10 Blatantly Unfinished Albums (That Were Released Anyway)

Preceded by two of their most exciting singles in years (“Arabesque” stands alongside the best Coldplay songs of all time), Everyday Life seemed like a sure-fire hit, with the British giants promising a double album that, in terms of lyrical themes and visual style, harked back to their seminal 2008 outing Viva La Vida (indeed, some songs were conceieved during the recording sessions for that earlier record).

Unfortunately, the band’s commitment to release a double album seemed to be indicative of searching for style over substance, the album’s concept - two halves of a record, imaginatively titled “Sunrise” and “Sunset” - seeming like an arbitrary addition used to justify unnecessary excess, a tracklist so scattered that shuffling the record produces basically the same results as listening to it start to finish.

Inevitably, the fact that this record reaches a grand total of 16 songs means that there are a fair few duds here, with the most baffling decision being the inclusion of "WOTW / POTP", a literal studio demo, over the fully-realised and frankly fantastic Japanese bonus track "Flags".

While Coldplay's return to experimentation after the fairly basic pop of A Head Full Of Dreams is welcome, a few questionable inclusions (dodgy gospel, unnecessary interludes) bog down an album that would have benefited from more objective editing.