This was my review to some friends after my very first listen. I actually think it sounds better played from speakers than it does through nice headphones...the production is much foggier than I expected (granted, I wasn't playing through a great sound system, but still).
Here were my thoughts immediately after the first run-through:
So I just had my very first listen to Mylo Xyloto. Since I lack any impressive sound system, I plugged my bitchin' Sennheiser HD555's into the MacBook Pro, and while [my wife] and the kids were napping, I sat down, closed my eyes, and dove in. First impression? 7/10. I actually wavered on maybe saying 6.9/10, but I think 7 is ok.
Back when I saw the first promo images for the album several months ago (all the colorful graffiti, etc.), I called that they were aiming for their own Coldplay version of Achtung Baby. I think that that holds true for the album. However, I think they didn't quite hit the mark. It's definitely the farthest departure yet from Parachutes & A Rush of Blood to the Head in a few senses, and it is a step forward from Viva La Vida. Much like Achtung, there is a clear intention to obtain more of a street/club/dance feel; a few songs have whomping beats & electronic (-sounding, at least) percussion. Yet rather than a radical departure from the past, there are many, many times when MX seems to simply be a natural progression from VLV.
Musically, the album relies on "wall of sound" choruses with Eno-esque atmosphere, something they've done on all three albums from X&Y onward (perhaps even earlier with "Clocks"). Other, "smaller" songs rely on the classic Coldplay combination of Chris Martin's voice plus minimal arrangement behind him (i.e., "Us Against the World"). What grabs you on the "big" songs isn't a riff or a groove, but rather an onslaught guitars, synths, and drums, combined with trademark Chris Martin "ooh ooh ooh's," all positioned in the right moments of each song to lift you up into it. The flaw, perhaps, is that the repetitive use of the same technique without any distinctive groove makes many of the songs blend together. This may, of course, change on further listens---we'll see.
There was a story after VLV that when Eno first met Coldplay, the first thing he told them was that Chris Martin's lyrics were shit. Apparently, Martin has been joking around on Mylo Xyloto promo interviews that his lyrics suck. I don't think that they suck, but I feel obliged to say that there's nothing at all remarkable about them. They tend to fit their respective songs very well, but often lack much depth in and of themselves. I've always been a lyrics guy, though this issue may not matter much to many others.
It may be unfair to compare MX to Achtung, as this is only Coldplay's 5th album (their Joshua Tree...is that even more unfair?). However, they've been together as long as U2 were when they made Achtung, and it does seem as if they were going for kind of a street art, danceable feel & image that U2 had moved toward with Achtung. Comparing the two, MX pales considerably (yet seems to be causing the same sort of divide among Coldplay fans as Achtung did among U2 fans, according to a glimpse at the coldplaying.com forum, with many "I don't know where this band is going anymore" posts). Taken on its own, however, the album is enjoyable and pretty good....just not great. But does it need to be great?