Popular for their alternative style and their elaborately crafty tours, the buzz following each album Coldplay releases is relentless. With their eclectic artistic style, Coldplay’s new album, A Head Full of Dreams, has many standout pieces, but lacks the cohesiveness that the album needs to top their successful previous albums.

Since releasing their first studio album in 2000, Coldplay has slowly warped their style from alternative to their own twist of funky, exotic, audience-pleasing albums ever since they featured the painting “Liberty Leading the People” by Eugene Delacroix on the cover of their 2008 album Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends. Their new album incorporates the theme of kaleidoscopes to accompany the exotic mood of the music. Additionally, the band has incorporated adventure and nature as a basis for their new release (quite the antithesis to the previously-released and terribly somber Ghost Stories).

“Adventure of a Lifetime” is their first released single from the album and a centerpiece for the work. For the most part, they build off an idea of positivity and reckless discovery, yet the album lacked in that sense. An attempted risk that just didn’t reach far enough beyond comfort, the album too closely resembles the 2011 Coldplay album Mylo Xyloto for this casual listener’s taste. That may be the reason a lot of the songs sound familiar or played out. A Head Full of Dreams tried to hit refresh on previous Coldplay trademarks. The easiest sound-alike track to pick out is the title song “A Head Full of Dreams,” resembling a tune you swear you know, but just can’t seem to remember where you’ve heard it.

Though the work itself isn’t necessarily groundbreaking, noteworthy tracks include “Hymn for the Weekend” and “Up&Up” as well as some guest star appearances from noteworthy stars such as Barack Obama in a couple of the pieces. They really tried to craft something unique, but failed to separate it from their typical style.

Though the album’s release made a brief splash, what was more terrifying for many young listeners is that the band originally deciding not to release the album on Spotify. A major music outlet for over 20 million paying subscribers, Spotify provides music to users for free (with upgrades offered by month). Coldplay isn’t the only artist hesitant to opt into the Spotify craze. Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean, The Beatles, and Bob Seger have avoided the streaming app like a disease. Yet the uproar from the masses prevailed and Spotify released a notice that the band has finally caved and agreed to release the album on the app on Dec. 11.

Chris Martin has hinted that A Head Full of Dreams might be the album in which they call it quits. Producing an album together in seven months certainly didn’t suit the band. The performers lack individuality from themselves. Hopefully they won’t leave us hungry for a finale and will feed their fans before they hit they hay for good.