Coldplay - A Head Full of Dreams

"A Head Full of Dreams" is the 7th album by UK rock band Coldplay. Released in 2015, "A Head full of Dreams" was the follow up to 2014's "Ghost stories".  That's right due Coldplay choosing to do a 5-date world tour for "Ghost Stories", they pressed ahead and took just a year to record and release their next record.  This was mainly due to "Ghost Stories" being such a different record for Coldplay and although it was successful and had big hits on it such as "Magic" and "A sky full of stars".  The songs didn't really fit the bigger stage.

Whereas many of the songs on "A Head full of Dreams" really were born for the bigger stage.  This album is the much more natural follow up to their 5th album "Mylo Xylto".  And due to the similarities between them I would even call them sister albums.  For me I would say "Mylo Xylto" is the slightly better album.  I think the singles are stronger and as a whole it shines brighter.  But "A Head full of Dreams still has highlights and the singles still fit into their live set nicely.  The title track kicks off the album and sets the bar high.  "Hymn for the weekend" and "Adventure of a lifetime" are the other great singles.

Going deeper into the album "Everglow" is a superb piano led track.  It has an early Colplay vibe about it and would have fit well on "Parachutes" or "Rush of Blood to the head".  It's slower but has a great impact on the listener.  The album does take a bit of a nosedive in the middle with "Fun" and "Kaliedescope" being some of Coldplay's more forgettable tracks.  It gets slightly better with "Army of one".  Then a bit better again with "Amazing day".  But you get the feeling they are a bit on cruise control at this point. Not really trying anything out of the ordinary and creating songs that are just good enough and not ambitious enough to really push themselves any on the creative side.

I would say one song which does stand out in comparison to "Mylo Xylto" is the closing track "Up & Up".  For me the only thing wrong with "Mylo" was the last track wasn't as strong or as appropriate for a closing track as other Coldplay albums have been.  But here on "A head full of Dreams", they have finished this album off spectacularly and as much as I love "Everything’s not lost" and particularly "Amsterdam".  They do go out on a slightly lower tone.  Whereas this is all about positive both in lyrics and music. It has this long, amazing bridge through first a piano section, then the guitar solo.  For me it is the best closer to an album they have done.

Overall, I would say this is a fairly good album.  I have compared it to "Mylo Xylto" a lot in this review and I stand by that.  In comparison to other albums, I would say it would appear quite far down my list.  But it is still a good album which shows how good Coldplay are.  It just feels like they are a bit on autopilot with this album when you compare it to the creative spark that was "Ghost Stories" I expected something a bit more creative but got something very safe.