COLDPLAY – Music of the Spheres (2021)

As some of you enjoy the music of British rock band COLDPLAY, here’s their upcoming ninth studio album “Music of the Spheres“. The idea for a space-themed record had been envisioned by the band since 2010, when lead vocalist Chris Martin proposed a project of building “a solar system” musical concept.
The theme for the album was inspired by “wondering what musicians would be like across the universe” after watching the fictional Mos Eisley cantina band perform in Star Wars and making speculations in relation to outer space sounds.
The album is set in a fictional planetary system called The Spheres, which consists of nine planets, three natural satellites, one star and a nearby nebula. Each track on the album represents a celestial body from The Spheres.
But don’t worry, musically this is the same COLDPLAY you would expect.

COLDPLAY 2019’s ambitious and rewarding album ‘Everyday Life’ resulted the best of their career, even with some elaborated passages. That means it’s time for another lunge toward overt accessibility, and boy have Coldplay delivered on that front. The new ”Music Of The Spheres” is the poppiest Coldplay album to date, sometimes gloriously, often shamelessly.

Not only did Max Martin (no relation to Chris, lol) co-write and produce the whole thing, they also called in K-pop superstars BTS, Selena Gomez (just as she’s pivoting to Latin pop), and R&B duo We Are King for guest spots. How’s that for covering your bases? There are some other names in the credits, including Jon Hopkins, who helped Coldplay with the electronic interludes “Alien Choir” and “Infinity Sign” but couldn’t stop them from weaving the “Olé olé olé” soccer chant into the latter, and Metro Boomin, who lends the faintest scent of trap music to the extremely vanilla “Let Somebody Go.” But any bold creative decisions here — and there are a few — are overshadowed by the unapologetic cheese.

“Higher Power” suggests that Coldplay gunning for Top 40 airplay doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It sounds like they asked Max to give them the “Blinding Lights” treatment — shiny, effervescent, and unmistakably ’80s.
Elsewhere, we get more big ’80s energy with “Humankind,” a mostly satisfying shout-along that underlines all those old U2 comparisons with an extra-thick neon highlighter. “Human Heart,” a collaboration with We Are King and Grammy-beloved polymath Jacob Collier, pulls off the Bon-Iver-gospel-hymn thing pretty well, despite its hokey lyrics about gender roles.

The 10-minute prog-pop epic “Coloratura” is our reminder that even the poppy Coldplay albums have their daring explorations: the plaintive neoclassical piano intro; the soaring, Floyd-inspired guitar break; the graceful orchestral splendor of it all — you don’t have to be an expert on music theory to recognize the band is flexing here, digging deep within themselves to draw out the best kind of preposterous.

But Coldplay are also capable of the worst kind of preposterous, and that’s the zone so much of ”Music Of The Spheres” inhabits. The would-be populist anthem “People Of The Pride” awkwardly stomps along with guitars cranked to 11, affirming beyond a shadow of a doubt that Coldplay cannot choogle.
The love-drunk, floaty “Biutyful” is too cute by several degrees, piling up saccharine elements like pitched-up vocals and that ridiculous spelling. No amount of masterful drum programming could elevate the Selena Gomez duet “Let Somebody Go” beyond adult contemporary schmaltz. And then there’s “My Universe,” the song on which Coldplay ride BTS like a rocket to the top of the charts.

Coldplay have never sounded more desperate for a hit than they do on “My Universe.” The funky, retro-futuristic adult contemporary disco track sets aside almost everything that ever made this band great in favor of the most basic building blocks imaginable.
So here its, with all the good and the bad Coldplay is: “Music of the Spheres” is easy listening, poppy.. just Coldplay.

01 – Music of the Spheres
02 – Higher Power
03 – Humankind
04 – Alien Choir
05 – Let Somebody Go (feat. Selena Gomez)
06 – Human Heart (feat. We Are King and Jacob Collier)
07 – People of the Pride
08 – Biutyful
09 – Music of the Spheres II
10 – My Universe (feat. BTS)
11 – Infinite
12 – Coloratura

Chris Martin – lead vocals, piano, rhythm guitar, keyboards
Jonny Buckland – lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards, piano
Guy Berryman – bass, backing vocals, keyboards
Will Champion – drums, percussion, backing vocals

Pre order:
www.amazon.co.uk/Music-Spheres-Amazon-Exclusive-Coldplay/dp/B099C28BCY