Ghost Stories

Audio Mixer: Mark "Spike" Stent.Photographer: Phil Harvey.Unknown Contributor Roles: Gavin Maude; Paul Makin; Mandi Bursteen; Lester Dales; Arlene Moon; Chris Salmon ; Jessie Collins; EJ McDonald; Debs Wild.Around the time Coldplay's sixth album, Ghost Stories, was scheduled for release, lead singer Chris Martin announced he was divorcing his wife, the actress Gwyneth Paltrow. In light of this news, it's hard not to see Ghost Stories as a breakup record, a romantic confessional written in the wake of a painful separation. Certainly, the album bristles with references to broken hearts and regrets, ruminations on how the past informs the present, its every song infused with an inescapable melancholy, but the album doesn't play like a deep wallow in sorrow. It is soft, even alluring, a soundtrack to a seduction, not a separation. Much of that feel comes from the record's smooth crawl forward, how it's never hurried and always accentuating its good side, but there's also a sense that Marti