Wouldn't you know it, Chris Martin is still human after all. After getting more and more bombastic with their efforts, Coldplay went back to its small-scale, sentimental roots with what turned out to be a pretty in-depth examination of his breakup with Gwyneth Paltrow. Though they had to put at least one arena-ready epic on the album (in this case the Aviici-assisted "Sky Full of Stars"), the rest of Ghost Stories is stripped of the grandiosity that Coldplay has become known for. And it sounds...disingenuous. Unlike the quieter moments of Parachutes, the songs on Ghost Stories never sound all that natural. They sound like Martin doing his best impersonation of Bon Iver over electronic soundscapes. In breaking away from the anthemic sound that has kept them in business for the better part of a decade, they forced themselves to play outside of their comfort zone. It's an admirable goal, but they rarely sound up to the task. So instead of getting wrapped up in the soft introspection, we're left wondering when the big piano chorus is going to come busting in. (It never does.) Sure, Martin digs a little deeper in the lyrical department, but that's not enough to carry all the dead weight that drags this album down.
