[Twinster]

Does anyone find the recording to be bad?  The bass seems to distorded. It sounded ok in my car but as soon as I tried it on my headphone systems (Foobar2000 - DACmini - Ms-Pro) is just didn't sound good at all. I try other headphones but the result was the same.
 
I'm currently listening to it at work (Foobar2000 - DACport - eQ5) and got the same result?????

 

[Bizzel]

To me it sounds like the recording is very compressed - not necessarily just in terms of levels either. It feels as if the soundstage has been squashed and, as you point out, the bass has likely been boosted. On the iTunes store the album blurb claims "Mylo Xyloto is Mastered for iTunes" and I doubt that means anything other than making it sound good when being carried in a lossy format and listened to on iBuds.

 

[Radio_head]

I just cut and pasted from my RYM impressions (wouldn't call it an actual review.)
 
"First thing to notice is Coldplay is one of the chief guilty parties in the loudness wars.  Each album is louder and more compressed which (in confluence with way too much synth) make this album barely listenable excluding the music.

The music is meh.  More tuneless than their older songs, more reliant on little hooks and hard bass lines than actual music.  Considering that the band that put out Parachutes released this...

Coldplay was dethroned in 05' by Elbow.  Compare this release to Elbow's Build a Rocket Boys from this year - full of harmonics, melody, acoustics, and texture.  Mylo has none of these things. The two bands seem to be trending in the opposite direction - with Coldplay getting worse with every subsequent release and Elbow getting better.

Conclusion - Meh."

 

[leng jai]

What did you expect? All the Coldplay albums I've listened to have terrible recording quality.

 

[Foie]

My first reaction to Every Teardrop is a Waterfall was "Ouch!"  It plays in a range of -10db to 0db, rarely dropping below -10, making it almost impossible to enjoy for me, even if the music was good. I'm a huge fan of Coldplay, but their music production is becoming terrible.  It would be nice to get a remastered version that isn't crap.

 

[Jupiterknight]

I couldn't get past the first two songs, it sounded really brickwalled, much worse than any other Coldplay album I have heard. I was listening to Flac files ripped from the Japanese released cd.

 

[Twinster]

I bought the CD and convert to ALAC and could not believe how bad it sounded from my DAC/AMP at home. I tried different Headphone thinking it was not compatible but to the same result.  I listened to the album in my car and it seemed ok but I have a pretty ordinary audio system in my SUV. I event tried the CD media thinking it was the convertion that went wrong but no.  I agree with previous posting that the first ( and second for me) album ( Parachute & A Rusg Of Blood To The Head) sounded better. It's a shame that band make the music for the Radio and crappy devices only because the music is pretty good in that album for me anyway. They should have a version mastered for people's that care for the recording.

 

[Jupiterknight]

I haven't gotten around measuring the actual dynamic range compression, but as said before, just coming from my ears, listening to a couple of songs (tried some more)  it sounded so horrible that I just couldn't continue. Agree, first couple of Coldplay albums sounds ok, but this one is a no go.. to me at least, no matter how well it's been reviewed!
 
Using better source's,headphones/IEM's/speakers, it just get's worse..

 

[R-Audiohead]

I'm with all of you on this one.
 
Huge potential, big disappoint... and recorded terribly!
 
EDIT: The only album I have ever cared for by them was Rush of Blood to the Head.

 

[deadhead12]

I agree that the recording quality is not great but I actually think this album is better than the last two they've released musically (even though it is heavily pop influenced).  Still, the best imo is Parachutes.  
 
The new Florence + The Machine album clips on a lot of tracks too and imo is not near as good as Lungs.

 

[wind016]

I haven't heard the album other than them performing "Paradise" on TV. I really liked the song and performance a lot, but I actually never really listened to Coldplay before. Maybe I should give them a try now.

 

[leng jai]

Ceremonial is indeed not at the level of Lungs which was almost perfect. The recording is okay but again not as good as Lungs and some tracks sound a little "off"
 
Quote:

I agree that the recording quality is not great but I actually think this album is better than the last two they've released musically (even though it is heavily pop influenced).  Still, the best imo is Parachutes.  
 
The new Florence + The Machine album clips on a lot of tracks too and imo is not near as good as Lungs.

 

 

[audionewbi]

mylo xyloto is by fair their most compressed album! A friend of mine even shared me his vinyl rip so I can compare it with my CD, unless he ripped in incorrectly (24/96 flac), the vinyl rip sound as bad! 

 

[Snipe sos]

It seems that Coldplay has given up their spark in favor of popularity and with that they gave up their clean, natural sound for a more "hip" eq.  Like someone above me said, way too compressed.  A Rush of Blood to the Head is definitely a +1 for me.

 

[daniel0407]

Just wrote in google "Coldplay Loudness War" and found this. I have never been a fan of Coldplay, but out of curiosity bought a combo with 4 Cds and started listening to it. Since the very first song it has been possible to notice the clipping.