Album Review: "Ghost Stories" - Coldplay

"Ghost Stories": B+.  Coldplay front man Chris Martin married movie actress Gwenyth Paltrow in December 2002.  Other than Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, Martin and Paltrow have spent most of the last several years as England's most famous couple.  Therefore, when they mutually announced their separation last March, using the euphemism "conscious uncoupling," people who follow celebs were caught off guard.  Coldplay released Ghost Stories, their sixth studio album, less than three months later.  The album is comprised of songs which obviously were inspired by the power pair's breakup. Unlike some song compilations which are labeled as "concept albums" (a structure which I discussed in my March 28, 2012 review of Bruce Springsteen's Wrecking Ball), here there is no quarrel over what the common thread is among the tracks.  Ghost Stories is very personal, from the perspective of one whose world has drastically change by the parting of his mate.

The album's title, Ghost Stories, is clever, because almost all of the songs are addressed in the second person, as if that person was there listening.  Yet, that person is not there, just as one might feel or be aware of the presence of a ghost, even though the tangible entity is not there.  The lead track, Always In My Head, is a good example of how this works.  The singer's woman has vamoosed, but he tells her, anyway, that he can't stop thinking of her.  He lives his life going through the motions, but his heart is fixed on his ex:

My body moves,

Goes where I will, 

But though I try

My heart stays still.

 

The inability of the singer to focus on something or someone else is examined in A Sky Full Of Stars, which has been called the "magnum opus" of Ghost Stories (just as the title track from the band's 2008 album, Viva la Vida, was) and is the song Coldplay sang on various television network appearances to promote the album.   Even looking at the night sky, the singer thinks he sees his former significant other, as in a constellation.  A deeper interpretation -- and one which I favor -- has been proposed by music commentator Philip Terry Graham, who points out that the light of many stars we see from earth has taken a multitude of years to reach us, and by the time it has traveled that unimaginable distance the originating star may well have burned out.  We think we are seeing a star, but in the present time it may no longer be there.  Such a phenomenon is analogous to "seeing" a ghost.

 

What caused the couple to come apart?  The best song on the album, True Love, doesn't directly answer the question, but the singer does lament that his S.O. kept her unhappiness with him a secret instead of engaging in an honest heart-to-heart.

 

... I wish you could have let me know

What's really going on below.

 

Some of the prettiest vocals in True Love recall lines from A Tender Lie, a country song written by Randy Sharp and covered fabulously by Dolly Partin in 2001:

 

Tell me you love me,

If you don't, then lie,

Lie to me.

 

The song inviting the most discussion may be Another's Arms.  Is the singer accusing his lover of unfaithfulness?  Or is the reference to "another's arms" a hopeful statement that someday the singer will find love again with someone else?  Many of Martin's fans are going with the former angle, claiming that Paltrow had a roving eye.  Try Googling "Kevin Yorn."  Conversely, there are  other songs on the album (besides Another's Arms) in which the singer, even though saddened by the recent romantic dissolution, is not giving up on love.  Two examples follow.

 

In Fly On (the first part of the closing track titled O), Martin sings that love is like a flock of birds.  Even when they land, they don't stay forever.  But when they fly off you know that more birds will arrive at some future point.

 

A flock of birds

Hovering above

Just a flock of birds, 

That's how you think of love.

 

In Magic, one of the album's hit singles, the unhappy termination of the singer's love relationship has not soured him on love itself.

 

... if you were to ask me

After all that we've been through

"Still believe in magic?"

Yes, I do.

Yes, I do.

 

Ironically, the title song of this album is not included on the core CD; instead it is offered as one of the three bonus tracks available exclusively through Target.  (Well, okay, the song is titled Ghost Story as opposed to the plural form of the album title.)  In every song but Ghost Story on the album, the ghost in question is presumed to be the singer's ex.  In Ghost Story, it's clear the ghost is the male singer.

 

Maybe I'm just a ghost,

Disappear when anybody's close.

 

And again:

 

What's the point in feeling love for you

When you don't believe I'm here?

 

One of the knocks on Coldplay is that too many of their songs sound the same.  It is a fair point although, assuming the lyrics cover different ground, the sameness of some melodies does not materially detract from my enjoyment of their offerings.  (I wrote "materially" because the overall pace of the record is a little too languid to suit me.)  One wonders, though, if the band is aware of the criticism.  If so, they are unconcerned, as evidenced by the placement of Magic and Ink, two tunes with similar percussion, back-to-back as the second and third tracks.

 

In my above-cited Wrecking Ball post I wrote that "it is not unusual for [a concept] album, in its totality, to be greater than the sum of its parts."  The same applies to Ghost Stories.  The album tells a story in a manner which is very lyrical, mystic and often beautiful.  Individually, however, only two of the songs, True Love and A Sky Full Of Stars, stand out and belong on a list of the cream of Coldplay's fourteen year long catalogue.  The other songs rely on their respective places within the context of the album's concept.