More cathartic than commercially aimed, the material he was writing at the time, along with bandmates Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion, was an exploration of love, loss and lament. A safe place to explore the whirlwind of emotions he was going through.
And who could blame him? With five albums and seemingly endless touring behind Coldplay, hiding away could have been a welcome respite from the pressure to do something, play something, say something.īut rather than retreat, Martin found solace in the comfort of melody and rhythms. So when, in 2014, Chris and Gwyneth Paltrow, his wife of over ten years, announced their “conscious uncoupling,” many expected him to retreat a little from the limelight. Instead of broad, arms-outstretched choruses and irresistible, foot-stomping anthems, there are whimpers and wails that recall the anguished warbling of Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak or Bon Iver.Happy 5th Anniversary to Coldplay’s sixth studio album Ghost Stories, originally released May 16, 2014.įor a lyricist and musician such as Chris Martin, who has always worn his heart on his sleeve notes, a dramatic change in your personal life will always find its way into your art. Rolling Stone’s three-and-a-half star review finds Caryn Ganz calling the album “unlike anything the band has done before. STORY: Coldplay Gets Busy With ‘Ghost Stories’ Promotion Kyle Anderson’s B review for Entertainment Weekly calls Ghost Stories “a transitional album … the sound of a band paying homage to their past … while pawing at the future.” The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson proved typical of the critical reception in his review, calling Ghost Stories the band’s “most forgettable album ever,” An admitted fan of the band, he says it’s “neither complicated nor thrilling … state-of-the-art hydrotherapy tank - a lavish, electric-powered whirling vat of feelings … an electronica meditation on the end of a relationship.”īillboard’s Jason Lipshutz proved a little more generous, acknowledging that while the album is “devoid of big moments … it is refreshing to hear Martin try to confide a sentiment instead of bellow it.” He concludes, “For once, reveling in the darkness feels like a great idea.” PHOTOS: Goop’s Greatest Hits: 15 Gwyneth Paltrow Looks We Love gives it a cumulative rating of 62 (out of 100) based on 27 reviews. And besides the inclination to tell the dude to man up and stop being such a wussy, it offers a deeper, atmospheric longing to the band’s back catalog of arm-waving, body-spinning anthems, a glimpse at the emptiness beneath the brave exterior, the “Ghosts” inside the machine. Maybe it’s merely boomercentric white rock critics put off by Chris Martin’s decidedly unrock-star aw-shucks humility, or perhaps they’re just plain jealous of his legion of female admirers, a problem which seems to also plague the likes of fellow heartthrobs like Sting and John Mayer.Īt any rate, the long knives are out for Ghost Stories, a rather modest, nine-song, 43-minute album that brims over with Martin’s sorrow over the “conscious uncoupling” of his relationship with estranged wife Gwyneth Paltrow. The critics have never been very kind to Coldplay, so it’s no surprise the reaction has been relatively lukewarm to the band’s sixth album and first since the splashy Mylo Xylo back in 2011.
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