Music

Coldplay moving in a new direction, but without any effect

Whatever therapist taught Chris Martin the theories and practices of “conscious uncoupling” has a lot to answer for.

Having just gone through a painful separation with Gwyneth Paltrow, you’d expect the Coldplay singer to be brimming with the kind of angst and emotional rage that would move his band away from the coffee-table indie they’ve been peddling for so many years. But on Monday night at the Beacon Theater, where they premiered songs from the upcoming album “Ghost Stories,” it seemed as though Martin’s ability to rationalize his personal problems have made Coldplay even more banal.

One of the reasons the Brits continue to be a draw is their innovative, big-budget live show (the tour for 2011’s “Mylo Xyloto” was a particularly spectacular example). But early on at the Beacon, the bells, whistles and distractions were absent and it left the blandness of their new material exposed. The dreamy but dreary space-rock of opener “Always In My Head” went nowhere slowly, current single “Magic” showcased a lightweight electronic influence but perhaps most confusing was “Another’s Arms.”

Lyrically, it points to infidelity and finds Martin singing “the pain just rips right through me” and “it’s just torture to me.” But that nakedly confessional moment is delivered with an indifferent shrug and set to a nondescript piano ballad. It’s hard to imagine Martin channelling his pain through a death-metal track, but “Another’s Arms” is a song so completely without backbone that it feels like it could blow over in a breeze.

“We are so thankful that you chose to be here in a Monday night when you could be downtown doing cocaine,” laughed Martin at one point, with typically self-deprecating wit. It sent chuckles around the venue but more than a few fans must have felt they had made the wrong recreational decision.

But before desperate calls to dealers were made, the quartet did pull some of their stadium tricks and crowd-pleasing anthems out of the hat late on. The resplendent slow-burn low-burn of “Fix You” was dedicated to Mick Jagger and still captures Coldplay at their sky-scraping best. “Viva La Vida” saw Martin excite the sold out audience with his own version of stimulation, waving his hands in the air and enticing them into singing the song’s huge harmonies before a thumping “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall” ended the main set in a storm of confetti.

As a final gesture, Martin requested that the crowd not film the closing “True Love”- another new track and one heralded by the singer as the band’s favorite song to date. It’s hard to share their enthusiasm for what was another ponderous interlude of electronic atmospherics and Martin wailing tunelessly in the mix.

Like any band worth their salt, Coldplay are moving in new directions and for that they deserve some credit. But they’re doing it so ineffectually, it’s hard to see why they bothered at all.