Ghost Stories

Ghost Stories

     Whether the entire album is about Gwyneth Paltrow or not, Coldplay’s sixth studio album will forever be labeled as the breakup album of all breakup albums. Just a couple months before Ghost Stories’ 2014 release, Chris Martin and his wife of over ten years as well as the mother of his two kids announced that they were getting separated. One year later, the divorce papers were filed and a different sound of Coldplay music launched.

     The first song released as a teaser of Ghost Stories was “Midnight,” which painted a picture related to the name of the album through Martin’s ghost-like, echoing vocals and shuddering instrumentals. His drawn out “oohs” are reminiscent of a lone wolf howling at midnight. With this first song’s release listeners’ were initially let in on the artist’s feelings of loneliness and hopelessness, but the repetition of “leave a light, a light on,” showed Martin’s desire for his love to want him to come home as well as help guide him home. “Magic” was released next as the leading single and what would be track #2 of the album, which completely changed listeners’ grasp of what the rest of the album’s dynamics and sound would be. This track similarly contrasted Martin’s heartbreak with his still existing love for his wife. However, the short, fragmented lyrics and upbeat, pop tempo make the song have a breathy, bubbly, or light quality much different from the dark, haunting mood in “Midnight.” Despite the consistent themes of pain and longing between the two songs, the variation in music qualities revealed how Ghost Stories would contain a collection of Chris Martin’s distinct attitudes toward the current, messy, state of his love life.

     Love and relationships have been addressed in many of Coldplay’s albums throughout the years, but their past work for the most part has not overtly referenced Martin’s views on love in the way his newest album does. Ghost Stories has possibly the least ambiguous lyrics of the band’s entire collection in comparison to usual, ambiguous lines such as, “Come out of things unsaid//Shoot an apple off my head and a//Trouble that can't be named//A tiger's waiting to be tamed,” from the 2014 Grammy Record of the Year, “Clocks.” The more simple, explicit lyrics of Ghost Stories is part of the reason why so many critics have wrongly slapped a label that reads BREAKUP ALBUM on the cover of Ghost Stories, called it a day, and moved on without giving the album much more thought or consideration, especially not in the context of Martin’s position on the topics he is expressing.

            The opening song of the album, “Always in My Head,” is pretty self-explanatory. Chris Martin coos with drawn-out, hypnotic notes supported by a dream-like, enchanting melody to admit how he cannot sleep or keep his mind off of thinking about his wife. However, the more important part of the message is not revealed until he sighs, “But though I try my heart stays still.” Despite not being able to forget everything that happened between them, both good and bad, his heart will remain attached and longing for Paltrow. It is interesting how Martin is confessing to his continual, involuntary commitment to his wife when this loyalty did nothing to save the life-long, sacred commitment of marriage itself. There are many options for how this irony came into play, but almost all can be sorted into two main umbrella reasons: either Paltrow was the only one who wanted to terminate the marriage or Martin and Paltrow let other factors take precedence over their sheer love for each other in terms of the kind of bond that was holding their marriage together. In today’s society, the purpose of marriage has greatly shifted from its historic obligation of marrying for social, political, or economic benefits to now marrying out of personal choice, for love. A result of marriage’s different functionality is when love begins to fade, as it often does due to hardships and change, nothing is left to keep the institution glued together. Yet, Martin here is opposing this idea of love failing as the cause for divorce by showing how his love for Gwyneth has not faded. Therefore, the artist demonstrates that other factors fueled the divorce.

            “All I know//Is that I love you so//So much that it hurts,” is the chorus of the third track of the album, “Ink.” This cry of love for his wife again suggests the idea of an eternal, lasting love and commitment to his spouse even when the marriage has broken apart. Martin suggests that marriage begins as something great that signifies “together through life,” but that definition of marriage really does nothing to keep a couple together. Recently researchers have determined that about half of marriages today will end in divorce, and a good amount of those divorces will occur less than five years into the marriage. Although the percentage of individuals who get a divorce has experienced a sharp increase, marriage is still widely regarded as a concept that signifies a promise to be faithful to each other for a lifetime. Consequently, the idea that so many people choose to end their marriage after once viewing the institution as being sacred and forever does not line-up. There is a great incongruence or inconsistency with Americans’ beliefs about marriage and their practices or ways of carrying out their marriage. Martin touches on this new, conflicting reality of marriage in his melancholy, heavy song, “O.” In this reflection Martin’s vocals stand alone with the rolling piano serving as the only instrument as he tells how in his eyes, marriage is just considered “a flock of birds,” because “One minute they arrive//Next you know they’re gone.” He reiterates how marriage somehow has transformed into a temporary agreement that is just as fleeting and unpredictable as birds.

            It isn’t until we listen to “Another’s Arms” that a possible explanation for the breakup is illustrated. Rumors aside, this track emulates two distinct themes with its title. Through the eerie repetition of the phrase “another’s arms” in the background while he describes himself going through his normal, daily life, Chris Martin could be pleading for the comfort of another person, as in his wife’s familiarity, amidst his dark post-breakup period. However, the use of “another” rather than “you,” the almost whispering singing approach taken by Martin, and the fading additional vocalists echoing in the background all mix together to make a stranger or outside lover reference jump out at me. The possibility of Martin demonstrating how an affair continuously haunts both the adulterer and their spouse brings up an important idea of the influences on marriages today. American culture and majority opinion both demonstrate how most people are very intolerant of infidelity because monogamy is one of the promises intertwined within marriage’s lifetime commitment. Yet, at the same time, in today’s society there is an increasing percentage of individuals who have an extramarital affair. Despite a high population of Americans with values that disapprove of unfaithfulness, our high expectations for finding fulfillment and perfection in marriage, which arise from its accepted, socially-promoted definition and standards, makes infidelity all the more common.

            In “True Love” Chris Martin makes reference to this perfect, ideal image that we hold up of what we think “true love” really is. With more hard-hitting, deep beats in the instrumentation and a bass guitar solo, a sense of danger is created to emphasize the effects of trying to strive for an unattainable romance where there is no conflict and no mistakes. In the verses, the artist describes how failing to be transparent and honest does not save one’s spouse from getting hurt, it only creates more distance between the partners. (We also see this theme repeated in “Ghost Story,” one of the bonus tracks off the album. In this song Martin compares himself to “a ghost,” “a puff of smoke,” and someone that’s “not even here,” because he is struggling to get closer to Gwyneth when she does not open up to him.) Contrarily, in the chorus of “True Love” Martin changes his tone from accusing to pleading. He gives us an example of sinking back into the mindset of wanting to cover up the problems at hand in a relationship in hopes that they will all go away eventually. He begs, “So tell me you love me//And if you don't then lie//Lie to me,” even though just moments before he was upset about how Paltrow was not truthful and never “let [him] know//What’s really going on below.” This lack of wanting to open our eyes and face the actuality of our relationships arises from romantic ideals. We have been accustomed to forming high expectations which becomes problematic. In effect, the end result is that we place great demands and immense pressure on our marriages. The purpose of marriage has blindly come to be viewed as something that will serve all of our needs and give us complete happiness that reaches all corners of our life, whether or not those areas are even related to or dependent on our spouse.

     It is very difficult and extremely unlikely to rescue or continue a relationship after a divorce has already shattered the marriage, but is it better to try to put a halt to the divorce or try to prevent the marriage itself in the first place? In Ghost Stories, Chris Martin illuminates the idea of how quickly a marriage can change, and how a once serious and wonderful commitment can easily disappear right before one’s eyes. One way to resolve this discrepancy between how our American culture values and executes marriage would be to change the way we view marriage. Whether that is making it more acceptable to not get married, changing the social definition of marriage to not necessarily mean life-time and monogamous, being more tolerant of infidelity, or redefining marriage for just you and your partner’s unique relationship, it is necessary that we adapt to the changing face of marriage depicted in Coldplay’s album.