🪐 Coldplay: Music of the Spheres 🪐 | Out Now! | Discussion

[CP-EST]

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.

[dxm3557]

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. 

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 little 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 bit 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.

[HowCouldIForget]

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. 

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 little 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 bit 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. 

[jainharshul96]

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 ?

 

[dxm3557]

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. 

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. 

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

[The_Blue_Room]

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 ?

 

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?

[only.your.imagination]

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 ?

 

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

 

1 hour ago, dxm3557 said:

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

 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 (I won't say the album is entirely a pop album, but many songs are).

The last of their songs I've listened to on Spotify was  "Everything is not lost" (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 has its place apparently?

[Liam]

33 minutes ago, only.your.imagination said:

 it's true, his guitar was on fire from what I've seen

Well i hope someone had a fire extinguisher handy! ?

[HowCouldIForget]

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. 

I just think they're accommodated and don't trust themselves that much, so this is  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. 

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 is 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. 

[Westminster]

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

More of it please!❤

Anyone with me on this?

[nowayme]

Just dropping in to say that the album is somewhat of a sleeper. It grows on me the more I listen to it.

[Famous_Old_Painter]

On 10/20/2021 at 11:31 PM, Miha said:

I don't know about you all but I've grown to love Let Somebody Go....

Humankind would be a good opener if you ask me. That start is begging for a stage. 

 

Yeah I actually love the first verse. 

[Famous_Old_Painter]

21 minutes ago, Famous_Old_Painter said:

Yeah I actually love the first verse. 

Are there a lot of vocal backning tracks on My Universe or does Chris do playback on this one? I just watched pro7 and there was a bit where he wasn't holding the mic to his mouth, but you could still hear his voice. 

[ColdplayingMama]

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?

[HowCouldIForget]

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  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 fine 

[IcebatofvalikinRRBZ8]

1 minute ago, HowCouldIForget said:

They neeeed to play it  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 fine 

Fun didn’t get played at all ? Nor Army Of One. My two top favorites from AHFOD

[Westminster]

They did Army of One at the very beginning of the Tour on their C-Stage.

As for the Setlist, it's pretty certain that this will change before they start touring properly. Humankind is described as Chris' favourite song of the record, being the opener maybe too. Which is a good choice, Higher Power can be anywhere else in their set. After returning from B-Stage seems to be quite fitting. 

A Violett Hill/People of the Pride combination would be great as well.

And even though i know they usually don't repeat former new arrangments, i would LOVE to see the return of the electronic GPASUYF/Talk mix-up they did during the Viva-Tour❤

[only.your.imagination]

1 hour ago, Westminster said:

And even though i know they usually don't repeat former new arrangments, i would LOVE to see the return of the electronic GPASUYF/Talk mix-up they did during the Viva-Tour❤

Yes, that was awesome, I'd loved that remix it too. It should have been on LRLRL!

I'm also hoping for some covers, they already did this kind of things in the past  and recently in Seattle, so I think it would be nice (not so sure this will happen though)

[HowCouldIForget]

2 hours ago, IcebatofvalikinRRBZ8 said:

Fun didn’t get played at all ? Nor Army Of One. My two top favorites from AHFOD

Fun is a classic but you're right. I don't remember it at all. I wonder if it's because they didn't have Tove Lo there to sing.

[Famous_Old_Painter]

Humankind followed by Don't Let it Break Your Heart ??

[thomasPh]

First week sales comparaison :

 

UK first week sales : 

• Parachutes: 70,934
• AROBTTH: 273,924
• X&Y: 467,471
• VIVA: 302,074
• MX: 208,000
• GS: 168,000
• AHFOD: 235,974
• EL: 81,000
• MOTS: 101,000

USA first week sales :

• Parachutes : 6,500
• AROBTTH : 141,000
• X&Y : 737,000
• VIVA : 720,000
• MX : 447,000
• GS : 383,000
• AHFOD : 210,000
• EL : 48,000
• MOTS : 57,000

 

Considering the most massive promotional campaign they've ever done, the BTS fans support, the "king maker" Max Martin and the help of Selena Gomez for US sales is frankly a failure. Ok we are now in digital era but we can considering MX/GS/AHFOD and EL in digital era too.

It becomes like U2: they have a hard time producing good albums but their shows are always so spectacular. However, I think they should also be proud of what they have done in the past: Parachutes / X&Y / Viva and MX are way too abandoned now. But these are masterpieces that made them what they are now.

Edited October 25, 2021 by thomasPh

[TheBigBadBono]

1 hour ago, thomasPh said:

First week sales comparaison :

 

UK first week sales : 

• Parachutes: 70,934
• AROBTTH: 273,924
• X&Y: 467,471
• VIVA: 302,074
• MX: 208,000
• GS: 168,000
• AHFOD: 235,974
• EL: 81,000
• MOTS: 101,000

USA first week sales :

• Parachutes : 6,500
• AROBTTH : 141,000
• X&Y : 737,000
• VIVA : 720,000
• MX : 447,000
• GS : 383,000
• AHFOD : 210,000
• EL : 48,000
• MOTS : 57,000

 

Considering the most massive promotional campaign they've ever done, the BTS fans support, the "king maker" Max Martin and the help of Selena Gomez for US sales is frankly a failure. Ok we are now in digital era but we can considering MX/GS/AHFOD and EL in digital era too.

It becomes like U2: they have a hard time producing good albums but their shows are always so spectacular. However, I think they should also be proud of what they have done in the past: Parachutes / X&Y / Viva and MX are way too abandoned now. But these are masterpieces that made them what they are now.

This data might mean something about their popularity (they're seen as more of a legacy act now) but people have to realize that the days of huge pure album sales are over - streaming is more popular now. MOTS had the highest first-week sales of any album in the past two years - guess what they beat out? Their previous LP as well as an Ed Sheeran album. MOTS is the fastest selling album of 2021 in the UK, and while the US has lost interest a bit in the band, the artists with more streams and records are primarily American solo artists in an age of dying bands. Coldplay albums have topped the UK 21 consecutive years, with the only other band to do so in U2, and AHFOD would have topped the US if it wasn't for Adele. EL which had basically zero promotion went into the top 10 in the US and had one of the highest sales of that year.

EDIT: While the argument can be made that AHFOD, GS, and MX were released in the streaming era, Spotify has grown a lot more in popularity. Since AHFOD was released Coldplay have gone from 22 million listeners in 2016 to 62 million in 2021. Plus, the streaming done by Spotify doesn't really offer reliable record sales or downloads compared to, say, iTunes. Even then, if we really want to convert it, the RIAA sets 1 physical copy to be around 1,500 streams - so aside from around 101,000 British sales and around 50,000 American sales, we could add around 200-210,000 sales converted from streams.

I do agree that Coldplay will probably never reach their commercial peak from 2002-2014, but to be this popular 25 years into their career is insane - the only band I know who last did this while still releasing consecutive studio albums is U2. But almost no other band or even artist has maintained consistent huge, chart-topping popularity for that long.

Edited October 25, 2021 by TheBigBadBono

[gustavothehuman]

With pre-release streams, Music of the Spheres already have 600k units sold worldwide, it will probably be at 2-4 million when it's all said and done. Those are great numbers for a band in the current climate, let alone a 23 years old one, almost 24! Coldplay outlasted all of their peers and on top of it are a stadium-filling act, if you think the situation is bad, bear in mind they're still the biggest band in the world.

Edited October 26, 2021 by gustavothehuman

[TheBigBadBono]

10 minutes ago, gustavothehuman said:

With pre-release streams, Music of the Spheres already have 600k units sold worldwide, it will probably be at 2-4 million when it's all said and done. Those are great numbers for a band in the current climate, let alone a 23 years old one, almost 24! Coldplay outlasted all of their peers and on top of it are a stadium-filling act, if you think the situation is bad, bear in mind they're still the biggest band in the world.

Only asking but are you the one who manages @cponcharts on twitter? Just a hunch.

[gustavothehuman]

Just now, TheBigBadBono said:

Only asking but are you the one who manages @cponcharts on twitter? Just a hunch.

I'm close friends with them and help with the sales, but not really a manager.