abrasive genre hopping. Let's break down the "Coldplay-not-doing-Coldplay-shit" just for kicks:
Broken (I refuse to capitalize the E, sorry Chris): Straight vocal gospel. Like...played totally, 100% straight. This is, again, right out of the U2 playbook (everyone knows the best version of "I Still Haven't Found..." is the gospel-choir infused cut on Rattle and Hum), but still...that our British boys refrained from breaking into a reverb-addled gospel-hybrid-thing is commendable. Again, though, just...bizarre. Think about this. Then listen to it. It doesn't get any less weird.
Arabesque: It's been a few weeks, so we're used to it now...but...the Kuti family is playing on a Coldplay track. The Kuti family is playing on a Coldplay track and it's not a fucking gimmick. Gimmick-be-damned, "Arabesque" is a poorly-named heavy hitter of a song, the centerpiece of "Everyday Life", and blessed with thick-ass electric piano, horns galore, and Martin successfully writing the "we're all one" message Bono hasn't been able to string together in years. The only downside to this number is how it brings the degrees of separation between Kuti and the Chainsmokers down to one.
When I Need a Friend: I'm fucking losing my mind. Is this fucking real? Chris Martin singing with a church choir (like, traditional church choir) over found-sounds? Do I even need to talk about this? It's fucking great. Fuck. Fuck.
Èkó: Joni-esque guitar. Flower-child folk-music. They just keep hitting us with this shit, huh? It's well executed, too! I've lost the ability to speak critically about what's going on here; all I know is that the sounds aren't weird, it's just weird to hear them coming from Coldplay. It might be even weirder that it's actually good.
Cry Cry Cry: Chris Martin and the Coldtones. How long has Martin been into doo-wop and why is it just now manifesting in his musical direction? It's hard to imagine this track translating to a Coldplay show (not that they'll be playing any on an international level, I suppose), but it almost feels like I'm being toyed with at this point. "Bet you didn't know I like Dion, assholes"- Chris Martin, 2019
بني آدم: Why is this baroque piano piece on the record? Because Chris Martin is already richer than god, that's why.
What a bold, anti-commercial move from a band I had written off as selling-out harder than Tekashi69 in court. I'm not sure that this genre-hopping approach served the record's flow particularly well, but it might've been the only way the Coldplay family could challenge the ever-growing perception of the band as a brand rather than...well, a band.
How did "Cry Cry Cry" end up being good. Fuck."[+]Reply
"James Brown's absolute highpoint is hard to pinpoint, as he released such a gigantic amount of records in his golden age, and for that same reason the records themselves were often filled with uninteresting fillers plus unimaginative reruns. To finish off the TV analogy they invented the album eq...""James Brown's absolute highpoint is hard to pinpoint, as he released such a gigantic amount of records in his golden age, and for that same reason the records themselves were often filled with uninteresting fillers plus unimaginative reruns. To finish off the TV analogy they invented the album equivalent of a laugh track. Good on ya, corporate PR guys, glad it didn't catch on.
But if we allow ourselves to ignore that for a second, we hear an album with the absolutely most essential funk standards. I truly believe that this album is what most funk and disco heroes were imagining when they started their band."[+]Reply
"Yes! This is an awesome album. I can’t believe the average to middle grade reviews Coulors is receiving. It’s fun , light and a blast wire to wire . Yes I LOVE Morning Phase and NO I’m not a Beck fan boy , what we have here are 2 vastly different albums back to back and both are great . Is Colors...""Yes! This is an awesome album. I can’t believe the average to middle grade reviews Coulors is receiving. It’s fun , light and a blast wire to wire . Yes I LOVE Morning Phase and NO I’m not a Beck fan boy , what we have here are 2 vastly different albums back to back and both are great . Is Colors album of the year ? Just maybe, it’s certainly going to finish in my top 5 for 2017"[+]Reply
"Its a really solid album through and through. It just sounds much much more assured and beautiful than his debut a year before. The songs are consistently gorgeous and topical yet timeless. In songs like "That's What I Want To Hear" its amazing cuz the concerns aren't dated at all. And his tribut...""Its a really solid album through and through. It just sounds much much more assured and beautiful than his debut a year before. The songs are consistently gorgeous and topical yet timeless. In songs like "That's What I Want To Hear" its amazing cuz the concerns aren't dated at all. And his tribute to John F Kennedy - "That Was A President" is truly beautiful, if a bit too hero-worshippy for my taste. And songs like "Draft Dodger Rag" is hilarious and incredibly catchy. Some of this album is ridiculously preachy, but that goes with the territory and I found myself growing used to it halfway through on this listen and then tired of it by the end. Still, a solid album throughout. It's no "The Times They Are A-Changin'" but then again I don't think that is what he was going for. Phil brought his own balance and message forward and as a result this is one of the best protest albums of the era.
Grade: 7.7/10"[+]Reply