Full disclosure. I’m not a Coldplay fan. I’m probably in a minority. Close to a thousand people have taken the time to give the band’s latest album, Ghost Stories, a Five Star review on Amazon.co.uk. Here’s one of them:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, haunting and soporific album. Excellent! 19 July 2014

This review is from: Ghost Stories (Audio CD)

For those expecting something along the lines of “Mylo Xyloto” or “Viva la Vida”, this will come as quite a (hopefully pleasant) surprise. Coldplay have taken a break from the previous, more energetic style to create this reflective, soporific, often quite melancholy yet extremely soulful album. Haunting melodies and gentle rhythms run throughout, and the style though slower and more relaxed is still distinctively Coldplay. As ever, it is skilfully written and put together, and the mixing and sound engineering is unsurpassed. It is definitely an Album in the old fashioned sense with all the songs taking the listener on a musical journey with a beginning, middle and conclusion, and they all naturally complement each other.

Whilst it may not appeal to all Coldplay fans, particularly those who like the earlier albums rather than the later ones, the band has shown once again their capacity to evolve and innovate as they progress through life, but retain their distinctive style. Interestingly, some of the song structures do remind me a lot of the recent Avicii “True” album (which is also a favourite of mine). I urge you to take time out, sit down in a comfortable chair and just simply listen to it right the way through to fully appreciate it.

Normal (Level 1 or Level 2 on our BDA Capability scale) analysis of this review would tell you this person likes this album.

PanSensics will tell you:

1. This person has strong ‘pilgrim’-like opinions about things
2. Those opinions are weakly held
3. He is frustrated that people don’t seem to listen to him
4. He hasn’t listened to any of the words in the songs
5. He probably wouldn’t like them if he did
6. He thinks the band is stagnant
7. Is likely to describe the next album as a ‘return to form’ and declare this was the worst Coldplay album (unless, of course, the new one turns out to be even worse… in which case, he is likely to recommend people revert to the early ‘classic’ albums)

‘Maybe I’m just a ghost

Emptier than anybody knows

Maybe I’m on the ropes

Or I’m not even here..’

Hmm..