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πŸͺ Coldplay: Music of the Spheres πŸͺ | Out Now! | Discussion


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6 minutes ago, Carrow said:

This continues to grow on me and I think it smashes AHFOD. I'd still take Everyday Life over it but I'm really enjoying this. I've had various bits stuck in my head for days.

Agreed.

Biutyfu has grown on me a lot, with the vocals sounding less harsh in my car I can understand more of the verse lyrics and I really like them.Β 

On some songs (Magic, ASFoS, HftW, MU) the lyrics are very simple (and uninteresting) and meant to appeal to the base of the pop sensibilities of the masses. But I don't ever feel like they're done particularly well. But this is different. I really like how they deliver this part-

Β 

When you love me, love me, love me

When you love me, love me, love me

I know I'll be on top of the world, man

On top of the world

Β 

I've found myself singing that a lot randomly the last couple of days. Nothing too deep but how they stress this or that syllable, plus how they're not forcing a horrible rhyme on the chorus (see: Let Somebody Go), it comes off effortless. Reminds me of the small number ofΒ modern pop songs I do like, Call Me Maybe and We Don't Talk Anymore being the examples that come to mind.Β 

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On 10/15/2021 at 5:46 AM, hardti said:

Apple Music / iTunes Version doesn't have the proper transitions as well. Includes the single versions of HP and MU.

Guess Parlophone messed it up. Hope they fix that soon.

Transitions are fixed now on Apple Music and for iTunes.

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7 hours ago, nowayme said:

BTW, anybody here with digital music production knowledge knows what is the TTS VST plug in used to generate the "Music of the spheres" vocal sample of the first interlude? I know that it used to be a voice generator by Yamaha back in the day used alone in kids games etc but I can't find a VST that reproduces the effect the same way this one does. Fun fact: Stuart Price used the same one on his "Talk" remix back in the day.

Correction, it's the same voice synthesis used on the popular Texas Instruments Speak & Read:

Β 

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So I was thinking last night why MOTS feels like a solid but incomplete album to me, and then it hit. Jonny. I hadn't taken into account how little impact Jonny has on this album as a whole. So I went back to every Coldplay album and asked myself, "does this song have a notable Jonny moment?" That means it could be a guitar solo (e.g. Paradise, Don't Panic) or it could be a driving presence of guitar throughout the song (e.g. A Whisper, Strawberry Swing, Ink).Β 

This is subjective, obviously, but the differences are stark. I am excluding all interlude tracks from the count (MMIX, MX, MOTS),Β including important thematic tracks like Kaleidoscope, and short tracks on EL. The tracks I think don't have much Jonny guitar at all are in parentheses.Β 

Songs with Jonny
Parachutes -- 8Β of 9 songs (Parachutes)
AROBTTH -- 9 of 11 songs (Clocks and Amsterdam -- Jonny's guitar is very muted)
X&Y - 12/13 (Til Kingdom Come)
Viva - 8/10 (LiT and Viva La Vida)
MX - 10/11 (UFO)Β 
GS - 6/9 (Midnight, O, and Oceans)
AHFOD - 8/9 ( Army of One)
EL - 9 of 12 (Daddy, Cry Cry Cry, Guns) note, this one is tough because I'd argue Jonny does additional acoustic guitar on Eko and Old Friends, so I'm counting those. I'm not counting Sunrise, WOTP/POTP, BrokEn, or WINAF
Mots - 3Β of 9 (Higher Power, Let Somebody Go, Biutyful, Human Heart, Infinite, My Universe)

Now obviously there are other elements that make some of these songs great without Jonny. Guy for example, has great moments on MOTS. However, I find it pretty wild that on 6 of the 9 songs on MOTS, his presence is barely felt. Arguably, there's only one guitar solo on the whole album -- Coloratura.Β People of the Pride's solo is very muddy and hard to hear.

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3 hours ago, lennyrott1 said:

So I was thinking last night why MOTS feels like a solid but incomplete album to me, and then it hit. Jonny. I hadn't taken into account how little impact Jonny has on this album as a whole. So I went back to every Coldplay album and asked myself, "does this song have a notable Jonny moment?" That means it could be a guitar solo (e.g. Paradise, Don't Panic) or it could be a driving presence of guitar throughout the song (e.g. A Whisper, Strawberry Swing, Ink).Β 

This is subjective, obviously, but the differences are stark. I am excluding all interlude tracks from the count (MMIX, MX, MOTS),Β including important thematic tracks like Kaleidoscope, and short tracks on EL. The tracks I think don't have much Jonny guitar at all are in parentheses.Β 

Songs with Jonny
Parachutes -- 8Β of 9 songs (Parachutes)
AROBTTH -- 9 of 11 songs (Clocks and Amsterdam -- Jonny's guitar is very muted)
X&Y - 12/13 (Til Kingdom Come)
Viva - 8/10 (LiT and Viva La Vida)
MX - 10/11 (UFO)Β 
GS - 6/9 (Midnight, O, and Oceans)
AHFOD - 8/9 ( Army of One)
EL - 9 of 12 (Daddy, Cry Cry Cry, Guns) note, this one is tough because I'd argue Jonny does additional acoustic guitar on Eko and Old Friends, so I'm counting those. I'm not counting Sunrise, WOTP/POTP, BrokEn, or WINAF
Mots - 3Β of 9 (Higher Power, Let Somebody Go, Biutyful, Human Heart, Infinite, My Universe)

Now obviously there are other elements that make some of these songs great without Jonny. Guy for example, has great moments on MOTS. However, I find it pretty wild that on 6 of the 9 songs on MOTS, his presence is barely felt. Arguably, there's only one guitar solo on the whole album -- Coloratura.Β People of the Pride's solo is very muddy and hard to hear.

I like a lot of the research you did here. That said-

Β 

Whatever him contributing to a major part of the song is, seems subjective.Β 

I love his guitar parts on Clocks, mainlyΒ the last 1.5 minutes. Chris even talks about how important they are to the song in one of the Coldplay books I read. They're a big part of why it was my favorite song of all time for many years. Whether you consider it as prominent as his guitars in Everglow or Another's Arms or ASFoS I guess is up to you? But I'd take it over those first two any day of the week. Especially since we know just how much MORE guitar there was supposed to be in Everglow.

I get the sense of a general bias against MotS in this sense. His guitar playing in Infinity Sign is my favorite part of the song and I'm under the impression hesΒ actually playing two different guitar melodies that are at least tuned a little different if nothing else. I definitely notice his guitar on the last chorus of Higher Power, the big build up in Let Somebody Go at the end and also on the verse parts of My Universe, with the last of those three standing out the most to me.Β Β 

Maybe your definition of "Barely felt" is different than mine. But the parts about Clocks and Infinity Sign specifically do confuse me.Β 

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I'm not going to edit what I said in the first post, specifically. I'll just add here:

His guitar on ASFoS is definitely there on the chorus but I don't find it all that interesting.

Another's Arms might be the most frustrating song for me personally, in this sense. It's clear hes playing something very interesting in the second half of the song but it's barely audible for me because of the production.

On Everglow he has a short solo near the end but I also feel like I can't hear it well between Chris' singing and other parts of the song.

Then you haveΒ Princess of China, where I wish he wasn't playing guitar at all. It's by farΒ my least favorite part about the wholeΒ thing and I didn't realize it was a guitar at first.Β 

On Amazing Day, it's a very big part of the song but I don't like how it sounds. Which is a shame, the live version is amazing.Β 

All this is to say that I'd take theΒ sprinkles of guitar in Higher Power or My Universe over something more prominent like Another's Arms or Everglow where his talent is being absolutely wasted by the band or Princess of China where the melody makes my ears bleed.Β 

Quantity vs Quality.Β 

You said *prominent*, though.Β 

I still disagree about Clocks. Those little outroΒ riffs are legendary to me. Infinity Sign, too but I guess that one is more debatable.Β ?

Edited by HowCouldIForget
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4 hours ago, lennyrott1 said:

So I was thinking last night why MOTS feels like a solid but incomplete album to me, and then it hit. Jonny. I hadn't taken into account how little impact Jonny has on this album as a whole. So I went back to every Coldplay album and asked myself, "does this song have a notable Jonny moment?" That means it could be a guitar solo (e.g. Paradise, Don't Panic) or it could be a driving presence of guitar throughout the song (e.g. A Whisper, Strawberry Swing, Ink).Β 

This is subjective, obviously, but the differences are stark. I am excluding all interlude tracks from the count (MMIX, MX, MOTS),Β including important thematic tracks like Kaleidoscope, and short tracks on EL. The tracks I think don't have much Jonny guitar at all are in parentheses.Β 

Songs with Jonny
Parachutes -- 8Β of 9 songs (Parachutes)
AROBTTH -- 9 of 11 songs (Clocks and Amsterdam -- Jonny's guitar is very muted)
X&Y - 12/13 (Til Kingdom Come)
Viva - 8/10 (LiT and Viva La Vida)
MX - 10/11 (UFO)Β 
GS - 6/9 (Midnight, O, and Oceans)
AHFOD - 8/9 ( Army of One)
EL - 9 of 12 (Daddy, Cry Cry Cry, Guns) note, this one is tough because I'd argue Jonny does additional acoustic guitar on Eko and Old Friends, so I'm counting those. I'm not counting Sunrise, WOTP/POTP, BrokEn, or WINAF
Mots - 3Β of 9 (Higher Power, Let Somebody Go, Biutyful, Human Heart, Infinite, My Universe)

Now obviously there are other elements that make some of these songs great without Jonny. Guy for example, has great moments on MOTS. However, I find it pretty wild that on 6 of the 9 songs on MOTS, his presence is barely felt. Arguably, there's only one guitar solo on the whole album -- Coloratura.Β People of the Pride's solo is very muddy and hard to hear.

Disagree with MOTS, idk how good your headphones are, but I can clearly hear Jonny on HP and MU. He is in the background more, but he’s still audibleΒ 

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I guess it's something at least I have written about before. Guitar music from mainstream is disappearing recently and that reflects in Coldplay's music as well. Other sounds (often electronic) just inspire bands and musicians a bit more.

But actually on this album, I'm still impressed by some of the guitar sounds and the way Jonny uses guitar. In a lot of songs still you get this feel that his glistening guitar sound ties everything together. And yes in studio mix it's often a bit buried, but in live mix his playing is definitely more audible.

For example Let Somebody Go in live - this guitar sound was again so different and interesting. So I would say at least in live with this album Jonny's sounds are more varied and unique than ever. That's what this album seems to be about, more experimenting with different sounds and production techniques, not experimenting that much with pure playing and songwriting like EL.

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With all that discussion about Jonny's guitar, I think I'll leave my two cents here. Coldplay are my religion and I freaking love everything they put out, but I'm bothered by a few things they tend to do. Jordan said Jonny is in the background more in some MOTS songs, but the thing is, I don't want him in the background. I'm not saying I want him to be loud just like on 1.36, Talk, Animals, White Shadows, Amsterdam, Only Superstition... I just want to have the minimal of it.Β 

Jonny is just so inventive and creative in the live settings, he creates a whole atmosphere around the song or simply enhances it with his guitar touchs, then why those brilliant ideas aren't on their records? We are always expecting to watch/listen to a live version of their songs because we know there will be Jonny. It seems a littleΒ counter intuitive at times; the songs where they need to go harder (i.e. Trouble in Town, All I Can Think About Is You...) they muffle, bury him in the mix and nothing much comes out of it. Now, when the song is intimate, small (i.e. Let Somebody Go, Another's Arms...) there's a nothing or only a little bitΒ of him. His live guitar in the second verse of Higher Power would elevate the song like 80% if only added in the studio version. I really can't understand why he's so underused and how they're always silencing him in the mix. And Chris just loves Jonny guitar play, so yeah... Really confusing.

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45 minutes ago, dxm3557 said:

With all that discussion about Jonny's guitar, I think I'll leave my two cents here. Coldplay are my religion and I freaking love everything they put out, but I'm bothered by a few things they tend to do. Jordan said Jonny is in the background more in some MOTS songs, but the thing is, I don't want him in the background. I'm not saying I want him to be loud just like on 1.36, Talk, Animals, White Shadows, Amsterdam, Only Superstition... I just want to have the minimal of it.Β 

Jonny is just so inventive and creative in the live settings, he creates a whole atmosphere around the song or simply enhances it with his guitar touchs, then why those brilliant ideas aren't on their records? We are always expecting to watch/listen to a live version of their songs because we know there will be Jonny. It seems a littleΒ counter intuitive at times; the songs where they need to go harder (i.e. Trouble in Town, All I Can Think About Is You...) they muffle, bury him in the mix and nothing much comes out of it. Now, when the song is intimate, small (i.e. Let Somebody Go, Another's Arms...) there's a nothing or only a little bitΒ of him. His live guitar in the second verse of Higher Power would elevate the song like 80% if only added in the studio version. I really can't understand why he's so underused and how they're always silencing him in the mix. And Chris just loves Jonny guitar play, so yeah... Really confusing.

Someone else mentioned it but guitars in pop music are fleeting. Just look at bands like OneRepublic and Maroon 5 who became popular right after Coldplay and shared similar influences. How much do you hear guitar in their music today? You don't and that's part of the reason they're so uninteresting nowadays (to me). It's so unfortunate because of how talented he is. I'm really wondering how special a solo album by him could be but he seems too humble and shy to do something like that. I mean, Guy had a side project in Apparatjik.Β 

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2 hours ago, HowCouldIForget said:

Someone else mentioned it but guitars in pop music are fleeting. Just look at bands like OneRepublic and Maroon 5 who became popular right after Coldplay and shared similar influences. How much do you hear guitar in their music today? You don't and that's part of the reason they're so uninteresting nowadays (to me). It's so unfortunate because of how talented he is. I'm really wondering how special a solo album by him could be but he seems too humble and shy to do something like that. I mean, Guy had a side project in Apparatjik.Β 

If that's the case, why bothering to play the guitar live? I mean, Maroon 5 has a guitarist but he's just as absent live as in the studio. Jonny makes his guitar cry, have you seen the Seattle show today? He was on fire as I've never seen. The whole band loves Jonny hence their question "Does this have Jonny?" I think the problem is with their producers: they tend to trust too blindly what the producers say or think is best for them, and they either don't bother saying something against it or think it's actually the right thing to do.Β 

I just think they'reΒ accommodated and don't trust themselves that much, so this isΒ  probably not changing for a really long time.

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1 hour ago, jainharshul96 said:

Any recording of the climate pledge arena? Could not find anything in the Downloads section.

It was too early here for me to watch it live ?

Β 

I made a recording of the Twitch broadcast because I don't have Amazon but the bitrate on the stream was really bad. Does anyone know if the Amazon Music stream looked any better?

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2 hours ago, jainharshul96 said:

Any recording of the climate pledge arena? Could not find anything in the Downloads section.

It was too early here for me to watch it live ?

Β 

Actually someone has uploaded some videos on YouTube, however there isn't the entire show

Β 

1 hour ago, dxm3557 said:

Jonny makes his guitar cry, have you seen the Seattle show today?

Β it's true, his guitar was on fire from what I've seen. I think that it's a very complex issue however, there are plenty of factors (artistic, commercial, personal...) which influence the outcome. We have also to consider what was said some days ago by Guy (if I'm not wrong): they were sounding a bit too rock in some songs, so probably minimizing the presence of the guitar or placing it in the background has helped them to shift towards the final outcome (IΒ won't say the album is entirely a pop album, but many songs are).

The last of theirΒ songs I've listened to on Spotify wasΒ  "Everything is not lost"Β (where Jonny's guitar has a huge part) and funnily enough, it was the first video of the Seattle show I've seen this morning. Then I came here and the discussion was about Jonny guitars, everything hasΒ its place apparently?

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4 hours ago, dxm3557 said:

If that's the case, why bothering to play the guitar live? I mean, Maroon 5 has a guitarist but he's just as absent live as in the studio. Jonny makes his guitar cry, have you seen the Seattle show today? He was on fire as I've never seen. The whole band loves Jonny hence their question "Does this have Jonny?" I think the problem is with their producers: they tend to trust too blindly what the producers say or think is best for them, and they either don't bother saying something against it or think it's actually the right thing to do.Β 

I just think they'reΒ accommodated and don't trust themselves that much, so this isΒ  probably not changing for a really long time.

He may be but he's still a member of Maroon 5. They must believe he contributes something to their music.Β 

I think it's easy to fall into the trap of blaming Stargate or Max Martin for the way Jonny's guitars were mixed on AHFoD and MotS, respectively. But I notice it more on GS than any of the others and that's the one the guys' themselves had by far the most influence on the production of a Coldplay album.

You can say they were new to the process but the question remains- why isΒ Jonny's guitar so quiet on songs like Another's Arms, Always in My Head and Ink, if that's not what the band wanted? It wasn't much of a problem up until this point in their career, with Charlie Brown and Us Against the World being a hair quieter in the studio version in my estimation- but Jonny's guitar playing on MX is more prominent on that album than pretty much any other. It's not an accident this has happened and become routine, that I firmly believe. It was with their input firmly involved, unfortunately.Β 

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12 hours ago, Westminster said:

I REALLY love the little drop in Humankind - when Chris sings "I-feel-it-inside"

More of it please!❀

Anyone with me on this?

As I've been listening to the album on repeat, I am loving Humankind more and more. I'd love to hear it live (got tickets for the Chicago show!!!). But I noticed they didn't perform it at the Seattle show last night. Do you all think that their tour setlist will be just like the setlist last night? Or will they change it up? I really hope they add Humankind?

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4 hours ago, ColdplayingMama said:

As I've been listening to the album on repeat, I am loving Humankind more and more. I'd love to hear it live (got tickets for the Chicago show!!!). But I noticed they didn't perform it at the Seattle show last night. Do you all think that their tour setlist will be just like the setlist last night? Or will they change it up? I really hope they add Humankind?

They neeeed to play it :thinking:Β One of the best new songs. I swear they played pretty much every song from AHFoD when I saw them twice during that tour. Not XMtS and that's fineΒ 

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  • Captain Crieff changed the title to πŸͺ Coldplay: Music of the Spheres πŸͺ | Out Now! | Discussion

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