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Track 02 - Higher Power | Music of the Spheres


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22 minutes ago, lennyrott1 said:

I'm so excited to see the fandom celebrating this track and I just have to say how wonderful it is to be a fan of band that's constantly switching up the vibe and sound of their music. Higher Power is gonna sit comfortably with many other singles over the last decade -- it's got a great beat, a sticky chorus, and some interesting new soundscapes I wasn't expecting. My TLDR review is a solid 7/10, similar to singles like AOAL and ASFOS, which are songs that took a while to grow on me. 

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My true review of the track though (after like 20 listens) is somewhat mixed. The intro of the song instantly grabbed me -- the weird countdown, the big, wide synths, then the beat backed up by those icy synths tinkling in the background!  I think the first 60 seconds of the song are absolutely killer. My main issue I guess is that many parts of the song feel disparate. Like the first verse doesn't rhyme going into the chorus, and the chorus itself feels very Chris + some producers. Jonny is strumming away on that guitar but no sound is coming out. Luckily the percussion and bass are nice and punchy and I love Chris' understated delivery on the verses. But then the choruses go on, lots of random vocal affects are thrown in and out, and the outro kind of aims for this epic, emotional conclusion... but for some reason it just falls a bit flat for me.

I appreciate them trying to mix up the melody for the final send off, but the beat and synths don't change, which feels a bit repetitive. Maybe a saxophone or a guitar solo here could have added some energy to help sell the feels. Think the blaring guitar in TiT or the crescendo of horns on Arabesque, or the build up strings on the end of Birds. HP doesn't really added anything except a few more inaudible synth sounds.

I have to commend Max Martin for producing a wicked clean track. This thing sounds absolutely phenomenal and I feel like if we're comparing Max to say, Stargate or Avicii, then he's the clear winner in matching up with Coldplay's sound. That said, it isn't quite as instrumentally interesting to me as Viva/MX eras, but we'll see how other tracks sound on the upcoming EP/LP. 

 I love 80's music and this feels like a really nice homage to that era. But at the same time, I also love disco/funk, and AOAL was a track that I felt was solid and fun but never fully sold the disco vibe to me. Same with HP. There's a modern pop restraint to that 80's sound -- the backing vocals are present, but still sunken behind Chris' clear voice. There's a power guitar chord on the chorus between 'You've got.." and "a higher power", but it's turned way way down. I am always concerned of the band losing it's bite because many modern pop songs don't use heavy sounding guitar, but every Coldplay song that actually turns jonny up is way better for it. I suspect HP is going to sound WAY more epic and fun live with the extra drum fills from will and some more guitar from Jonny, but I justwish these modern Coldplay studio recordings had that instrumentation too. 

 

 

AOAL haven't grown on me yet... But this one I liked from first listen ?

Edited by Famous_Old_Painter
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I'm sorry to say this but the potential that I saw in that band that made melodies and unique music that I no longer see today and I lost those hopes.  I don't see that ambition of those young people who wanted to change music and make the best rock album.  The only thing this single tells us is that they make it mainstream, which does not contribute anything to the history of modern music.  They have the potential to really be better than Radiohead and U2 put together but they just went the easy way of pop.  People do not be fooled why one thing is that styles change but the musical genre does not advance, it is still MX and AHFOD

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Okay now that I've listened to this song at least four times I feel semi confident about how I feel for day 1 of it going public.

If you pull the visuals aside from the music-video itself, pull back the visual spectacle... for me this song hits me hard with this bitter taste that I can't help but notice through the song.

Before I type too much on my thoughts, I want to share that it's highly critical I know sometime this month or so what the band had in mind when making this song. I need to know what they were thinking about or their experiences because for this song hits different for various people including myself and I want to confirm if we thought alike or if what I thought was off-base to what they wanted the audience to feel etc; Like if I'm alluding to something they weren't even intending folks to think about.

With all that out of the way, here it goes. My thoughts:

 

The first few verses scare me to be frank, Chris sings...

" Sometimes I just can't take it (x2), and it isn't alright. I'm not going to make it. I think my shoes untied."

Much to unpack here. He sets the stage of him being overwhelmed possibly depressed? It just broke my heart when I heard it. The `shoes untied` bit is a little bit of levity here, which is good however I can't help but be moved by the first line of this song and relate to the person - this song's erm... protagonist or main character? 

"I'm like a broken record (x2), And I'm not playing right. Just go ahead and kill me. Take [I CAN'T UNDERSTAND] ... hold tight"

Man. This part really downed me. If the first part gave me slight depression vibes then this verse landed true for me that this song is a happier beat song with much swirling drama of pain somewhere underneath. Unfortunately I can't get Coldplay's official Tweet out of my head here: Higher Power is a song that arrived on a little keyboard and a bathroom sink at the start of 2020

The lyric, "Just go ahead and kill me." mixed with the tweet talking about a bathroom sink gave me the thought of pills or this idea of cutting. Again-- I want to reiterate this is how I'm perceiving the song now... it will change once I know more information just wanting to have a record of sorts of how I'm viewing this song through my lens in life. 

It also made me think about how rough of a year 2020 was and all the folks suffering etc.

It's getting late so I need to wrap up. The last point I'd like to make is, Chris sang towards the end... "I made a love song" Can't re-listen to it right now, don't want to wake my family however it was along those lines. I felt he was expressing to the fans of Coldplay, `I keep pleasing you with all this incredible work, why don't you love me the way you used to?` Least that's how I viewed it. 

With the song itself, I like the 80s vibes. Didn't grow up in the 80s however I did listen to this 80s radio station in my impressionable youth and enjoyed a good amount of what was released. The message... I'm not sure. Again I need clarity, much clarity and I hope it comes so so fast. 

Debating about if I should even go into this bit... guess I'll give it a go. I come from a religious background and still practice my faith. This notion of a higher power should (in my opinion) be only reserved for the believer's God or Gods or Goddess, etc you get the picture. Least that's how I've always seen it. So when its applied here that, oh well the audience can have it, they can have that privilege ... just didn't land well with me. I don't want to speak for everyone, if you too are a believer and disagree that's cool. Hope we can still be respectful to one another.

Those are some thoughts for now. Wish I had more of a happier post but yeah.. this song gave me some dark things to ponder.

 

 

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35 minutes ago, Westminster said:

Really harsh critics out there...some of them describe it as their worst lead single to date. Even if it isnt my opinion, it's a sad reading ?

Do you mean fans posting here or musis critics? If the latter, I'd be curious to know who because clearly they never listened to Magic. That was SHOCKINGLY bad to me. If you had told me during the Viva era that they would come out with a song I'd hate so much I never would have believed you. Never. That's not even Coldplay to me. That's a really bad R&B impression by some British bloke on the radio. 

Edited by HowCouldIForget
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I really liked it, right from the first listen! I’m a bit of a sucker for 80s music, so that definitely played a part!

I also enjoyed chris doing the same dance steps as the dancers during the chorus of the song in the video?

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It’s been awhile….

Anyway, the good things: Guy’s bass line, the final chorus/outro, Chris’s falsetto, the light touches like the choir and initial countdown, the production.

The bad things: fades out on a bit of a whimper (could’ve faded with a guitar riff if no solo), the lyrics in the first half—although Chris’s backwards speak makes the first verse more interesting than it should’ve been, Jonny being muted.

The ugly things: the come on/hold tight bridge (verse?) that is waaaay too long and uninspired.

It’s not their best lead single, but I think it’s better than AOAL at least.

Edited by MasoKnight
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6 hours ago, harrisonrules said:

BTW everyone was talking about JB but Guy shines on this 

this!!!! that bassline is sexy af

2 hours ago, TealAppeal said:

Okay now that I've listened to this song at least four times I feel semi confident about how I feel for day 1 of it going public.

If you pull the visuals aside from the music-video itself, pull back the visual spectacle... for me this song hits me hard with this bitter taste that I can't help but notice through the song.

Before I type too much on my thoughts, I want to share that it's highly critical I know sometime this month or so what the band had in mind when making this song. I need to know what they were thinking about or their experiences because for this song hits different for various people including myself and I want to confirm if we thought alike or if what I thought was off-base to what they wanted the audience to feel etc; Like if I'm alluding to something they weren't even intending folks to think about.

With all that out of the way, here it goes. My thoughts:

 

The first few verses scare me to be frank, Chris sings...

" Sometimes I just can't take it (x2), and it isn't alright. I'm not going to make it. I think my shoes untied."

Much to unpack here. He sets the stage of him being overwhelmed possibly depressed? It just broke my heart when I heard it. The `shoes untied` bit is a little bit of levity here, which is good however I can't help but be moved by the first line of this song and relate to the person - this song's erm... protagonist or main character? 

"I'm like a broken record (x2), And I'm not playing right. Just go ahead and kill me. Take [I CAN'T UNDERSTAND] ... hold tight"

Man. This part really downed me. If the first part gave me slight depression vibes then this verse landed true for me that this song is a happier beat song with much swirling drama of pain somewhere underneath. Unfortunately I can't get Coldplay's official Tweet out of my head here: Higher Power is a song that arrived on a little keyboard and a bathroom sink at the start of 2020

The lyric, "Just go ahead and kill me." mixed with the tweet talking about a bathroom sink gave me the thought of pills or this idea of cutting. Again-- I want to reiterate this is how I'm perceiving the song now... it will change once I know more information just wanting to have a record of sorts of how I'm viewing this song through my lens in life. 

It also made me think about how rough of a year 2020 was and all the folks suffering etc.

It's getting late so I need to wrap up. The last point I'd like to make is, Chris sang towards the end... "I made a love song" Can't re-listen to it right now, don't want to wake my family however it was along those lines. I felt he was expressing to the fans of Coldplay, `I keep pleasing you with all this incredible work, why don't you love me the way you used to?` Least that's how I viewed it. 

With the song itself, I like the 80s vibes. Didn't grow up in the 80s however I did listen to this 80s radio station in my impressionable youth and enjoyed a good amount of what was released. The message... I'm not sure. Again I need clarity, much clarity and I hope it comes so so fast. 

Debating about if I should even go into this bit... guess I'll give it a go. I come from a religious background and still practice my faith. This notion of a higher power should (in my opinion) be only reserved for the believer's God or Gods or Goddess, etc you get the picture. Least that's how I've always seen it. So when its applied here that, oh well the audience can have it, they can have that privilege ... just didn't land well with me. I don't want to speak for everyone, if you too are a believer and disagree that's cool. Hope we can still be respectful to one another.

Those are some thoughts for now. Wish I had more of a happier post but yeah.. this song gave me some dark things to ponder.

 

 

First of all, you might have read the official lyrics by now but in case you haven't, he doesn't sing "just go ahead and kill me", the lyric is "drocer nekorb a ekil mi", I'm like a broken record backwards so none of what you're describing is going on there, luckily.

Secondly I think you're overanalysing the part about the love song. A band that exists for +20 years isn't making music to please their fans, they're doing it for themselves first and foremost. Fans are just the reason they can keep going for that long because we bring in the $$$ lol. But I mean, Chris doesn't write lyrics with us in mind. As for this song specifically, to me it sounds like one of the happiest love songs I've ever heard: ok the protagonist was in a bit of a bad place before they met the person they're singing about, but ever since it's all :bliss:(I feel like that smiley describes it best haha)

Not really going to go into the bit about religion but in my opinion people can believe in anything or anyone they want and call it a higher power or whatever as long as it doesn't harm others ?

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2 hours ago, TealAppeal said:

The lyric, "Just go ahead and kill me." mixed with the tweet talking about a bathroom sink gave me the thought of pills or this idea of cutting. Again-- I want to reiterate this is how I'm perceiving the song now... it will change once I know more information just wanting to have a record of sorts of how I'm viewing this song through my lens in life. 

It’s actually I’m Like A Broken Record backwards. However the words: I’m Like and Record aren’t pronounced correctly, I guess that’s part of being a broken record as well.

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38 minutes ago, Captain Crieff said:

this!!!! that bassline is sexy af

First of all, you might have read the official lyrics by now but in case you haven't, he doesn't sing "just go ahead and kill me", the lyric is "drocer nekorb a ekil mi", I'm like a broken record backwards so none of what you're describing is going on there, luckily.

Secondly I think you're overanalysing the part about the love song. A band that exists for +20 years isn't making music to please their fans, they're doing it for themselves first and foremost. Fans are just the reason they can keep going for that long because we bring in the $$$ lol. But I mean, Chris doesn't write lyrics with us in mind. As for this song specifically, to me it sounds like one of the happiest love songs I've ever heard: ok the protagonist was in a bit of a bad place before they met the person they're singing about, but ever since it's all :bliss:(I feel like that smiley describes it best haha)

Not really going to go into the bit about religion but in my opinion people can believe in anything or anyone they want and call it a higher power or whatever as long as it doesn't harm others ?

This bassline is definitely a grower.

In addition to what you said I would just like to add two things.

The first is the guys would never use pills. I know Chris was drinking a lot before Parachutes and kicked Will out of the band but they don't use drugs. They're more Radiohead and less Oasis if you will. Not like a typical rock band at all.

As for the religion part, I know Chris has stated he believes in a mixture of things. Parts Christianity, parts Islam, parts Buddhism too. In the UK, the % of the population who consider themselves conventionally Christian is like 15-20%, much less than here in the US. A little off-topic but I think his multifasceted belief system has a profoud impact on the band's lyrics :thinking:

Edited by HowCouldIForget
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Think it's pretty good. Not sure about the video though, sounds like a night-time song. Sometimes bands do a 2nd video for a song. Why they just decided to film in a random car park? If they'd just made the same video at night, it'd been better. Also I've noticed they've started to look a little older...

 

Definitely an 80s vibe...

Edited by elroy bo
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9 hours ago, SPC7 said:

Bit disappointed really, 3 minutes of boring cheesy pop ?

Just so I'm clear, I still love the guys. I'm glad they try new sounds every so often, this one just isn't for me. There are always songs on every album that I absolutely love and become go-to songs, so I guess I'll just have to wait for MOTS! ?

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Just now, sa_spurs_tx said:

This is definitely one of those Coldplay songs that is 10x live (HLH, CB, etc). Those songs and birds are still well ahead for me than HP but I’m sure it will be a banger live!!!

Oh yeah! I can see Jonny's guitar coming out way more in the stadium version. Certainly the last part will be an energy explosion!

 

Also need to find myself a suitable base jacket like Chris' to put some more colour onto as well for myself!

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16 minutes ago, TheSavage_ said:

Oh yeah! I can see Jonny's guitar coming out way more in the stadium version. Certainly the last part will be an energy explosion!

 

Also need to find myself a suitable base jacket like Chris' to put some more colour onto as well for myself!

The MX eras outfits are the best and I’m glad they are back!!!  I need his shoes!!!!

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After watching the music video over and over, I am thinking there is an “official” dance to Higher Power?  There are specific movements during the chorus and Chris performs it a bit..  I can’t wait to hear it live!

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1 minute ago, sa_spurs_tx said:

After watching the music video over and over, I am thinking there is an “official” dance to Higher Power?  There are specific movements during the chorus and Chris performs it a bit..  I can’t wait to hear it live!

I think there will be, so it can go viral on TikTok. The dancer setup reminds me of the Michael Jakson's Thriller video btw. 

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Can I just ask, what is wrong with pop Coldplay? The band has so much content that is "rock/soft-rock" enough for you to listen to. Every single Coldplay track does not have to be a certain genre. If they want to make pop tracks, let them make pop tracks! 

So far, this is my favourite Coldplay song that they've released in years.

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5 minutes ago, stephen said:

Can I just ask, what is wrong with pop Coldplay? The band has so much content that is "rock/soft-rock" enough for you to listen to. Every single Coldplay track does not have to be a certain genre. If they want to make pop tracks, let them make pop tracks! 

So far, this is my favourite Coldplay song that they've released in years.

It’s just a matter of personal taste. I’ve posted about it loads here over the years but it just seems every time they go ‘pop’ it just gets worse and worse.

 

The new single to me sounds like it could have been lifted straight from AHFOD or any of the recent EP’s. I just find it derivative and crap to be honest.

For those that enjoy it, more power to you’s. It’s just not for me.

Edited by The Adversary
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