A lesson to rock stars: no matter how great you think your current work in the studio is, be careful how you talk about it before the record comes out. Prior to the release of Coldplay’s fourth studio album Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends, singer Chris Martin was telling seemingly anyone who would listen that Coldplay couldn’t get much bigger, so they had to get better. True enough — they are pretty much the reigning kings of U.K. imports these days, but the bravado just invites critics and fans to beg to differ. Unfortunately, with Viva La Vida, it would appear that the band aren’t even trying to live up to their singer’s claims — Coldplay seem to be trying for bigger, without necessarily achieving the better.

Viva La Vida starts off by staking a claim with a swelling instrumental titled “Life In Technicolor,” announcing to listeners that they’re in for an epic. Produced by Brian Eno, the album aims for sweeping vastness, with song titles like “Cemeteries of London,” “Lost!” and “Yes.” While there is some drama in the instrumentation and some of Martin’s lyrics, Viva La Vida surprisingly lacks punch. Gone is the bombast of past songs like “Clocks” or the sweet earnestness of “Yellow.” Most of all, though, the songs lack strong melodies — all of Eno’s production skills and the band’s good intentions can’t make up for the fact that they didn’t write many songs that audiences would want to sing along with. Oddly, the song quality starts to pick up by the final three tracks, but it’s a slog getting there.

Coldplay’s crime isn’t that they’re not innovative, that they’re under-ambitious or that they’re incompetent — none of these things are true. Their problem is that they’re trying too hard to make “mature” music, and while they were hoping that Eno would help them make their own version of The Unforgettable Fire (a comparison that Martin has publicly made himself), instead they’ve ended up with a less melodic All That You Can’t Leave Behind. In other words, it’s nice, but boring.