Coldplay isn’t a band you often hear thrown around with the top-of-the-chart-hits—in America anyway. While everyone has heard of them, the band doesn’t exactly have a good history among people our age outside of Europe. Their last album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends was often criticized for its “whiney lyrics,” among other things. Taking this into account, the band released their newest album, Mylo Xyloto on Oct. 24 with the intention of broadening their audience. Whether or not this goal was accomplished however remains to be seen.

This album differs a bit from their usual sound. Instead, Mylo Xyloto leans in a more industrial rock direction, with distorted guitar riffs and a more electronic base. The album certainly sounds like Coldplay, but the new direction is quite obvious. There’s no overproduction here, everything definitely is smooth and cleanly done which is becoming a sure staple of Coldplay’s more recent work. Even if the British-rockers aren’t your favorite jam, it’s apparent some serious cash was put into making each and every song seamless and smooth.

Mylo Xyloto happens to be very stable and consistent, though whether this is for better or worse is something up for debate. While all songs are steadily decent, that’s sort of where it ends. Like most albums, this one does have its stand-outs though none of them scream “quality,” or make me want to jam in the same way “Viva la Vida” did a couple years back when it was all the rage.

This isn’t to say any of the songs are particularly bad, but listening to the album in one go slides towards daunting. Most of the songs sound very similar, with the only real difference being the lyrics. While the lead singer (Chris Martin) himself says the album is "… about love, addiction, OCD, escape and working for someone you don't like,” when every song sounds the same, it’s hard to tell the grieving, preachy ones from the more upbeat (used lightly) ones. Whether it’s about addiction or escaping, the songs reek of that patent Coldplay vibe that most have grown used to. Again, this is for better or worse.

I’m not saying the album is bad; don’t get me wrong. It’s just more of the same, but with a very slight industrial twist. Think of this parallel: it’s like The Hangover 2 is to The Hangover. The original sure has its hilarious moments, ones that are certainly memorable, but the second movie surpasses it in overall by having a constant stream of funny, rather than a generally boring movie with a few shining moments. From a technical standpoint, I believe The Hangover 2 was the more solid movie of the two. Mylo Xyloto is exactly the same in this way. While Mylo Xyloto doesn’t have a huge amount of incredible hits, the consistency makes up for a solid album that’s worth a listen. Perhaps not a jam-out-in-one-sitting listen, but a listen nonetheless.