Track 02 - Higher Power | Music of the Spheres

[gai]

HIGHER POWER IS OUT!

 

 

 

[tallerolder]

Does anyone have a clue why - when opening the pre-order link für Amazon - the album title says "TBC" by "SUPERNOVA" (Artist)? (see screenshot in the attachement) 

[CP-EST]

So, are they actually going to premiere it from the International Space Station, like some crazy speculations are saying?

[hamblingreen]

2 minutes ago, CP-EST said:

So, are they actually going to premiere it from the International Space Station, like some crazy speculations are saying?

I doubt it. I just think that it's weird Higher Power is next to the rest of the album covers on the store

[dxm3557]

Yeah, I really hope it's only a song title, not the album's. Music of the Spheres is much more album like.

[lennyrott1]

I'll go out on a limb and make a prediction of what the song will sound like. it's 3:31 long, so like Orphans it's gotta be a tight pop song.

• Intro is sparse, ambient and all of a sudden synth keyboards with an 80's vibe kick in (similar to blinding lights)
• First verse, Chris singing about being in love and how wondrous it is. Bouncy bass line, electronic beats, and sticatto guitar flourishes.
• Chorus -- backed by LOVE Choir in an 80's/House music kind of vibe. Kind of like how Orphans had a kids choir in the background, this one will have a soul choir. Maybe "this joy is electric" in falsetto and the choir saying "Hiya Powaaa"
• Second verse, shorter than the first but with more guitar. 
• Second Chorus -- Same. 
• Bridge -- spacey ambience, maybe an 80's guitar solo from Jonny with some saxophone. 
• Final Chorus/Outro. 

I think that Higher Power's name has a very 80's 90's pop vibe to it. Max Martin has produced some of the best 80's sounding modern songs ever -- Blinding Lights by the Weeknd, 1989 album by taylor swift, Last Friday Night by katy perry, and Can't stop the feeling by justin timberlake. 

[stepstr]

So, my guesses are the following: the online Glastonbury event will feature new stage design (lots of neon 'glow in the dark' I think) and we'll see new outfits in action. Also probably there'll be more than one new song, at least new show intro.

Could be some raw feeling but that's okay at the very beginning of an era (remember MX summer festivals when we didn't know what MX even meant and first leg of the AHFOD tour in South America).

[Liam]

Produced by Max Martin (He's produced a lot of "POP" songs) So it will definitely sound very pop-ish 

Wonder if they'll ever go back to a rock/indie producer for their songs/albums

[shred]

Guessing this would be ETIAW 2.0 but alien-themed. Haha.

Hoping I'm wrong and it's more like ALIENS (which I doubt it would be as I'm sure they'll go for a radio friendly first single).

[JM-42]

This has written Pop anthem all over it. We'll see how it goes.

[HowCouldIForget]

8 hours ago, Liam said:

Produced by Max Martin (He's produced a lot of "POP" songs) So it will definitely sound very pop-ish 

Wonder if they'll ever go back to a rock/indie producer for their songs/albums

Yeah, I'm very curious about the producer after they worked with Stargate on A Head Full of Dreams. Max Martin is known for working with Brittney Spears, Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift on several #1 hit singles that I happen to despise. His most recent stuff has been with Ed Sheeran and The Weeknd (Blinding Lights, of course) and the songs in question I like a lot. So I don't know what to expect at all. 

I genuinely wonder if Coldplay is working with a pop producer again because they like pushing themselves and the producers to do things they haven't before (like with Stargate to some extent) and they learn a lot that way or if the label wants them to work with these people. Ever since Parlophone was taken over by Atlantic their music has shifted in a more pop direction generally and I don't think that's a coincidence, somehow. Not to say that Coldplay don't have say in the music, of course but Atlantic is no Capitol.

I read Max is actually one of the producers with the most #1 songs in history, twenty something. I wonder if this is a one-off for the first single for the album to do as well as it can or if we'll have another Stargate situation.

I don't think pop music is inherently bad (I like Ed Sheeran and The Weeknd like I said) and I was a big fan of Church on Everyday Life which we know Stargate did. That said, I think anyone hoping for a rock-return to something like Viva or even EL may not turn out happy, myself included. But this is all speculation at this point. Coldplay never does the same album twice and I love that. 

Edited April 30, 2021 by HowCouldIForget

[HowCouldIForget]

9 hours ago, lennyrott1 said:

I think that Higher Power's name has a very 80's 90's pop vibe to it. Max Martin has produced some of the best 80's sounding modern songs ever -- Blinding Lights by the Weeknd, 1989 album by taylor swift, Last Friday Night by katy perry, and Can't stop the feeling by justin timberlake. 

Just noticed the end of your post Lenny. This is a good point, though. Blinding Lights and Last Friday Night definitely do have that 80's sound to them, a big part of the reason I love the former. Don't know much about Taylor Swift's album personally. I'll add that the lesser known Save Your Tears and In Your Eyes from After Hours have that same 80s sound. 

Edited April 30, 2021 by HowCouldIForget

[IcebatofvalikinRRBZ8]

Hope the views will be good for the videos, unlike EL ?

[42Escapist]

9 hours ago, lennyrott1 said:

I'll go out on a limb and make a prediction of what the song will sound like. it's 3:31 long, so like Orphans it's gotta be a tight pop song.

• Intro is sparse, ambient and all of a sudden synth keyboards with an 80's vibe kick in (similar to blinding lights)
• First verse, Chris singing about being in love and how wondrous it is. Bouncy bass line, electronic beats, and sticatto guitar flourishes.
• Chorus -- backed by LOVE Choir in an 80's/House music kind of vibe. Kind of like how Orphans had a kids choir in the background, this one will have a soul choir. Maybe "this joy is electric" in falsetto and the choir saying "Hiya Powaaa"
• Second verse, shorter than the first but with more guitar. 
• Second Chorus -- Same. 
• Bridge -- spacey ambience, maybe an 80's guitar solo from Jonny with some saxophone. 
• Final Chorus/Outro. 

I think that Higher Power's name has a very 80's 90's pop vibe to it. Max Martin has produced some of the best 80's sounding modern songs ever -- Blinding Lights by the Weeknd, 1989 album by taylor swift, Last Friday Night by katy perry, and Can't stop the feeling by justin timberlake. 

There has been some speculation that the album might include some 80s influences. I would personally love a synthwave Coldplay song, maybe something along the lines of what Muse did with some of the songs on Simulation Theory. But I would expect something more along the lines of Max Martin's previous work.

[TheBigBadBono]

IMO this song is part of the album but it'll be the only song produced by Max Martin - just like how Stargate worked on Church on EL. Let's not forget that Max Martin also did the production on both Orphans (an alright song) and Champion of the World (a fantastic song). There was news a year ago about Chris heading to Max Martin's studio in Sweden (which I presume was for the song) so I can assume that they only had him produce the lead single (if this is the lead single). 

4 hours ago, 42Escapist said:

There has been some speculation that the album might include some 80s influences. I would personally love a synthwave Coldplay song, maybe something along the lines of what Muse did with some of the songs on Simulation Theory. But I would expect something more along the lines of Max Martin's previous work.

I think he will wield some influence over the song but generally he's a very versatile producer who works to the band's, and any artist's, strengths. Adele's Send My Love sounds very different stylistically from Katy Perry's Last Friday Night and The Weeknd's Blinding Lights. If anything he's going to inject his magic into the song while maintaining the band's main strengths, something Stargate failed to do during production. 

It's also worth noting that the song on Apple Music is marked as "alternative". Not that that means anything but we can possibly expect a pop song with rock influences - like ETIAW or Charlie Brown, hopefully. I'm still keeping my hopes up for Hopkins and Eno playing an important role - which could very well happen.

EDIT: In their post they mention the song coming from the bathroom and a keyboard - so I think we could expect synths or piano in the song at the very least.

Edited April 30, 2021 by TheBigBadBono

[CP-EST]

Anyone else hoping for early arrival of the CD? Can't wait!

[Sonny]

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/coldplay-uk-label-bosses-discuss-new-project-upcoming-album/

Album confirmed! Will have a similar release schedule to Mylo Xyloto it seems. 

[I ran away]

1 hour ago, Sonny said:

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/coldplay-uk-label-bosses-discuss-new-project-upcoming-album/

Album confirmed! Will have a similar release schedule to Mylo Xyloto it seems. 

AAAAH thanks Sonny!! So exciting, although sadly this means we will have to wait longer than anticipated!

[Bauk]

That article explains a lot about the Higher Power merch. 

Also, not sure I'm gonna like this massive stadium-direction once more.. Fingers crossed!

[I ran away]

1 hour ago, Bauk said:

Also, not sure I'm gonna like this massive stadium-direction once more.. Fingers crossed!

Yes, same. On the one hand I'm hyped. On the other hand my Oldplayer heart bleeds.

 

[Coeurli]

8 hours ago, HowCouldIForget said:

I genuinely wonder if Coldplay is working with a pop producer again because they like pushing themselves and the producers to do things they haven't before (like with Stargate to some extent) and they learn a lot that way or if the label wants them to work with these people. Ever since Parlophone was taken over by Atlantic their music has shifted in a more pop direction generally and I don't think that's a coincidence, somehow. Not to say that Coldplay don't have say in the music, of course but Atlantic is no Capitol.

Being hardcore fans, so close to them, we sometimes tend to forget the scale of Coldplay's success. Coldplay were one of the biggest bands in the world in the late 2000s and definitely achieved that status in the 2010s.

So it's safer to assume that the most successful producers in the world want to work with them, rather than having these producers being imposed on them.

Coldplay have never hidden their ambitions for songs that work well commercially - otherwise they would have never kept Paradise - and they have always been honest about how they want to stay relevant with the current music scene. They do it because they want to. And when they don't want to, they don't do it (GS, EL).

For sure this pleases the labels, but the band clearly do whatever they want to do. With the state of the music industry these days, Parlophone/Atlantic are very lucky to have them and each party knows that.

[ToniMoreno]

The new single is available on their website as preorder.

But, for some reason I cant understand, they don´t ship to Spain and Germany. Quite strange, isnt it?

[Captain Crieff]

5 hours ago, ToniMoreno said:

The new single is available on their website as preorder.

But, for some reason I cant understand, they don´t ship to Spain and Germany. Quite strange, isnt it?

I read somewhere this issue is solved when you order the CD (1 CD per order) separately

[Nikolette]

5 hours ago, ToniMoreno said:

The new single is available on their website as preorder.

But, for some reason I cant understand, they don´t ship to Spain and Germany. Quite strange, isnt it?

As @Captain Crieff rightly noticed, you can solve it by ordering 1 CD, my friend had the same problem in Germany and coldplayers from some  other countries also had such 1 CD per person problem!

[M Marks The Spot]

Quoting a user from the ATRL forums who's apparently got to listen to Higher Power already:

"Ahh just heard it, I actually love it  It's breezy, summery, nostalgic. NOT as synthpop heavy as Blinding Lights, but it does remind me of Take On Me by A-ha a bit. Radio will eat it up "