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Track 12 - Coloratura | Music of the Spheres


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4 hours ago, MosesTheMarshmallow said:

I'm over the moon that they posted this. Really increased my enjoyment of the song in a few ways!

-Jonny: you can hear the "mistake" in the guitar solo. You can tell it's not just 1 guitar track duplicated but actually 2 separate guitar recordings superimposed. Towards the end of the solo there's a discrepancy where 2 different notes sound, and one of them sounds sort of incorrect, but weirdly works in the song in context anyways.

-Will: he sounds GREAT. The effects on his voice are interesting...it sounds a bit like chorus effect, or perhaps his voice duplicated but with an extremely short delay (which is actually basically how chorus effects work, though some chorus effects also detune the other "voices"). Sounds a little odd on its own but totally works in context of the song to add a lot of texture and stand up against Chris's vocals.  I also enjoy they just left in those huge pauses between the "oh's." Something is very charming about that. 

-Guy: I hadn't realized there was that much bass after the first chorus, but it's there, and it's a good line, especially those little melodic fills. Takes me back to that one VLV-era auction video, "this guitar plays ALL the notes!" 

 

I anxiously await this as well. ?

In terms of marketing My Universe makes the most sense, but indeed the setting makes a lot of sense for Coloratura. Projecting the lyric video on those abbey walls would be SO PICTURESQUE. To be honest I'm a little worried Coloratura is too free-form to realistically perform as a regular tour song, but Big Weekend would've been a good time to record without the pressure of an audience watching your every move. But I also suppose a click track/backing track plus paying attention to Will might let them execute it, or perhaps chopping out certain parts and doing a short version OR doing a mashup with another song. Lots of possibilities. 

Otherwise, I share your curiosity about about how the song would sound with an orchestra backing them VS just the 4 of them and some light strings on the backing track, and perhaps Jonny takes up more of the string parts on guitar which there's a precedent for - if you dig up live performances of Yes, Mylo Xyloto, Paradise, and Oceans, these are all examples of songs with heavy string parts that Jonny replicates/doubles/takes over on electric guitar or plays on the keyboard or both. 

For sure it will be arranged a bit differently for live performance. Although the complexity of this song makes me a bit worried too, I see a lot of ways how to make killer live performance out of it. And I totally see Jonny playing some synths live, maybe even Guy as well. There have been quite a lot songs before that, where they figured out a great live version and I doubt that they let complexity of studio version to be an obstacle to play this great song live.

I might be wrong, but I totally feel that Will saying in Greg James interview "his favourite song will be played in some form" could refer to Coloratura. Also it makes sense if they chose to try it instead of Life is for Living as a set closer, but we'll see.

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47 minutes ago, CP-EST said:

For sure it will be arranged a bit differently for live performance. Although the complexity of this song makes me a bit worried too, I see a lot of ways how to make killer live performance out of it. And I totally see Jonny playing some synths live, maybe even Guy as well. There have been quite a lot songs before that, where they figured out a great live version and I doubt that they let complexity of studio version to be an obstacle to play this great song live.

I might be wrong, but I totally feel that Will saying in Greg James interview "his favourite song will be played in some form" could refer to Coloratura. Also it makes sense if they chose to try it instead of Life is for Living as a set closer, but we'll see.

Aye. What do we reckon is the most complicated song to perform anyways? Kind of a fun conversation:

-I feel like Everything's Not Lost is up there for its length and the sort of "which verse or chorus or refrain do we do next", and it seems like every tour they do it slightly differently. Glass of Water and DAAHF stick out to me as songs with funny time signatures.

-In terms of songs where you can really see the boys using their brains and communicating with each other, I think the MX tour version of GPASUYF where they have to time the drumroll-into-Jonny's-riff correctly or perhaps Christmas Lights where the song pauses and they switch from 4/4 to 6/8 on "those chriiiistmas lights". 

 

Andeed, Will phrasing it that way could definitely imply Coloratura!!!! On the other hand, Will has more eclectic taste than his grumpy gatekeeper role implies. My memory may be wrong but I feel like he really likes Paradise for example. So maybe he secretly loves BTS. Who knows. As another fun conversation starter - what do we think will be each bandmember's favourite song? 

Chris - My Universe or HP? 

Will - Coloratura

Guy - POTP because of its likely to be kickass bassline?

Jonny - ???

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13 hours ago, MosesTheMarshmallow said:

I'm over the moon that they posted this. Really increased my enjoyment of the song in a few ways!

-Jonny: you can hear the "mistake" in the guitar solo. You can tell it's not just 1 guitar track duplicated but actually 2 separate guitar recordings superimposed. Towards the end of the solo there's a discrepancy where 2 different notes sound, and one of them sounds sort of incorrect, but weirdly works in the song in context anyways.

-Will: he sounds GREAT. The effects on his voice are interesting...it sounds a bit like chorus effect, or perhaps his voice duplicated but with an extremely short delay (which is actually basically how chorus effects work, though some chorus effects also detune the other "voices"). Sounds a little odd on its own but totally works in context of the song to add a lot of texture and stand up against Chris's vocals.  I also enjoy they just left in those huge pauses between the "oh's." Something is very charming about that. 

-Guy: I hadn't realized there was that much bass after the first chorus, but it's there, and it's a good line, especially those little melodic fills. Takes me back to that one VLV-era auction video, "this guitar plays ALL the notes!" 

 

I anxiously await this as well. ?

In terms of marketing My Universe makes the most sense, but indeed the setting makes a lot of sense for Coloratura. Projecting the lyric video on those abbey walls would be SO PICTURESQUE. To be honest I'm a little worried Coloratura is too free-form to realistically perform as a regular tour song, but Big Weekend would've been a good time to record without the pressure of an audience watching your every move. But I also suppose a click track/backing track plus paying attention to Will might let them execute it, or perhaps chopping out certain parts and doing a short version OR doing a mashup with another song. Lots of possibilities. 

Otherwise, I share your curiosity about about how the song would sound with an orchestra backing them VS just the 4 of them and some light strings on the backing track, and perhaps Jonny takes up more of the string parts on guitar which there's a precedent for - if you dig up live performances of Yes, Mylo Xyloto, Paradise, and Oceans, these are all examples of songs with heavy string parts that Jonny replicates/doubles/takes over on electric guitar or plays on the keyboard or both. 

Coloratura really does seem so grandiose that the band might shy away from playing it. It reminds me of Hypnotised, and they have only played Hypnotised once--a stripped down version with zero backing tracks. It reminds me of Moving to Mars and All I Can Think About Is You, which have been played only once. I hope we get to hear Coloratura live in all its glory, since they do make use of plenty of backing tracks in their live sets. But I don't know, something about it makes me doubt they'll ever play a full 10 minute live version.

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It's interesting because closing tracks tend to be the critical statement for so many Coldplay albums and tours. Indeed they performed O, DAAHF, Up&Up, Amsterdam, Everything's Not Lost on those respective tours. But Twisted Logic and Up With The Birds were exceptions here....

I think Coloratura is doable but it would be more of an immersive performance vs played 100% live. Unless Coldplay finally decides to tour with extra musicians to play strings, glockenspiel, extra keyboards, synths etc, which I don't think will happen. I could see them doing the opening of the song on piano and back track with lasers, then they play the middle of the song live, then move on to another Xyloband, graphics, smoke, and laser section during the glockenspiel/strings around 6-minutes before launching into Jonny's solo and ending the song. 

But who knows... we could have MOTS Vol. 2 by the time a tour comes around, and by then there may be another album closing track they could perform for this era, and Coloratura by then will simply be a middle transition track between different albums.

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On 8/3/2021 at 11:56 PM, 42Escapist said:

Coloratura really does seem so grandiose that the band might shy away from playing it. It reminds me of Hypnotised, and they have only played Hypnotised once--a stripped down version with zero backing tracks. It reminds me of Moving to Mars and All I Can Think About Is You, which have been played only once. I hope we get to hear Coloratura live in all its glory, since they do make use of plenty of backing tracks in their live sets. But I don't know, something about it makes me doubt they'll ever play a full 10 minute live version.

 

21 hours ago, lennyrott1 said:

It's interesting because closing tracks tend to be the critical statement for so many Coldplay albums and tours. Indeed they performed O, DAAHF, Up&Up, Amsterdam, Everything's Not Lost on those respective tours. But Twisted Logic and Up With The Birds were exceptions here....

I think Coloratura is doable but it would be more of an immersive performance vs played 100% live. Unless Coldplay finally decides to tour with extra musicians to play strings, glockenspiel, extra keyboards, synths etc, which I don't think will happen. I could see them doing the opening of the song on piano and back track with lasers, then they play the middle of the song live, then move on to another Xyloband, graphics, smoke, and laser section during the glockenspiel/strings around 6-minutes before launching into Jonny's solo and ending the song. 

But who knows... we could have MOTS Vol. 2 by the time a tour comes around, and by then there may be another album closing track they could perform for this era, and Coloratura by then will simply be a middle transition track between different albums.

I share the same hesitations/doubts, though the patterns of what they choose to play or not play are kind of strange and that means it could really go either way. Twisted Logic is a very normal and good song (though maybe 1 or more bandmember hated it like is the case for Hardest Part). UWTB is not crazy either except for a piano-to-acoustic guitar transition reminiscent of 42. Hypnotised is a great song and would've been easy to perform. Miracles (Someone Special) had a great collab opportunity yet they only performed it ONCE. Also, never playing Fun??? Despite literally TOURING with Tove Lo during AHFOD Tour. 

What you're describing lenny sounds pretty plausible! In the early days, Queen would only perform the first 2 minutes or so of Bohemian Rhapsody until they created a kickass laser show with backing tracks to do the "I see the silhouette-o" middle section. The orchestral part could definitely go with some nice graphics before the band comes back in for the 5/4 section. Note Will does play glockenspiel though on MX and keyboard-based glockenspiel/marimba on Daddy! ?

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

They are clearly going to launch the album the same way they did Ghost Stories with a full album performance from The Roundhouse filmed by Paul Dugdale who also did the Live from Jordan and Worthy Farm performances. Probably will be on Amazon Prime or Sky 1 on album release day. 

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4 minutes ago, craigrd33 said:

They are clearly going to launch the album the same way they did Ghost Stories with a full album performance from The Roundhouse filmed by Paul Dugdale who also did the Live from Jordan and Worthy Farm performances. Probably will be on Amazon Prime or Sky 1 on album release day. 

But this performance is playback right? ?

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It does not seem like that potentially upcoming video is an actual performance. It seems more like an official video. So it's not shocking that it's not live or anything. The weird part is why would they do that given that it's not a single :laugh3: 

The full album theory makes sense in that context, but it does not really make sense to make full videos in that setting for the whole album....with the studio version.....

It's all weird but hey I'll take it :laugh3: :dazzled: 

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I think the important part is Paul Dugdale. He is known for filming live music. He made the extra terrestial video for Higher Power and we still don't know if it's playback too. I think these Paul Dugdale videos can end up with a complete video series for MOTS 

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I agree it is definitely playback of the studio version in that clip but I rationalised that as they wanted to protect/“hold back” the actual audio to keep it for whenever this Roundhouse concert film is going to premiere (eg Oct 15)?

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Coloratura I don't think is going to be performed live much, it's quite complicated with the transitions and it's a looong closer. But what I love about the song is that it is so well produced, has really no signs of Max Martin!

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11 hours ago, Miha said:

Coloratura I don't think is going to be performed live much, it's quite complicated with the transitions and it's a looong closer. But what I love about the song is that it is so well produced, has really no signs of Max Martin!

Didn't he produce it though? It's in the credits of the song anyway, so stop pretending that he didn't. Obviously his main goal is to make pop songs but stop pretending that he didn't have anything to do with this. Excellent production all around, even Higher Power had better production than most of their other poppy stuff.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Everyone is speechless after Coloratura live performance on Howard Stern? Guys, that deserves some discussing!?

This performance seemed like a band exam. Firstly it's such a complex piece of music and secondly everything was filmed up close and live. They delivered it perfectly.

The live arrangement of the song is just amazingly done and let's them play their hearts out. It's up there as one of the most beautiful band performances ever. Next goal: seeing this live in person?

 

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1 hour ago, CP-EST said:

Everyone is speechless after Coloratura live performance on Howard Stern? Guys, that deserves some discussing!?

This performance seemed like a band exam. Firstly it's such a complex piece of music and secondly everything was filmed up close and live. They delivered it perfectly.

The live arrangement of the song is just amazingly done and let's them play their hearts out. It's up there as one of the most beautiful band performances ever. Next goal: seeing this live in person?

 

I came here to do the same!!!!!!!! Putting aside Howard Stern's extreme level of smugness, some fun observations here:

-Jonny adds a ton of texture at the beginning and other instrumental interludes. Also he has a huge smile with Chris when they both realize they haven't made any mistakes. ?

-Guy's and Will's vocals bassline are SO TIGHT.

-Jonny plays ebow and slide the replicate that oboe part in the middle of the song and it sounds amazing. Also his guitar solo hits so hard (though I think he was slightly out of tune, which is easy to do when using a slide)

-There's a couple new Jonny guitar parts such as during the 5/4 section on the ebow and harmonizing the vocals on "all the satellites imbue" on the final chorus. 

-Chris plays a lot of the harp parts on the piano and it is some skillful stuff! My only complaint is that they used Coldplay's normal live piano sound which is a bit too bright/clanky for the song relative to the album version.

 

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2 hours ago, harrisonrules said:

Strong disagree

Coloratura is one of their best songs ever 

Strong agree! 

One thing I was just reflecting on is that I was about to declare an opinion that Up&Up is a better song in some ways, particularly because Jonny's guitar solos (esp the first one) are so unrestricted / it really goes somewhere and isn't repetitive. But you can make the same argument that Chris has virtuostic levels of piano playing on Coloratura. It's nice to see each member just go REALLY crazy. So that's just a nice thing.

By the way one other random observation - in both live performances of Coloratura, Jonny on the second line of his solo plays the note that we were all calling a mistake (the E above the B). Makes the live solo sound a bit different than the studio version where a double tracking of his guitar superimposes a D and E on top of each other. 

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