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between_time_and_42I meant to write this up earlier but didn’t get around to it, so I’ve had the full lyrics to all the songs from Mylo Xyloto up on my phone for a week now and I’m just going to write this now because I’m sick of having that tab open. So. Here is my process of adapting Mylo Xyloto by Coldplay, definitely the least interesting and most vague of all the concept albums, but still one that I enjoy.
Here is the official story of Mylo Xyloto according to Wikipedia (derived from the official comics telling the story, which I haven’t read but have read the plot synopses):
The album tells the story of a war against sound and color 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 color off the streets in hope to draw away "feeders", creatures that use such energy to hunt its prey. The album follows Mylo Xyloto, 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.
…cool story, bro, but when listening to the album, I didn’t get that story at ALL, and honestly I’ve become so attached to my own version of the story that I don’t care what the official one is. So, let’s go track by track to decipher my own version of the Mylo Xyloto story.
“Hurts Like Heaven”: This track introduces Protagonist Number One, AKA “Xyloto,” and his gang of teenage delinquents. I chose to name this character “Xyloto” because when the album first came out (before the comics came out), it was reported that the story would be a love story between two characters named Mylo and Xyloto. I think it was also specified that they were a girl and a boy, but it wasn’t specified who was who. I decided that the girl would be Mylo and the boy would be Xyloto for entirely arbitrary reasons. It just sounded better that way imo. The opening lyrics to “Hurts Like Heaven” talk about graffiti art found around a town- “Written on graffiti on a bench in the park- ‘do you ever get the feeling that you’re missing the mark?… Written up in marker on a factory sign- ‘I struggle with the feeling that my life isn’t mine.’” The next lines introduce the idea that there’s some opposition to this activity- “See the arrow they shot, trying to tear us apart. Take the fire from my belly and the beat from my heart. Still I won’t let go.” Then the chorus shows how the characters making the graffiti are rising up against this opposition- “Use your heart as a weapon, and it hurts like heaven.” The next verse elaborates that “using your heart as a weapon” means that they’re using art to defeat the enemy, explicitly identifying them as the ones making the graffiti. “On every street, every car, every surface a name. Tonight the streets are ours, and we’re writing and saying ‘don’t let them take control.’ No, we won’t let them take control.” Then the narrator expresses fear that the enemy will find them: “Yes, I feel nervous and I cannot relax. How come they’re out to get us? How come they’re out when they don’t know the facts?” But then they call themselves by thinking of their mission. “So on a concrete canvas, I’ll be making my mark, armed with a spray can soul.” After that, the chorus repeats and the song ends.
Due to a combination of the lyrics being so evocative (“armed with a spray can soul” is the line I’ve always kept coming back to, I love the idea of the graffiti art being a weapon to fight oppression) and the really beautiful album artwork, I was completely drawn into Mylo Xyloto from the moment that I heard the first track. I imagined a group of young people running around in the streets at night, taking advantage of the fact that no one was out and about to paint messages and artwork on every surface. Clearly someone is out to get them, though the identity of the enemy isn’t elaborated upon in this song. So their art is their form of rebellion. Apparently they can’t fight the enemy physically, but they protest against it. In my original version of CAE, the setting of “Hurts Like Heaven” was part of a town that had been abandoned after a widespread fire, but a group of teenage runaways (Xyloto being one of them) had taken up residence there. (Maybe some of them had lost their parents in the fire… I can’t remember.) In my new version of SF: ALS, the “gang” is more of a commune, still consisting of teenage runaways who have banded together to form their own family, but they have actively claimed an abandoned hydroelectric plant near the river as their home, and they spend a lot of time trying to cultivate their own crops and make their own materials to live off the land. Graffiti is still one of their main recreational activities, though.
“Paradise”: This song introduces Protagonist Number Two, “Mylo.” When Mylo was a girl, “she expected the world, but it flew away from her reach, so she ran away in her sleep, and dreamed of Paradise.” Honestly, even though that’s just the first verse, you pretty much get the whole story from that. The rest of the lyrics just say the same thing in different ways- “Life goes on, it gets so heavy, the wheel breaks the butterfly… in the night, the stormy night, away she flies.” Essentially- girl feels trapped at home and wants out. In both CAE and SF: ALS, Mylo is introduced coming home from her food service job, which she has taken up after school to help support her family now that her father has lost his job (many people have lost their jobs due to the future apocalypse, as the government has pretty much gotten rid of anything that’s not “essential”). Due to a lot of tension at home, Mylo is very unhappy with her life, and makes a plan to run away.
“Charlie Brown:” This song describes Mylo’s “flight” from her home and meeting with Xyloto’s gang. (In CAE she was aware of them beforehand, but in SF: ALS she stumbles across them on her travels.) She steals the key to her parents’ car and takes it downtown to “where the lost boys meet.” The next verse after the opening verse has some more beautiful evocative lines like in “Hurts Like Heaven:” “In my scarecrow dreams, when they smashed my heart into smithereens, be a bright red rose, come bursting the concrete. Be a cartoon heart. Light a fire, a fire, a spark, light a fire, flame in my heart. We’ll run wild. We’ll be glowing in the dark.” After Mylo had her childhood dreams destroyed, finding Xyloto’s gang makes her feel alive again. She finds their offer to join them to be tempting. The idea of running wild with them at night and painting graffiti with them ignited her buried creative spark. She joins them. In both versions of my story, Mylo meets Xyloto after saving his life from the enemy (who we will get to in a moment). The “spark” and “glowing in the dark” refers to something different between both versions of the story, though. In CAE, the gang wears light-up bands when they go out at night to identify each other, which were based on the Xylobands that Coldplay introduced at their concerts during their Mylo Xylotour. In SF: ALS, I got rid of that idea, and the “spark” not only refers to Mylo feeling reinvigorated, but I also decided to name the gang the Spark Plug Kids, or the Sparks for short. I didn’t want to use Car Kids like they’re called in the original synopsis because they don’t use cars in my interpretation (they travel by roller skates instead, if they need to move faster), so I referred to the story instead by using something that sounded like “sparker” to refer to them.
“Us Against the World:” This is the first of several mellow acoustic ballads on the album, and I honestly never paid that much attention to the lyrics, just going off of vibes for how it fit into the story. So in my head, this is when Mylo and Xyloto start growing closer. They each share their fears and insecurities with each other and decide that “though chaos as it swirls, it’s us against the world.” There are also some mentions of loss- “in my heart, she left a hole” and “like a river to a raindrop, I lost a friend.” In CAE and SF: ALS, this is when Xyloto tells Mylo that the enemy has killed several of his friends from the gang before. “In my heart she left a hole” sounds like a break-up line though, and it’s the only line in the song that indicates a breakup, so I’m going to ignore it. The second verse ends with “Tonight I know it all has to begin again, so whatever you do, don’t let go.” Xyloto is once again finding love and companionship with Mylo, after suffering the loss of several of his friends. The bridge calls back to Mylo’s desire to fly away- “And if we could float away, fly up to the surface and just start again, lift off before trouble just erodes us in the rain.” Already they’re starting to see a life together outside of their current existence, but they can’t leave the gang yet because of the presence of the enemy.
“Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall:” Fun fact, not only was this the song that got me into Coldplay, but I also loved it so much that I bought the single on CD. Do people even make CD singles anymore? Anyway… This song describes the Sparks’ other favorite activity- listening and dancing to music. “I turn the music up, I got my records on, I shut the world outside until the lights come on. Maybe the streets alight, maybe the trees are gone, but I feel my heart start beating to my favorite song. And all the kids they dance, all the kids all night, until Monday morning feels another life. I turn the music up- I’m on a roll this time, and Heaven is in sight.” The next verse shows how the music is more than just a source of joy- it also unites the gang against the enemy. “I turn the music up, I got my records on. From underneath the rubble, sing a rebel song. Don’t want to see another generation drop- I’d rather be a comma than a full stop. Maybe I’m in the black, maybe I’m on my knees, maybe I’m in the gap between the two trapeze. Yes, but my heart is beating and my pulses start. Cathedrals in my heart.” This activity also helps Mylo and Xyloto grow even closer. They feel elevated in each other’s presence- “And we saw this light, I swear you emerge blinking into, to tell me it’s all right. As we soar walls, every siren is a symphony, and every tear’s a waterfall.” I used to think that line was a weirdly negative one to use in a song like this, imagining a person crying waterfalls, but now I feel like it could be a signature cheesy Coldplay way of describing how even one’s sadness can be transformed into something beautiful, like a waterfall. The bridge consists solely of the line “So you can hurt, hurt me bad, but still I’ll raise the flag.” Once again describing the gang’s resistance to the enemy. In SF: ALS, the Sparks are cooped up at the hydroelectric plant for a long time because the enemy is preventing them from leaving, so they blast the radio at night to dance and keep spirits up. They didn’t do this in CAE, but in both stories, the music they used to listen to on the radio becomes live music once Ziggy, Pink, and Rael show up. The Sparks all become massive Ziggy Stardust fanboys, which in SF: ALS ends up majorly (if indirectly) affecting them in the long-run, but that will be elaborated upon when the story is posted.
“Major Minus:” Here is where we finally meet the enemy. Apparently his name is Major Minus, but back when I was thinking it was a rival gang, I thought “major minus” could refer to a major loss that the gang would suffer in an armed conflict. The lyrics to this song establish the enemy as capable of 1984-style surveillance: “They got one eye watching you, one eye on what you do, so be careful who it is you’re talking to. They got one eye watching you, one eye on what you do, so be careful what it is you’re trying to do. Just be careful when you’re walking into view… They got one eye on the road and one on you. They got one eye watching you, one eye on what you do, so be careful cause nothing they say is true. Don’t believe a word, it’s us against the world, and we just gotta stand up to be heard. Hear those crocodiles ticking ‘round the world… They got one eye on the road and one on you… I hear them climbing the stairs. I got my right side fighting while my left hides under the chairs.” That’s pretty much everything we get to know about the enemy and the situation they’re causing in this song. So, who ARE they? In my head, it was a rival gang, and in CAE, the gang consisted of people that Xyloto’s gang named “the drivers,” because they would drive around at night terrorizing people on the streets, seemingly for the lulz. In SF: ALS, the enemy is a group of bikers who have taken over an abandoned house in the woods as their clubhouse, and don’t like other people coming near their territory. They want to take over the hydroelectric plant, but there are too many Sparks for them to drive out. Either way, the Sparks can’t go out at night for fear of being attacked or even killed, and the bikers are taking their resources. Eventually conflict occurs, hence the “I can hear them climbing the stairs” part- in CAE, the house that Xyloto’s gang lived in had stairs, and the drivers attacked the house directly. In SF: ALS, the Sparks will be the ones to make the first move and attack the clubhouse. Either way, lives will be lost. (Also fun fact- I was today years old when I found out the line is not “I got my right side, fight you on my left, hiding under the chairs,” which to me was Xyloto commanding Mylo to hide while he fights. Even though Mylo can hold her own… sigh.)
“U.F.O.:” Another mellow acoustic ballad, describing the aftermath of the fight. Xyloto feels lost- “Lord, I don’t know which way I’m going, or which way the river’s gonna flow. It just seems that upstream I keep rowing. Still got such a long way to go.” But then he takes comfort in the fact that Mylo is still with him and he still sees a future with her- “Then that light hits your eyes. I know, I swear, we’ll find somewhere the streets are paved with gold. Bullets fly, split the sky, but that’s all right, sometimes some light comes streaming through the hole.” And that’s the whole song. Even though it’s one of my favorites, the falling action after the battle in CAE left no time for introspection, so I didn’t get a chance to adapt this song.
“Princess of China:” Okay, first off- I don’t like this song. It features Rihanna and because of that, my old iPod used to separate it from the album (back when all the songs on an album had to be by the same artist to play properly on your iPod), so I never listened to it and the album is honestly better off for it. This is 100% Coldplay’s sellout moment right here, and I don’t even dislike Rihanna, it’s just that collaborating with her solidified them as a pop band forever. But anyway… This is a breakup song. The first verse describes how Mylo had run away from home- “Once upon a time, somebody ran, somebody ran away saying ‘fast as I can, I’ve got to go.’” Then it describes how Mylo has decided to break up with Xyloto- “Once upon a time, we fell apart. Now you’re holding in your hands the two halves of my heart.” The next verse is sung by Rihanna and therefore gives Mylo a voice- “Once upon a time, we were burning bright. Now all we ever seem to do is fight, on and on, and on and on and on. Once upon a time on the same side in the same game, now why’d you have to go and pour water on my flame?” The chorus follows this theme: “Could have been a princess, you’d be a king. Could have had a castle and worn a ring, but no, you let me go. You stole my star… ‘cause you really hurt me.” It’s not clear what exactly has happened to break them up, other than Mylo feels hurt by something Xyloto has done and no longer sees a future with him, but in CAE, they break up after several gang members are killed in the fight and Mylo is blamed for leading the drivers to the gang’s hideout. In SF: ALS, I think Mylo is simply going to be disgusted that Xyloto pushed the Sparks into a direct attack that they were unprepared for, leading to several lives being lost, so she breaks up with him and leaves the gang. (God, I just realized that if I take this route, it would mean that history repeats in Will They Come?… have you learned NOTHING, Xyloto??)
“Up In Flames:” Another breakup song. Xyloto is reflecting on his broken relationship with Mylo after she leaves him. “So it’s over now… this time I know it’s gone. Saltwater, tasted it too long. I only know I’m wrong, now I know it’s gone up in flames. So it’s over- this time, you’re flying on. This time, I know no song can stop its lonely burn, can stop it slowly going up in flames… Can’t we pour some water on?” (Sorry, Xyloto! You had your chance. Now she’s gone. But if I could give you a word of encouragement, all I’d say is…)
“Don’t Let It Break Your Heart:” Here Xyloto decides to take the initiative and go after Mylo. He imagines following her call like a siren- “From her shipwreck, I heard her call. ‘When you’re tired of aiming your arrows, still you never hit the mark. Even in your rains and shadows, still we’re never going to part. Come on, baby, don’t let it break your heart.’” This is another one that I never paid much attention to the lyrics and just went with overall vibe, which is super upbeat, one of the most upbeat and bombastic songs on the album in fact. In my head, the gang has served Xyloto well, but he knows it’s time to move on and find a life outside of them, even though he’s still afraid of the enemy. In CAE, Xyloto becomes disillusioned with the gang after the battle and sneaks out at night with Ziggy and Pink (Rael has been captured in the battle, and it’s too risky to try and save him). In SF: ALS, I can’t decide if Ziggy and Pink will leave with Mylo or Xyloto. Either way, Mylo and Xyloto eventually meet each other again, although in CAE it takes them days, and in SF: ALS it takes them months. They then reconcile and decide to try living together again.
“Up With the Birds:” The album ends on a hopeful yet vague note, where the narrator talks about how “the sky is blue, dreamed that lie ‘til it’s true, then taking back the punch I threw. My arms turn wings, oh those clumsy things, send me up to that wonderful world… and then I’m up with the birds.” This sounds to me like Xyloto is leaving the planet… which he and Mylo eventually do at the beginning of Will They Come?. The last verse talks about him traveling: “Might have to go where they don’t know my name. Float all over the world just to see her again. But I won’t show or feel any pain, even though all my armor might rust in the rain. A simple plot, but I know one day good things are coming my way.” This kind of covers the same ground that “Don’t Let It Break Your Heart” does, but it’s a bit more low-key and therefore more appropriate as an album closer.
Well, there’s my interpretation of Mylo Xyloto! And with that, we’ve finished talking about the concept albums… wow! Now I can write more of the story instead of talking about it…
Here is the official story of Mylo Xyloto according to Wikipedia (derived from the official comics telling the story, which I haven’t read but have read the plot synopses):
The album tells the story of a war against sound and color 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 color off the streets in hope to draw away "feeders", creatures that use such energy to hunt its prey. The album follows Mylo Xyloto, 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.
…cool story, bro, but when listening to the album, I didn’t get that story at ALL, and honestly I’ve become so attached to my own version of the story that I don’t care what the official one is. So, let’s go track by track to decipher my own version of the Mylo Xyloto story.
“Hurts Like Heaven”: This track introduces Protagonist Number One, AKA “Xyloto,” and his gang of teenage delinquents. I chose to name this character “Xyloto” because when the album first came out (before the comics came out), it was reported that the story would be a love story between two characters named Mylo and Xyloto. I think it was also specified that they were a girl and a boy, but it wasn’t specified who was who. I decided that the girl would be Mylo and the boy would be Xyloto for entirely arbitrary reasons. It just sounded better that way imo. The opening lyrics to “Hurts Like Heaven” talk about graffiti art found around a town- “Written on graffiti on a bench in the park- ‘do you ever get the feeling that you’re missing the mark?… Written up in marker on a factory sign- ‘I struggle with the feeling that my life isn’t mine.’” The next lines introduce the idea that there’s some opposition to this activity- “See the arrow they shot, trying to tear us apart. Take the fire from my belly and the beat from my heart. Still I won’t let go.” Then the chorus shows how the characters making the graffiti are rising up against this opposition- “Use your heart as a weapon, and it hurts like heaven.” The next verse elaborates that “using your heart as a weapon” means that they’re using art to defeat the enemy, explicitly identifying them as the ones making the graffiti. “On every street, every car, every surface a name. Tonight the streets are ours, and we’re writing and saying ‘don’t let them take control.’ No, we won’t let them take control.” Then the narrator expresses fear that the enemy will find them: “Yes, I feel nervous and I cannot relax. How come they’re out to get us? How come they’re out when they don’t know the facts?” But then they call themselves by thinking of their mission. “So on a concrete canvas, I’ll be making my mark, armed with a spray can soul.” After that, the chorus repeats and the song ends.
Due to a combination of the lyrics being so evocative (“armed with a spray can soul” is the line I’ve always kept coming back to, I love the idea of the graffiti art being a weapon to fight oppression) and the really beautiful album artwork, I was completely drawn into Mylo Xyloto from the moment that I heard the first track. I imagined a group of young people running around in the streets at night, taking advantage of the fact that no one was out and about to paint messages and artwork on every surface. Clearly someone is out to get them, though the identity of the enemy isn’t elaborated upon in this song. So their art is their form of rebellion. Apparently they can’t fight the enemy physically, but they protest against it. In my original version of CAE, the setting of “Hurts Like Heaven” was part of a town that had been abandoned after a widespread fire, but a group of teenage runaways (Xyloto being one of them) had taken up residence there. (Maybe some of them had lost their parents in the fire… I can’t remember.) In my new version of SF: ALS, the “gang” is more of a commune, still consisting of teenage runaways who have banded together to form their own family, but they have actively claimed an abandoned hydroelectric plant near the river as their home, and they spend a lot of time trying to cultivate their own crops and make their own materials to live off the land. Graffiti is still one of their main recreational activities, though.
“Paradise”: This song introduces Protagonist Number Two, “Mylo.” When Mylo was a girl, “she expected the world, but it flew away from her reach, so she ran away in her sleep, and dreamed of Paradise.” Honestly, even though that’s just the first verse, you pretty much get the whole story from that. The rest of the lyrics just say the same thing in different ways- “Life goes on, it gets so heavy, the wheel breaks the butterfly… in the night, the stormy night, away she flies.” Essentially- girl feels trapped at home and wants out. In both CAE and SF: ALS, Mylo is introduced coming home from her food service job, which she has taken up after school to help support her family now that her father has lost his job (many people have lost their jobs due to the future apocalypse, as the government has pretty much gotten rid of anything that’s not “essential”). Due to a lot of tension at home, Mylo is very unhappy with her life, and makes a plan to run away.
“Charlie Brown:” This song describes Mylo’s “flight” from her home and meeting with Xyloto’s gang. (In CAE she was aware of them beforehand, but in SF: ALS she stumbles across them on her travels.) She steals the key to her parents’ car and takes it downtown to “where the lost boys meet.” The next verse after the opening verse has some more beautiful evocative lines like in “Hurts Like Heaven:” “In my scarecrow dreams, when they smashed my heart into smithereens, be a bright red rose, come bursting the concrete. Be a cartoon heart. Light a fire, a fire, a spark, light a fire, flame in my heart. We’ll run wild. We’ll be glowing in the dark.” After Mylo had her childhood dreams destroyed, finding Xyloto’s gang makes her feel alive again. She finds their offer to join them to be tempting. The idea of running wild with them at night and painting graffiti with them ignited her buried creative spark. She joins them. In both versions of my story, Mylo meets Xyloto after saving his life from the enemy (who we will get to in a moment). The “spark” and “glowing in the dark” refers to something different between both versions of the story, though. In CAE, the gang wears light-up bands when they go out at night to identify each other, which were based on the Xylobands that Coldplay introduced at their concerts during their Mylo Xylotour. In SF: ALS, I got rid of that idea, and the “spark” not only refers to Mylo feeling reinvigorated, but I also decided to name the gang the Spark Plug Kids, or the Sparks for short. I didn’t want to use Car Kids like they’re called in the original synopsis because they don’t use cars in my interpretation (they travel by roller skates instead, if they need to move faster), so I referred to the story instead by using something that sounded like “sparker” to refer to them.
“Us Against the World:” This is the first of several mellow acoustic ballads on the album, and I honestly never paid that much attention to the lyrics, just going off of vibes for how it fit into the story. So in my head, this is when Mylo and Xyloto start growing closer. They each share their fears and insecurities with each other and decide that “though chaos as it swirls, it’s us against the world.” There are also some mentions of loss- “in my heart, she left a hole” and “like a river to a raindrop, I lost a friend.” In CAE and SF: ALS, this is when Xyloto tells Mylo that the enemy has killed several of his friends from the gang before. “In my heart she left a hole” sounds like a break-up line though, and it’s the only line in the song that indicates a breakup, so I’m going to ignore it. The second verse ends with “Tonight I know it all has to begin again, so whatever you do, don’t let go.” Xyloto is once again finding love and companionship with Mylo, after suffering the loss of several of his friends. The bridge calls back to Mylo’s desire to fly away- “And if we could float away, fly up to the surface and just start again, lift off before trouble just erodes us in the rain.” Already they’re starting to see a life together outside of their current existence, but they can’t leave the gang yet because of the presence of the enemy.
“Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall:” Fun fact, not only was this the song that got me into Coldplay, but I also loved it so much that I bought the single on CD. Do people even make CD singles anymore? Anyway… This song describes the Sparks’ other favorite activity- listening and dancing to music. “I turn the music up, I got my records on, I shut the world outside until the lights come on. Maybe the streets alight, maybe the trees are gone, but I feel my heart start beating to my favorite song. And all the kids they dance, all the kids all night, until Monday morning feels another life. I turn the music up- I’m on a roll this time, and Heaven is in sight.” The next verse shows how the music is more than just a source of joy- it also unites the gang against the enemy. “I turn the music up, I got my records on. From underneath the rubble, sing a rebel song. Don’t want to see another generation drop- I’d rather be a comma than a full stop. Maybe I’m in the black, maybe I’m on my knees, maybe I’m in the gap between the two trapeze. Yes, but my heart is beating and my pulses start. Cathedrals in my heart.” This activity also helps Mylo and Xyloto grow even closer. They feel elevated in each other’s presence- “And we saw this light, I swear you emerge blinking into, to tell me it’s all right. As we soar walls, every siren is a symphony, and every tear’s a waterfall.” I used to think that line was a weirdly negative one to use in a song like this, imagining a person crying waterfalls, but now I feel like it could be a signature cheesy Coldplay way of describing how even one’s sadness can be transformed into something beautiful, like a waterfall. The bridge consists solely of the line “So you can hurt, hurt me bad, but still I’ll raise the flag.” Once again describing the gang’s resistance to the enemy. In SF: ALS, the Sparks are cooped up at the hydroelectric plant for a long time because the enemy is preventing them from leaving, so they blast the radio at night to dance and keep spirits up. They didn’t do this in CAE, but in both stories, the music they used to listen to on the radio becomes live music once Ziggy, Pink, and Rael show up. The Sparks all become massive Ziggy Stardust fanboys, which in SF: ALS ends up majorly (if indirectly) affecting them in the long-run, but that will be elaborated upon when the story is posted.
“Major Minus:” Here is where we finally meet the enemy. Apparently his name is Major Minus, but back when I was thinking it was a rival gang, I thought “major minus” could refer to a major loss that the gang would suffer in an armed conflict. The lyrics to this song establish the enemy as capable of 1984-style surveillance: “They got one eye watching you, one eye on what you do, so be careful who it is you’re talking to. They got one eye watching you, one eye on what you do, so be careful what it is you’re trying to do. Just be careful when you’re walking into view… They got one eye on the road and one on you. They got one eye watching you, one eye on what you do, so be careful cause nothing they say is true. Don’t believe a word, it’s us against the world, and we just gotta stand up to be heard. Hear those crocodiles ticking ‘round the world… They got one eye on the road and one on you… I hear them climbing the stairs. I got my right side fighting while my left hides under the chairs.” That’s pretty much everything we get to know about the enemy and the situation they’re causing in this song. So, who ARE they? In my head, it was a rival gang, and in CAE, the gang consisted of people that Xyloto’s gang named “the drivers,” because they would drive around at night terrorizing people on the streets, seemingly for the lulz. In SF: ALS, the enemy is a group of bikers who have taken over an abandoned house in the woods as their clubhouse, and don’t like other people coming near their territory. They want to take over the hydroelectric plant, but there are too many Sparks for them to drive out. Either way, the Sparks can’t go out at night for fear of being attacked or even killed, and the bikers are taking their resources. Eventually conflict occurs, hence the “I can hear them climbing the stairs” part- in CAE, the house that Xyloto’s gang lived in had stairs, and the drivers attacked the house directly. In SF: ALS, the Sparks will be the ones to make the first move and attack the clubhouse. Either way, lives will be lost. (Also fun fact- I was today years old when I found out the line is not “I got my right side, fight you on my left, hiding under the chairs,” which to me was Xyloto commanding Mylo to hide while he fights. Even though Mylo can hold her own… sigh.)
“U.F.O.:” Another mellow acoustic ballad, describing the aftermath of the fight. Xyloto feels lost- “Lord, I don’t know which way I’m going, or which way the river’s gonna flow. It just seems that upstream I keep rowing. Still got such a long way to go.” But then he takes comfort in the fact that Mylo is still with him and he still sees a future with her- “Then that light hits your eyes. I know, I swear, we’ll find somewhere the streets are paved with gold. Bullets fly, split the sky, but that’s all right, sometimes some light comes streaming through the hole.” And that’s the whole song. Even though it’s one of my favorites, the falling action after the battle in CAE left no time for introspection, so I didn’t get a chance to adapt this song.
“Princess of China:” Okay, first off- I don’t like this song. It features Rihanna and because of that, my old iPod used to separate it from the album (back when all the songs on an album had to be by the same artist to play properly on your iPod), so I never listened to it and the album is honestly better off for it. This is 100% Coldplay’s sellout moment right here, and I don’t even dislike Rihanna, it’s just that collaborating with her solidified them as a pop band forever. But anyway… This is a breakup song. The first verse describes how Mylo had run away from home- “Once upon a time, somebody ran, somebody ran away saying ‘fast as I can, I’ve got to go.’” Then it describes how Mylo has decided to break up with Xyloto- “Once upon a time, we fell apart. Now you’re holding in your hands the two halves of my heart.” The next verse is sung by Rihanna and therefore gives Mylo a voice- “Once upon a time, we were burning bright. Now all we ever seem to do is fight, on and on, and on and on and on. Once upon a time on the same side in the same game, now why’d you have to go and pour water on my flame?” The chorus follows this theme: “Could have been a princess, you’d be a king. Could have had a castle and worn a ring, but no, you let me go. You stole my star… ‘cause you really hurt me.” It’s not clear what exactly has happened to break them up, other than Mylo feels hurt by something Xyloto has done and no longer sees a future with him, but in CAE, they break up after several gang members are killed in the fight and Mylo is blamed for leading the drivers to the gang’s hideout. In SF: ALS, I think Mylo is simply going to be disgusted that Xyloto pushed the Sparks into a direct attack that they were unprepared for, leading to several lives being lost, so she breaks up with him and leaves the gang. (God, I just realized that if I take this route, it would mean that history repeats in Will They Come?… have you learned NOTHING, Xyloto??)
“Up In Flames:” Another breakup song. Xyloto is reflecting on his broken relationship with Mylo after she leaves him. “So it’s over now… this time I know it’s gone. Saltwater, tasted it too long. I only know I’m wrong, now I know it’s gone up in flames. So it’s over- this time, you’re flying on. This time, I know no song can stop its lonely burn, can stop it slowly going up in flames… Can’t we pour some water on?” (Sorry, Xyloto! You had your chance. Now she’s gone. But if I could give you a word of encouragement, all I’d say is…)
“Don’t Let It Break Your Heart:” Here Xyloto decides to take the initiative and go after Mylo. He imagines following her call like a siren- “From her shipwreck, I heard her call. ‘When you’re tired of aiming your arrows, still you never hit the mark. Even in your rains and shadows, still we’re never going to part. Come on, baby, don’t let it break your heart.’” This is another one that I never paid much attention to the lyrics and just went with overall vibe, which is super upbeat, one of the most upbeat and bombastic songs on the album in fact. In my head, the gang has served Xyloto well, but he knows it’s time to move on and find a life outside of them, even though he’s still afraid of the enemy. In CAE, Xyloto becomes disillusioned with the gang after the battle and sneaks out at night with Ziggy and Pink (Rael has been captured in the battle, and it’s too risky to try and save him). In SF: ALS, I can’t decide if Ziggy and Pink will leave with Mylo or Xyloto. Either way, Mylo and Xyloto eventually meet each other again, although in CAE it takes them days, and in SF: ALS it takes them months. They then reconcile and decide to try living together again.
“Up With the Birds:” The album ends on a hopeful yet vague note, where the narrator talks about how “the sky is blue, dreamed that lie ‘til it’s true, then taking back the punch I threw. My arms turn wings, oh those clumsy things, send me up to that wonderful world… and then I’m up with the birds.” This sounds to me like Xyloto is leaving the planet… which he and Mylo eventually do at the beginning of Will They Come?. The last verse talks about him traveling: “Might have to go where they don’t know my name. Float all over the world just to see her again. But I won’t show or feel any pain, even though all my armor might rust in the rain. A simple plot, but I know one day good things are coming my way.” This kind of covers the same ground that “Don’t Let It Break Your Heart” does, but it’s a bit more low-key and therefore more appropriate as an album closer.
Well, there’s my interpretation of Mylo Xyloto! And with that, we’ve finished talking about the concept albums… wow! Now I can write more of the story instead of talking about it…
