There was much hoopla and hype surrounding this new release from Coldplay. I ignored all that in order to listen sans bias so I'm hoping this review would be significantly less peppered with my fangirl judgement.
It's a Christmas track, and as we know from my previous post, there are really only a few Christmas songs I need (count em: 3). But I think this one may quickly be working itself into that exclusive group. NOT JUST BECAUSE IT'S COLDPLAY.
To be honest, I didn't love it straight away. The chorus isn't catchy and the melody (or tempo) changes midway. I think it's a case of '42' for the band again, where they wanted to have one song but make it sound like 2 different tracks. It worked for 42, but I'm not sure if it works for 'Christmas Lights'.
Another thing that struck me was the use of lyrics from another new-ish song that they had previewed on 'The South Bank Show' doco called 'Wedding Bells'. At first, I thought it was clever, but then I thought, well, what if this means that they've shelved the latter? I hope I'm wrong. The lyric in particular is 'I always loved you and I always will'. *melts*
Having said that, and giving the song repeated listens plus a day to sink in, I actually really love the track. It's not close to my favourite Coldplay songs, but the lyrics are really interesting and sweet. The opening piano bars sort of remind me of 'The Black Parade' by My Chemical Romance, there's a kind of sweet melancholy and nostalgia there, the kind normally associated with Christmas time. I know some reviews have said it's more 'Nightswimming' by REM but I've never really heard it, so I can only compare to what I know. At some points, in kind of soars, so it's perfect for a drunken Christmas singalong.
It veers towards the sweet and wintery rather than the cheesy and lame that a lot of Christmas songs can fall prey to. Well worth a listen. And the video is very well done too. Reminds me of 'Don't Panic' in a way.
Verdict: 7.5 Santas out of 10 Clauses
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