On the next two songs, the singer’s feelings about a former love are clearer. Opener Always In My Head is sung in forlorn fashion, although its bittersweet title could be interpreted positively and negatively.
There is at least a unifying strand of lovelorn gloom across the first four tracks here. Then again, he also hailed Mylo Xyloto as a concept piece three years ago, with Mylo and Xyloto as its main characters, even though it was impossible to detect any narrative thread whatsoever amid that record’s colourful pop and soaring rock. He even claims this is a concept album about a man experiencing a dramatic break-up. Martin says the album is his attempt to grow up and ‘be really honest’ about life’s challenges. There are pointers to the troubled relationship all over Ghost Stories.
This, of course, could be down partly to the impact of the singer’s high-profile split from his wife Gwyneth Paltrow. Coldplay¿s fifth album, Mylo Xyloto, was a dazzling panorama of big beats and winning choruses