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Coldplay’s ‘Hurts Like Heaven’ Video Doubles as ‘Mylo Xyloto’ Comic Book Trailer

coldplay hurts like heaven video

Chris Martin never did convincingly explain what Mylo Xyloto means. Something to do with xylophones and toes, he offered the New York Times last year. But Coldplay are getting a second chance at making sense of their 2011 album title with a six-part comic book series, published in early 2013 by Matt Groening’s imprint Bongo Comics Group. The project was first announced at San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year, but the band have leap-frogged the promotion cycle and used their song “Hurts Like Heaven” to soundtrack an animated teaser-trailer for the upcoming release. 

Written by Academy Award winner Mark Osborne (Kung Fu Panda) and illustrated by Alejandro Fuentes, the story is basically this: In the world of Silencia, a gang of humanoid streetwriters called the Car Kids paint the city with neon graffiti-mana in some kind of civil disobedience against Major Minus and his army of Silencers. Because, in this dystopia, sound and color are illegal. Two of the Car Kids — Lela and Aiko — fall in love, just as they get captured by foot soldiers. The art direction closely mirrors the bright, explosive colors of Mylo Xyloto‘s album art and Coldplay’s current stage design.

What exactly does any of this have to do with xylophone toes? Maybe it’ll be explained in the DVD extras one day.