Jim Broadbent is the winner of January's Find-CD review competition
Congratulations and a £50 Amazon voucher go to Jim Broadbent for his excellent review of Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto.
Choosing the winner is always a difficult task for the Find-CD team – our reviewers certainly know their stuff! You sent us some exceptional reviews last month and we enjoyed reading every one. Thank you to all of you and a special thank you to two of our regular reviewers, Gareth and Josh, who send in such excellent reviews. Good luck next month to you and all our other regular reviewers.
Entering the competition is very easy. All you do is listen to an album or single of your choice, click on write a review, type your review and click on submit.
We do look forward to receiving your reviews and read each one carefully. Do remember that your review must be original and we will reject any review which is offensive or abusive. So start typing and get your review to us as soon as you can and you're in with a chance of winning a £50 Amazon voucher.
Here is Jim's winning review
Soaring straight to Number One in both the UK and US Album Charts, Mylo Xyloto is a love-fuelled triumphant record that deserves the wonderful reception it has found since its release.
The first two singles from the concept album, Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall and Paradise, have landed the band with three Grammy Award nominations at this year's awards, and here's to hoping that they will come away victors. Both songs are a remarkable achievement from a band who have been earning their rising fame every step of the way in recent years.
Mylo Xyloto opens with the beautiful instrumental eponymous song, Mylo Xyloto, which can only be fully appreciated whilst listening through headphones. The music slowly seeps into your soul; its sheer warmth will make your spine tingle.
The band then take us through Hurts Like Heaven, the second single Paradise, and the recently-release Charlie Brown, a magnificent three-song exposition following the title track with which we enter the record.
Hurts Like Heaven has a sense of desperation and energy that only Coldplay achieve as well as this, introducing us to the principal characters of the album's story, Mylo and Xyloto.
Paradise then shifts into a beautiful synth riff, before bringing in the strings above, and then a raw bass with a powerful drum beat beneath. Then everything strips away to leave just a reserved piano, the quiet drum beat, and Chris Martin's wonderful vocals flying above. Genuine inspiration. It is not in the slightest bit difficult to see why the song has been nominated for a Grammy Award at the ceremony next month.
As Paradise closes, in comes Charlie Brown, which was released as the album's third single on 23rd January. The song is quite simply a work of genius, and has been noted by many magazine and newspaper reviews as being one of the best works Coldplay have ever written. They're not wrong. It is a song to raise the sky, to lift your spirits, to make you feel something deep down in your heart. Sentimental though it may sound, it is a description worthy of such a powerful song.
Forthcoming single, Princess of China, will be released on Valentine's Day this year, and marks a lovely collaboration with another of this year's Grammy-nominated artists, Rihanna. Pairing Martin's vocals with Rihanna's on alternate verses, the song begs to be sung along to; it is a true crowd-pleaser.
Up In Flames takes us into a karaoke bar-setting, with drummer Will Champion's lone snare and bass drum set against the stripped-down piano and Chris Martin's vocals, telling us that Mylo and Xyloto's love has gone up in flames, quietly breaking your heart as you listen.
But all is not lost. As Up In Flames dies away, we enter A Hopeful Transmission, and as you can imagine from the title, we are granted so much hope as we head into the closing two tracks of the record. Don't Let It Break Your Heart, the penultimate track, is drenched with such beautiful harmonies set against the lead vocals, and it is filled with such energy in its entirety, before falling away mercifully into a love-letter of a final song, Up With The Birds.
Just as the album opens, and just as it has progressed through the previous thirteen tracks, Up With The Birds is the perfect conclusion to what has been a perfect album. In fourteen songs, Coldplay have done something few bands ever achieve, and it is not the first time that they have released such a magnificent work of art.
With every effort, they seem to keep improving on their last release, and that is a truly remarkable feat that very, very few artists can honestly claim. They emerge every few years with a brand new album that sounds so different to their last, yet retains the same magic that only Coldplay can bring to your ears. Mylo Xyloto marks an absolutely powerful, exceptional return from the band, and if you have not yet heard it, I thoroughly recommend that you seek it out immediately. It is their masterpiece.
Here is a selection of reviews we received in January and they may well inspire you to enter our competition as well as help you choose a CD to add to your collection.