Coldplay “started from scratch” for ‘Mylo Xyloto’ after being criticised for their previous record.

Singer Chris Martin admitted the group felt “very low” following 2008’s ‘Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends’, which left them with “nothing to lose” when making their latest record.

He said: “We got to a very low place on the last record where we felt not very popular. But it was refreshing as it made us start from scratch. A clean slate.

“So many people had made up their minds about us already that we had nothing to lose.”

The frontman admits Coldplay – which also includes guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion – are now “tighter” after receiving “vitriolic criticism” for ‘Viva La Vida’.

Chris added: “I’ll be honest. On the last album a few things happened that we’d never experienced before, like lawsuits and really vitriolic criticism.

“After all that hurt it makes you tighter and adds fire to everything. It was a closing of ranks”.

Guitarist Joe Satriani had filed a copyright infringement against Coldplay in December 2008 after claiming ‘Viva La Vida’ took elements of his track ‘If I Could Fly’, although the case was later dismissed.

Coldplay had originally planned to make ‘Mylo Xyloto’ an acoustic record, but scrapped these plans when they wrote latest single ‘Paradise’.

Will explained to The Sun newspaper: “We’d started an acoustic album but then we wrote ‘Paradise’ and knew the acoustic thing didn’t have any legs.”