Mylo Xyloto

A concept album and rock opera about love conquering all on a dystopian planet.

Mylo Xyloto is the fifth studio album by British rock band Coldplay. It was released by Parlophone on 24 October 2011 in Japan and 24 October 2011 in the rest of the world. The band worked closely with producer Brian Eno following their successful collaboration on their previous album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008).

Quick Facts

Artist

Coldplay

Released

19 October 2011

Recorded

November 2008 – September 2011

Studio

The Bakery (London); The Beehive (London)

Genre

Alternative rock
pop rock
dance-rock
new wave
electronica
pop

Length

44:09

Label

Parlophone; Capitol

Producer

Markus Dravs
Dan Green
Rik Simpson

Lore & Background

Mylo Xyloto is a concept album and thematic rock opera, though not the band's first—Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends is also widely considered a concept album. The album tells the story of a war against sound and colour on the planet Silencia, which has been overtaken by a totalitarian government led by Major Minus, who controls the population through media and propaganda. His aim is to take sound and colour off the streets in hope to draw away 'feeders', creatures that use such energy to hunt its prey.

The album follows Mylo Xyloto, a single protagonist who works as a 'silencer', a soldier in an army tasked to hunt and track down 'sparkers', people who harness light and energy and use it to create sparks, comparable to graffiti in real life. He encounters Fly, the sparker most wanted by Major Minus. Through Fly, Mylo discovers his sparker abilities and his affiliation with the Car Kids, a major sparker faction founded by Mylo's parents, Aiko and Lela.

Drummer Will Champion has noted that the album is a story of the characters 'falling in love and trying to escape together', with a general theme of 'love conquering all'. In official sources, the protagonist is named Mylo Xyloto (a single character) and the love interest is Fly.

Reader's Guide

The album received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its uplifting tone and new electronic sound; however, some found its material bombastic and overproduced. 'Paradise' and 'Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall' received a total of three nominations at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards in 2012, while the album and 'Charlie Brown' received two further nods in the following year. Internationally, Mylo Xyloto charted at number one in 34 countries.

In the United Kingdom, Mylo Xyloto became Coldplay's fifth album to debut at number one, selling 208,343 units in its first week, and setting a one-week digital sales record with 83,000 copies sold. Mylo Xyloto broke an iTunes record for digital downloads sales by selling over 500,000 digital copies in a week. (Beyoncé's self-titled album and Adele's 25 topped this record in 2013 and 2015 respectively). Mylo Xyloto became Coldplay's third album to debut at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling 447,411 units in its first week of sales.

It was the United Kingdom's best-selling rock album of 2011, moving over 908,000 copies. The album has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide.

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	Mylo Xyloto		0:43
2	Hurts Like Heaven		4:02
3	Paradise		4:37
4	Charlie Brown		4:45
5	Us Against the World		3:59
6	M.M.I.X.		0:48
7	Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall	Coldplay, Eno, Peter Allen, Adrienne Anderson, Harry Castioni, Alex Christensen, Alberto Hauss, Jeff Wycombe	4:00
8	Major Minus		3:30
9	U.F.O.		2:17
10	Princess of China (with Rihanna)	Coldplay, Eno, Jón Þór Birgisson, Orri Páll Dýrason, Georg Hólm, Kjartan Sveinsson	3:59
11	Up in Flames	Coldplay	3:13
12	A Hopeful Transmission		0:33
13	Don't Let It Break Your Heart	Coldplay	3:53
14	Up with the Birds	Coldplay, Eno, Leonard Cohen	3:47
Total length			44:09