Track 02 - Higher Power | Music of the Spheres

[IcebatofvalikinRRBZ8]

43 minutes ago, The Adversary said:

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.

Can you imagine if they went full hard rock or metal instead of pop? I don’t think so....

[Eskapist]

Well, I wouldn't want Coldplay to release a second Everyday Life 2 years after because i needed something more joyful and bright to be honest haha.

 

I think Higher Power is a better pop-lead single than Orphans and AOAL. ETIAW is still top 1 to me but i really like it so far. 

[MosesTheMarshmallow]

Yay new music. I have mixed feelings but to be honest I've had a mixed experience with hearing the lead singles of albums. I felt mixed about ETIAW but quite liked Magic (though felt Magic's climax was underwhelming). I actually really liked Orphans right away though there's too many kids in the chorus. 

Higher Power is an interesting song. Yes, A-ha comparisons but 2 songs that it really reminded me were the Boys of Summer, where in the verses Don kind of trails off / goes down because there's just so many words. Similar with Hurts Like Heaven but it's even more pronounced in Higher Power. And then Jump by Van Halen (which Chris actually covers briefly during the interlude of Clocks right after Van Halen passed away) - the synths have a similar flavour!

My biggest problem with HP though is that the climax isn't that big. It has the understatedness of Magic for no good reason. No giant Jonny solo, no giant singalong, nothing. The end just kinda fades away. But I wanted something HUGE like VLV/Fix You. And despite the high expectations running around, this song is simply not as good as HLH (in a similar class of synth pop but with amazing guitar solos) or Birds (similar 80s drums and cool bassline, shiny guitars). Which is why I'm declaring Orphans > HP, because Orphans has great guitar lines AND it really goes somewhere as a song. 

But some great positives - such a great CHONKY bassline by Guy, and some of Will's best vocals - very reminiscent of Miracles (Something Special), Birds, and Champion of the World. I really like the synths in the chorus and they come in with such power. 

And if nothing else, I think 40% of you will like the song a LOT more once you hear the live version because Jonny's guitar will be way louder. ?

PS why do people hate AOAL? It's got such a great guitar riff throughout the whole damn song and a nice guitar solo at the end, some great Will vocals, a funky bassline. Sure it's got a bit too much vocal sample but whatever. 

 

 

[TealAppeal]

Thank you all for explaining the lyrics. I haven't yet seen the official lyrics to the song so your corrections helped me out greatly.

Watched iloveradioCA interview with Chris coving this song and that helped me piece things together. He wants everyone to have less negative thoughts and funny enough.. I did just the opposite yesterday when I let my mind wonder and was absent of critical information.

Again thank you Coldplay fan community for your valuable input. Still need more repeat listenings now that I have a new perspective.

Edited May 7, 2021 by TealAppeal
Making my words make sense

[HowCouldIForget]

33 minutes ago, MosesTheMarshmallow said:

Yay new music. I have mixed feelings but to be honest I've had a mixed experience with hearing the lead singles of albums. I felt mixed about ETIAW but quite liked Magic (though felt Magic's climax was underwhelming). I actually really liked Orphans right away though there's too many kids in the chorus. 

Higher Power is an interesting song. Yes, A-ha comparisons but 2 songs that it really reminded me were the Boys of Summer, where in the verses Don kind of trails off / goes down because there's just so many words. Similar with Hurts Like Heaven but it's even more pronounced in Higher Power. And then Jump by Van Halen (which Chris actually covers briefly during the interlude of Clocks right after Van Halen passed away) - the synths have a similar flavour!

My biggest problem with HP though is that the climax isn't that big. It has the understatedness of Magic for no good reason. No giant Jonny solo, no giant singalong, nothing. The end just kinda fades away. But I wanted something HUGE like VLV/Fix You. And despite the high expectations running around, this song is simply not as good as HLH (in a similar class of synth pop but with amazing guitar solos) or Birds (similar 80s drums and cool bassline, shiny guitars). Which is why I'm declaring Orphans > HP, because Orphans has great guitar lines AND it really goes somewhere as a song. 

But some great positives - such a great CHONKY bassline by Guy, and some of Will's best vocals - very reminiscent of Miracles (Something Special), Birds, and Champion of the World. I really like the synths in the chorus and they come in with such power. 

And if nothing else, I think 40% of you will like the song a LOT more once you hear the live version because Jonny's guitar will be way louder. ?

PS why do people hate AOAL? It's got such a great guitar riff throughout the whole damn song and a nice guitar solo at the end, some great Will vocals, a funky bassline. Sure it's got a bit too much vocal sample but whatever. 

 

 

Hi, man.

Also, as interesting as the separate parts are, Jonny's *verse riff comes off as heavily copying Nile Rogers' guitar on Get Lucky. As a big Daft Punk fan this immediately stood out to me. And those vocals at the end kill it for me. Can't stand when Chris does that. Lyrics could definitely be better. Lastly, I think I'm still reeling from how rock it sounded in the teaser and then it was anything but. Higher Power set realistic expectations for me. Ultimately, I like the song but I'll take Higher Power any day. The second verse lyrics on HP beat anything on AOAL for sure. 

Edited May 7, 2021 by HowCouldIForget

[I ran away]

12 hours ago, harrisonrules said:

The song recently (last 2 years) that immediately grabbed my attention and loved from the very beginning was COTW.

 

 

Oh yes that one too!! Absolutely.

[IslandToDiscover]

This song seems to grow on me with each listen. Took maybe 15 listens, but I finally noticed Jonny’s guitar from about 2:30 on. So good. If only they’d turn it up in the mix, because that’s the brightest and best part of the song! Excited to hear it live just to get to hear Jonny’s part louder.

Edited May 7, 2021 by IslandToDiscover

[nvdmm]

It's a TikTok friendly chart song and I don't exactly listen to those but I think the likes of Twenty One Pilot and Imagine Dragons are better at this. 

Coldplay CAN do great pop-rock ballads like Rainy Day and Army of One but with those you at least have beautiful strings and interesting guitar work by Jonny and overall much better instrumentation. 

Looks like MX/AHFOD all over again!

Edited May 7, 2021 by nvdmm

[Charlie Xyloto]

Having listened to Higher Power for five times now, I really like it! I made the mistake I usually avoid at all cost, which is listening to a song for the first time while watching the music video. I feel it's best to just shut your eyes and let the music fill the room and bring whatever images it wants to bring and not let the music video tell you how to feel. After that initial mistake I listened to the song without the video and then it really started to grow on me! Chris always has lyrics you can relate to and feel uplifted with and there is a great groove going on. There is one thing that does bother me a bit, I really can't distinguish Jonny's guitar from the wall of synth, I gues I'll have to listen to it again with headphones. This is certainly 180° from Everyday Life which I loved, back into full on pop territory and I'm not complaining. Anyway, Coldplay is back, great to have new music and wait what comes next!

[Doomotron]

Higher Power is definitely one of the songs ever made.

[IslandToDiscover]

7 minutes ago, Doomotron said:

Higher Power is definitely one of the songs ever made.

can’t disagree with you there

[ColdplayingMama]

6 minutes ago, Charlie Xyloto said:

Having listened to Higher Power for five times now, I really like it! I made the mistake I usually avoid at all cost, which is listening to a song for the first time while watching the music video. I feel it's best to just shut your eyes and let the music fill the room and bring whatever images it wants to bring and not let the music video tell you how to feel. After that initial mistake I listened to the song without the video and then it really started to grow on me! Chris always has lyrics you can relate to and feel uplifted with and there is a great groove going on. There is one thing that does bother me a bit, I really can't distinguish Jonny's guitar from the wall of synth, I gues I'll have to listen to it again with headphones. This is certainly 180° from Everyday Life which I loved, back into full on pop territory and I'm not complaining. Anyway, Coldplay is back, great to have new music and wait what comes next!

I am with you on this. I enjoyed it enough watching/listening to the premier (what an exciting event this was!) but it wasn't until I downloaded it and blasted it into my ears during my run this morning that I was really like, Wow!!! 

I really love HP and am beyond excited for the full album to come out. For the most part, I consider myself an Oldplayer. Fell in love with them when I was a senior in high school, when Parachutes was released, and X&Y will forever be my favorite album of theirs. But, I have sincerely loved everything since, even if it's different. I see that some aren't quite as excited, but this Coldplayer is super pumped and ready to jump up and down all crazy to HP during a concert that will happen hopefully sooner than later! In the meantime, I'll keep blasting HP into my ears ?

[hamblingreen]

Ok, I'll preface this (much belated) review with the fact that I picked up a coldplay obsession shortly after EL was released, so I started well into the newplay era. My favorite of the leas singles so far is ETIAW (yes, I know, I like it more than In My Place, sue me) and honestly Higher Power dosen't give me quite the same chill as ETIAW. When ETIAW comes on, I literally can't keep from crying. My friends are like "wtf dude stop" and I just can't. I also think this was a bit of a risky musical choice for them, even though Blinding Lights made the sound popular on the radio, I think it was very risky in pertaining to their community, which shows me even more that they truly are making music for themselves, and we are along for the ride. That's what gives coldplay that special something to me, that they don't care what others think of their music, and if it turns out to be a hit that's just bonus points. No other band makes me feel that way but coldplay, and that's why I listened to HP 19 times yesterday (or so Newpipe tells me).

On to HP itself. I really do feel that it has a uniqueness to it that hasn't been shown in any coldplay song yet. Just like EL, this shows me that they aren't scared to do something new, exciting, and out of this world. (i couldn't not fit a space pun in there somewhere... c'mon). The sound is really something else. I hear the COTW influence in the beginning, which i f-ing love, and the Birds in there too. I'm a sucker for Birds by the way. I love the way the choruses stack on top of each other in this way where you hardly even realize it's building up to something until the end of the song, when it's all yanked away from you at such a speed that it left me dizzy. I love the east asian influence in the synth in the background, that reminds me of Rainy Day. Seriously, this song sounds like MX had a child with Rainy Day. I can't believe no one has drawn a comparison there! The half-second long synth right before the chorus reminds me of the longer buildup to the explosion in Atlas, except this buildup is so subtle that it makes the chorus sound tamer. I work at an amusement park, and the start of the final chorus makes me feel the same way as when I ride the giant pendulum ride and go all the way over the top. My stomach feels like it's missing, and my world is in free-fall. (I use hyperbole a lot in case you haven't figured that out by now). Listening to this in the car bumps, the bass is absolutely amazing! leading me on to Guy's bass-line, holy crap! now THAT is an 'electric' bass-line (see what i did there?) Overall the sound makes me feel like I'm traveling a million miles an hour in free fall through space.

Now for the lyrics. First of all, reading them like a poem it definitely seems that the majority of this song is not from the point of view of the protagonist in this story. The first verse is about how the main character feels down, (maybe due to covid? LOL,) Then a female character ("it's alright, it's alright she said) tells him (this boy is electric) that he has a higher power, that he is electric, that he's got her singin' every second, and dancin' every hour, and that he's once in a lifetime. Perhaps these two are in a relationship? Or I've just been culturally conditioned to think that if a male and a female like each other, they must be in a relationship (see Morgan and Garcia from the show Criminal Minds anyone?)

Then for a bit of Kaotica theorizing. What if this is an expansion on Moving To Mars? What if after we moved to mars, and transformed the place into this perfect world where we can be whatever we want to be? Just a thought.

Overall I can't wait to see what MOTS brings. I also wish Jon's guitar had come out more, but I know that he'll be highlighted in other places in the album. In an interview with iHeartRadio, Chris said that there is more Max Martin coming soon. The lyrics could've been more creative, but for the sake of radio friendliness I'm glad they at least made a hook into what the rest of MOTS will bring.

Edited May 7, 2021 by hamblingreen
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk

[I ran away]

1 hour ago, Doomotron said:

Higher Power is definitely one of the songs ever made.

Guess we can all agree on THAT lmao

I know it's a typo but this sentence is so funny ?

[Doomotron]

5 minutes ago, I ran away said:

Guess we can all agree on THAT lmao

I know it's a typo but this sentence is so funny ?

Not a typo. It's a meme.?

-----------------------------------

I'm going to echo earlier comments that the song is unoriginal. It's not bad (people who were on the main thread before the new 'era' started), but it's not good either. It's quite flat, with Chris' vocals being drowned out and the rest of the instruments being overshadowed by an unoriginal 80s synth, but even that isn't special, because '80s' isn't a genre - you can't make a song sound like 'the 80s', because lots of songs from that time sounded very different. The synth they used was completely generic, like a GarageBand loop.

The lyrics, as muted as they are, are probably the most redeemable thing about the song. I imagine that if they ever release an acoustic version, they will be a lot more impactful and, crucially, loud enough to be heard. It would be a similar story to Princess Of China, which had a disappointing original version, but the acoustic version made it a heartfelt love song instead of track 1 of Now That's What I Call I'm Going To Buy The New LCD Soundsystem Album Instead.

So, Higher Power: not bad, not good, just forgettable.

8 minutes ago, hamblingreen said:

When ETIAW comes on, I literally can't keep from crying. My friends are like "wtf dude stop" and I just can't.

I wasn't aware people got so emotional over music, and I'm surprised people cry over upbeat songs like Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall. I think the only time I've cried over a song in the past few years was Intro by C418.

Edited May 7, 2021 by Doomotron

[Captain Crieff]

18 minutes ago, Doomotron said:

Higher Power is definitely one of the songs ever made.

This is true

[CP-EST]

10 minutes ago, Captain Crieff said:

29 minutes ago, Doomotron said:

Higher Power is definitely one of the songs ever made.

This is true

Finally after a long debate full of different opinions we have figured it out! Higher Power is a song.

I'm glad we found an universally pleasing opinion. I guess this thread could be closed with that.?

 

[Charlie Xyloto]

12 minutes ago, ColdplayingMama said:

I am with you on this. I enjoyed it enough watching/listening to the premier (what an exciting event this was!) but it wasn't until I downloaded it and blasted it into my ears during my run this morning that I was really like, Wow!!! 

I really love HP and am beyond excited for the full album to come out. For the most part, I consider myself an Oldplayer. Fell in love with them when I was a senior in high school, when Parachutes was released, and X&Y will forever be my favorite album of theirs. But, I have sincerely loved everything since, even if it's different. I see that some aren't quite as excited, but this Coldplayer is super pumped and ready to jump up and down all crazy to HP during a concert that will happen hopefully sooner than later! In the meantime, I'll keep blasting HP into my ears ?

I bet HP makes for great running music, there's so much energy there! I came to love Coldplay when AHFOD was released, although Ghost Stories was the first album I listened to in full and is still my favorite. I have an appreciation of both their older material as well as new, Everyday Life in my opinion is a true classic. I love the fact that they keep changing and trying new sounds, I wouldn't want to buy the same record all over again! And yeah, I would also LOVE to hear this in a concert someday! That's my greatest wish, to be able to see Coldplay live, I missed them on AHFOD tour to my everlasting regret!

[ColdplayingMama]

12 minutes ago, Charlie Xyloto said:

I bet HP makes for great running music, there's so much energy there! I came to love Coldplay when AHFOD was released, although Ghost Stories was the first album I listened to in full and is still my favorite. I have an appreciation of both their older material as well as new, Everyday Life in my opinion is a true classic. I love the fact that they keep changing and trying new sounds, I wouldn't want to buy the same record all over again! And yeah, I would also LOVE to hear this in a concert someday! That's my greatest wish, to be able to see Coldplay live, I missed them on AHFOD tour to my everlasting regret!

If possible, make it a priority (should they in fact tour again....which is looking promising!). I too waited way too long (because of different life circumstances) to see them in concert. Finally did (twice!) during the AHFOD tour, after being a huge fan for 17 years. It was life-changing, and definitely two of the best nights of my life. Do it if you can!

[Charlie Xyloto]

14 minutes ago, ColdplayingMama said:

If possible, make it a priority (should they in fact tour again....which is looking promising!). I too waited way too long (because of different life circumstances) to see them in concert. Finally did (twice!) during the AHFOD tour, after being a huge fan for 17 years. It was life-changing, and definitely two of the best nights of my life. Do it if you can!

Looking at the AHFOD concerts I would give anything to have been there! If (when) they tour again, anywhere in Europe is fine with me as long as travel restrictions are not in place anymore. I will plan my vacation around their tour dates to catch at least one show, two if I'm lucky!

Edited May 7, 2021 by Charlie Xyloto

[matucho]

I found this, sounds really official?

 

Edited May 7, 2021 by matucho

[Coeurli]

Higher. Power. wow.

What a song  What an amazing anthem - my favourite since ETIAW, and that's by far one of their bests.

There are SO MANY moments in this 3:31 song, it's hard to choose which one is the best and that's what makes this song so addictive! One moment you think this is epic and then bam it changes for another cool moment and it goes on and on until the end! I do think the outro is my favourite part tho. Overall, the song is perfectly tailored to Chris' voice. The bass in insane. And ohboy ohboy how will it sound live i wonder  

Max Martin did a splendid job. Coldplay are the most successful band in the world and working with the most successful producer in the world is actually bringing them even more success on this one at least!

It sounds like a Coldplay song but the culmination of their career. As Zane Lowe said it well in that interview, if that song had been released maybe 4 or 8 years ago it wouldn't have made sense. But Higher Power now makes sense as a Coldplay song, as the culmination of a journey that blends music genres and embraces pop music at its best. It's wonderful to hear them get to that point, where they just embrace the song that comes to them. Freedom does wonder on Coldplay. It did with EL and i feel it's going well for MOTS as well!!!

I am so excited for what's to come!!!  anyway let's get this song to the top of the charts folks  

[I ran away]

2 hours ago, CP-EST said:

Finally after a long debate full of different opinions we have figured it out! Higher Power is a song.

I'm glad we found an universally pleasing opinion. I guess this thread could be closed with that.?

 

No, I don't agree with that. I don't think new Coldplay songs are songs. I feel like the old Coldplay songs were so much songier songs. (yes, I'm poking fun at myself here ?)

[CP-EST]

20 minutes ago, I ran away said:

No, I don't agree with that. I don't think new Coldplay songs are songs. I feel like the old Coldplay songs were so much songier songs. (yes, I'm poking fun at myself here ?)

Hmm, you make a fair point... it still needs more discussion and we are not finished.

Higher Power is less songier, but more dancier. So does it mean it's actually a dance? ?

[I ran away]

1 hour ago, CP-EST said:

Hmm, you make a fair point... it still needs more discussion and we are not finished.

Higher Power is less songier, but more dancier. So does it mean it's actually a dance? ?

It might be! After the success of the For You shake and the Scientist breakdance it will become massive.