Since their last album release, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, in 2008, Coldplay has come out with a new style in their music unlike anything they have done before.   Since its release in October, the Mylo Xyloto has already sold many copies worldwide and topped charts everywhere. In this album, Coldplay experiments making music with synthesizers and a different style to appeal to a variety of people. Containing elements of genres such as pop, Mylo Xyloto is different than Coldplay’s past releases and is definitely unique.

The album begins with a 42 second introduction titled “Mylo Xyloto”, composed of many sounds including stringed instruments and bells. The short introduction leads into the next song, “Hurts Like Heaven,” a fun, upbeat song with explosions of synths and guitar solos. “Hurts Like Heaven” is a great track to begin Coldplay’s album, giving fans an idea of what their experimental album may sound like.

“Paradise” is the third track of the album and is also the second released single from the album. “Paradise” is a captivating song made up of strings, piano, guitar, and Chris Martin’s calm vocals accompanied by a booming bass, drum beats, and synth effects that sounds similar to pop mainstream music.

The album’s third released single and the fourth track, “Charlie Brown,” returns the music to an upbeat pace with catchy guitar riffs and the pop-rock feel of Coldplay.

“Major Minus”, played with guitars and serious vocals, is a notable song that stands out from the rest of the album, due to its serious and dark tone.  It is certainly an interesting change in style and is a great addition to the album.

Influenced by the pop, electronic, and R&B genres, the song “Princess of China” also stands out. One factor that distinguishes this song from the rest is the vocals of Barbadian recording artist Rihanna. “Princess of China” features a wide variety of sounds including a large amount of synthesizers and the amazing vocals of Rihanna and Chris Martin. This song presents the idea that artist from two different genres can join together and can also create a great song.

Overall, Mylo Xyloto is an great album with many notable tracks from Coldplay with a new interesting style.

Hold On ‘Til The Night, Greyson’s recent album, features a wide variety of songs from slow teenage love to fast tempoed joyful songs. Waiting Outside the Lines is an incredibly powerful song that really got me thinking. The lyrics in this song are in no way meaningless. There is definitely heart in the structure of this song. Unfriend You in some ways is a sad song, but you get caught up in the awesome violin work in the background that you forget about the melancholy lyrics. Home is in Your Eyes is another emotionally strong song. The vocals in the song really help show off Greyson’s talent. Hold on ’til the Night is one of those songs you want to hear over and over again. I fell hard for this song because it expresses such deep lyrics and wonderful instrumentals. Heart like Stone overall is a good song, but I don’t believe it is as strong as all the other songs. After hearing Hold on ’til the Night then listening to Heart like Stone, it did not quite reach the bar that Hold on ’til the Night set. Little London Girl is a very lovable song because of its upbeat happy tune, but why a London girl? What’s wrong with Americans? Cheyenne is another one of my favorite songs because of the fact that I finally found a song with a strong bass line. The lyrics again were straight from the artist’s soul. Summertrain is a very interesting and unique song. At first impression, I felt it was a little weird, but I soon realized this was only because it was different from any song I have heard. This weirdness of the song changed very soon. I now love the song. (Change is usually a good thing!) Stranded is another favorite on this album. It automatically put me in a happy mood after listening to a sadder song.  Take a Look at Me Now blew me away right away! I adored the awesome instrument blend. This song got an 11 out of 10 for me.

This album is definitely something to put on your Christmas list!

As a freshman just starting out in high school, I had no idea what to expect from this sort of environment. Preparations for Saturday’s game required a lot of hard work, effort, and devotion, especially from a band student. The upperclassmen in band provided lots of assistance and were very kind and supportive to us freshmen. Their experienced guidance simplified our work load. Such hard work involved a band camp on a Friday and Saturday, where we learned the marching drills. Despite the heat, we were able to come together as a band with discipline to learn the commands and formations in just two weeks.

Marching past the stands to the tempo of the snare drum’s click track and playing that first note in the song “Fired Up” seemed to arouse the crowd with an excited cheer. It reminded me of the applause at my first band recital in the elementary school. From the eyes of a nine-year-old, I remember looking out into the audience from behind the bright stage lights to see what seemed like a million dark faces. Before that recital, my nervousness became more ravenous than ever. It wasn’t until I stopped looking so hard that I found my parents in the front row there to support me. On Saturday’s game, I became nervous again as I marched to center field for the pre-game show. The sight of the sold-out stands was quite overwhelming, not to mention the many cameras of ESPN broadcasting the game live across the nation. But as I took my place just left of the fifty-yard line and began to play the National Anthem, I took one more look through the crowd to find my parents sitting in the front row still there  to support me in high school and I became relaxed again.

After we finished the final fermata of the “Star Spangled Banner”, the crowd went wild. When marching back to the stands while playing the fight song, I knew the hard work and effort was all worth it. I felt accomplished having performed at the football game, and I was in the game every time the band played from the stands to raise the team’s and the fans’ spirits. But of course, like any good performer, we do have room for improvement. However, for it being my first high school marching band experience, I feel we provided an excellent performance and I’m definitely excited to take part in future events.

The album has 18 great songs. Although Sean experiments with new sounds, he doesn’t disappoint fans, who looked foward to his rapping, as he also incorporates both into his songs. Yet, many will be surprised by his soft vocals when hearing him sing in “I’ll even take off my shades.”  Dawn and Kalenna are described as “kindred spirits.” Both have really nice voices and show off their vocals in “I hate that you love me.” Many of Danity Kane’s fans were familiar with the latest “Dawn,” while Kalenna might be recognized as the solo artist. Overall the best part would be the melodies and arrangements make their listeners feel relaxed.

            Alyssa’s other song such as “Hold me tight” is a nice ballad. It also features Jason Wade of LifeHouse. This song has a nice romantic tone, which will surely have many couples dedicating it to each other. This EP is a great first debut album. If listeners like the type of music that sounds very thoughtful and soothing then they should definitely look more into Alyssa Bernal’s music. In the end, Alyssa Bernal does a nice job at contenting listeners to a more mature first album.

 Starting with the cover, the singer is featured in an overly-photoshopped image of herself trying to look fierce, or needless to say, an Animal. The overwhelming portrayal of her name with the pointless dollar sign replacing the “s” completely takes over the cover trying to make her look like a badass musician. The only thing it accomplishes is making her look like a wannabe gangster desperately trying to get noticed with overly-processed songs, which brings me to the topic of the music of the album itself.

 Giving the singer the benefit of the doubt, this album has potential to be a good one. If the lyrics were not so shallow and had deeper meanings embedded within them, perhaps it would be easier to take her seriously as an artist. An even more disheartening fact: she co-wrote all of the songs, which gives her the image of a party-animal (notice the correlation with the title of the album) who is incapable of doing and thinking about anything else besides it. Proof of this is in the titles of the tracks themselves (for example, “Animal”, “Party at a Rich Dude’s House”, “Hungover”, etc.). One of the few good things that can be said about the lyrics is that she at least tries to put deeper meanings into them. However, she fails in doing so. The pop-singer serenades “Your love is my drug…” Unfortunately, that is about the only lyric that occupies the chorus.

 Lyrics aside, the production of the songs is not half-bad. However, it is the overproduction of the tracks and her voice that turned me off in the first place. It is obvious that the so-called artist is not strong vocally, as auto-tune is majorly used in most, if not all, of the songs. Perhaps vocal lessons would have been an appropriate option prior to the start of production on this album eh, Kesha (oh, I’m sorry, Ke$ha)?

 If you are the type of person that solely pays attention to the catchiness of songs, and not so much the lyrics, then this album would be ideal for you. Otherwise, don’t bother wasting your money. Personally, I’m only keeping this album to take up some of the 120 gigabyte space that occupies my iPod. My final rating: D+.