Mylo Xyloto (pronounced /ˈmaɪloʊ ˈzaɪlətoʊ/ MY-loh ZY-lə-toh) is the fifth studio album by British rock band Coldplay, released on 24 October 2011.

[6] The album tells the story of a war against sound and colour on the planet Silencia, which has been overtaken by a totalitarian government led by Major Minus, who controls the population through media and propaganda.

His aim is to take sound and colour off the streets in hope to draw away "feeders", creatures that use such energy to hunt its prey.

The album follows Mylo Xyloto, a "silencer", a soldier in an army tasked to hunt and track down "sparkers", people who harness light and energy and use it to create sparks, comparable to graffiti in real life.

[citation needed] In interviews the band have said that the album follows a love story between Mylo and Xyloto, with them being separate characters.

[7] However, in the comics based on the album, Mylo Xyloto is the main protagonist and Fly is the sparker girl he encounters.

[8] The album received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its uplifting tone and new electronic sound; however, some found its material bombastic and overproduced.

Mylo Xyloto became Coldplay's third album to debut at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling 447,000 units in its first week of sales.

[18] Coldplay had stated on several occasions, long before the release, that they wanted the album to be "more acoustic" and "more intimate" than its predecessor, 2008's Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends.

Songs from both records ended up on the final album, worldbeat elements from the predecessor Viva la Vida are present but the overall production of it became electronic influenced.

The album's artworks were revealed on 12 August 2011,[24] inspired on graffiti the band worked again with longtime collaborators Tappin Gofton and, this time, also with British street artist, Paris.

Although initially he was supposed to be just a "teacher", Paris stayed on the project until the end, producing part of the final work along with the band.

[6] Another meaning suggested by the frontman was that the name was supposed to be a graffiti tag for the band, relating "xylophone" to the word "xyloto".

[12] "Charlie Brown" was later confirmed to be the third single from the album, and the group performed the song on 23 January 2012 on the British TV series The X Factor.

[38] "Princess of China", a collaboration with singer Rihanna, was solicited to US mainstream radio on 14 February 2012 as the album's fourth single.

[55] On 10 July 2012 the Coldplay website announced a six-part Mylo Xyloto comic, with the first issue to be released at that week's San Diego Comic-Con.

[56] Published by Bongo Comics, the story followed the tale of Mylo, a "silencer", who, in the words of co-writer Mark Osborne, is a part of a "war against sound and colour".

[59] In a five-star review, Simon Goddard of Q wrote that Mylo Xyloto "will, at the bare minimum, safely sustain their imperial position for a long time to come", singling out Martin and Buckland's musical contributions and Eno and Dravs' production for praise.

[67] Mikael Wood of Spin wrote that like Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, Mylo Xyloto "draws from an expansive palette that makes Coldplay's first three albums sound even quainter" and that "where Viva La Vida showcased Coldplay's sense of adventure, this [album] feels more eager to please".

[69] Citing the album the band's most ambitious effort, Josh Eells of Rolling Stone noted that "the choruses are bigger, the textures grander, the optimism more optimistic" and described it as a "bear-hug record for a bear-market world".

[68] The Daily Telegraph's Neil McCormick called the record "irresistible", noting its "adventurous" mood and "luxuriously colourful" sound.

"[66] In a mixed review, Alexis Petridis of The Guardian judged Mylo Xyloto's storyline as incoherent and expressed skepticism toward the album's purported pop influences, feeling that much of the album "just sounds like standard-issue Coldplay, replete with echoing guitars, woah-oh choruses and vocals that signify high drama by slipping into falsetto", apart from electronic music flourishes that "genuinely [add] a bit of freshness to a formulaic sound".

[64] In a review for Entertainment Weekly, Melissa Maerz interpreted the album as an attempt by the group to sound less like themselves to reconcile their commercial success with the supposed stigma of being "as hated as a band can be".

"[70] AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that Mylo Xyloto "has a leg up other Coldplay records for this simple reason: they're no longer attempting to mimic U2's portentous piety.

They've embraced their schoolboy selves and are simply singing songs of love and good cheer, albeit on a grand scale that somehow seems smaller due to the group's insuppressible niceness.

[100][non-primary source needed] In the United Kingdom, the album sold over 122,000 copies in its first three days of sale according to the Official Charts Company.

[107] In its second week on the chart, the album was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments of 70,000 copies.