🌕 Coldplay: Moon Music 🌕 | Music of the Spheres vol ii | Discussion

[Doomotron]

1 hour ago, lennyrott1 said:

Yeah. I don't know, I think HP feels like a promising Coldplay song that they rushed to production. There's so many elements of it that are really, really good but it could have been flushed out more. It feels like they had the verse & chorus worked out, a good bass and drumline and then just went for it without challenging themselves to make it extra interesting (guitar solo, switching the beat up, more interesting outro/intro). The remixes are a good point -- I agree. Supernova 7 remix is a good example of how more production & ideas makes the song more exciting. Even the SUGA remix has better guitar. 

I guess what I'm getting at is it'd be cool to have a big single on Moon Music that feels classy and interesting. It can still feel modern and poppy and new wave disco like MU or HP, but just a bit more finessing the lyrics and instrumentation so it feels as epic and catchy as a Paradise or AOAL.

I am disappointed Coloratura wasn't a proper single. Imagine the insanity of releasing a ten minute rock opera ballad in an era of... Well, My Universe. Imagine how cool a Coloratura music video could have been - maybe the video for Talk x10? Overall the novelty of Coloratura itself (and hopefully its quality) would have carried it, but alas we'll never know since there was basically no marketing for it.

I think what you say about Higher Power and My Universe can be applied to quite a few songs which I find to be underwritten. We Found Love by Rihanna is one of those - it is a good song but just ends out of nowhere and could have been written to last longer and feel more satisfying. Don't get me started on the ending of Birds. My conspiracy theory is that it was late at night and they were recording Birds but ran out of space on the computer just before the ending, meaning the true ending of Birds was lost and they couldn't be bothered to rerecord it because they wanted to go to bed. But that's just a theory...

Ultimately it can also be applied to a lot of Coldplay songs. There are too many good Coldplay songs that could have spent a bit longer in the oven and come out much better.

• Army Of One; great instrumental but feels a bit empty, but I think that's down to the terrible mixing of AHFOD.
• Hymn For The Weekend: the buildup and chorus in the live version is amazing, but the studio release just sounds narrow.
• All Your Friends: needs a bit more going on. Not that interesting as it stands.
• My Universe: the ending is amazing, but based on Overtura we were lead to believe that was how the song sounded and I wish Coldplay had done a bit more with that ending.

And going deeper into my tangent, there are songs cut from albums where I wish they'd included them. Moving To Mars would have been a fan favourite if it was on Mylo Xyloto, but in the end it was on a digital-only EP that was named after a different song, hence why I don't see it mentioned much or remembered. This is a controversial opinion, but there are a number of songs on A Rush Of Blood that could have been replaced with I Ran Away. Miracles is a great song and could have been great on AHFOD or Kaleidoscope - certainly better than X Marks The Spot. Gravity is a beautiful song, and again there are songs on X&Y I'd easily choose to ditch in favour of Gravity. Then there's much of Prospekt's March. The Osaka Sun Mix of Lovers In Japan should have just been how Lovers In Japan always was; Life in Technicolour ii would have been a far better opener than its instrumental version on Viva La Vida. However unlike other Coldplay albums there aren't any songs on VLV I'd cut in favour of Prospekt's March songs. That said, I did come up with a Kid A Mnesia-esque tracklist for what a VLV rerelease could look like, splicing together VLV and PM, plus other releases from the time:

1. Life In Technicolor ii
2. Cemeteries Of London
3. Lost!
4. 42
5. Lovers In Japan (Osaka Sun Mix)
6. Reign Of Love
7. Yes
8. Chinese Sleep Chant
9. Death Will Never Conquer (this is the first instance of a song being put into the album which interrupts the flow of the original - I found having Chinese Sleep Chant and Viva La Vida together was a bit too fast and Death Will Never Conquer serves quite a good palette cleanser)
10. Viva La Vida
11. Violet Hill
12. A Spell A Rebel Yell
13. The Goldrush
14. Strawberry Swing
15. Death And All His Friends
16. Postcards From Far Away (serves as a replacement for The Escapist and a bridge between VLV and PM)
17. Glass Of Water
18. Rainy Day
19. Lhuna
20. Christmas Lights
21. Prospekt's March / Poppyfields
22. Now My Feet Won't Touch The Ground
23. The Escapist

I did make this a long time ago and there are some placements and inclusions I'm not sure about, like where A Spell A Rebel Yell and The Goldrush are placed, and whether Lhuna should be included, but ultimately it's okay. I even burnt a CD as close to the tracklist above I could get using my rips and iTunes purchases and it is a fun way to listen to the album. Anyway, I apologise for going on such a massive tangent.

[gustavothehuman]

23 hours ago, lennyrott1 said:

It's so hard to say. The other whole part of this is that presumably there's a MOTS Volume III (maybe the musical)... Technically songs like One World or Robots could show up there as well. 

If they are truly trying to get 1 million people on One World, then it's going to take A LOT of concerts through next Fall to get that many audiences included, which would push out the release of the album until late this year, which seems like to big of a gap to me since they say said they are finishing it recently. 

Regardless, Aeterna and One World are great live teasers and I'm personally hungry for a single I can really vibe with -- maybe featuring Nile Rogers. The singles from Vol. 1 are fine enough but aren't Coldplay classics in my opinion. My Universe will be remembered for charting so high and the collaboration but the song itself isn't as iconic as ASFOS, Paradise, Yellow, VLV and I think Higher Power was uninentionally a flop.

Higher Power did ok considering how much Everyday Life flopped. The sales are not that far away from Shiver or In My Place and the song had much less time to increase its total. I think their next single could be a hit if they get the promotion right (less performances, more playlists), the tour did wonders for the band's popularity.

Edited April 4, 2023 by gustavothehuman

[gustavothehuman]

Either way, this is not really important anymore, Coldplay's discography as it stands right now have good catalogue sales and a massive cross-generational appeal. They found success in three different consumption formats (physical, digital, streaming) and became a touring force, no other group from this century comes close. With that said: can they give us Aeterna already? My life depends on it 🫠

Edited April 4, 2023 by gustavothehuman

[Larissa Novais]

yes,i am looking forward to the new album,the race will be on it

Edited April 6, 2023 by Larissa Novais

[Doomotron]

On 4/6/2023 at 4:23 AM, Larissa Novais said:

yes,i am looking forward to the new album,the race will be on it

I assume The Race being on it is speculative, even though I desperately want it to be true.

[elroy bo]

Have heard:

"A Wave"

"One World"

"Aeterna"

 

And they don't seem to be much more than scribbles...

"The Astronaut" is okay though...

 

 

[Famous_Old_Painter]

Music of the spheres news 9/5

What do you guys think? Album news?

It was linked from the alien radio Instagram.

Edit: I was so excited that I didn't notice the world tour hashtag 🤣 I need Moon Music now! 

Could they be getting ready for announcing the album soon as well?

Edited May 2, 2023 by Famous_Old_Painter

[CP-EST]

I really would bet on new single coming out soon and album announcement still some months away. Most optimistic schedule when considering current touring schedule is probably similar to MOTS vol1 - first single out in May or early summer and album out in October. I don't think they will announce album before they have finished working on it. At least what we have heard from recent Twitter Q&A's and interviews, I've got an impression they are not in final stages with it yet.

[Doomotron]

That said it doesn't explain what the new information actually is, so at the absolute minimum it has to have something to do with the tour. Other than that we're free to speculate. Performing a new single live? The new album in its entirety live like with Everyday Life? Performing with Radiohead for the next leg of the tour? A new 20-minute version of Coloratura? A live show dedicated to scrapped versions of The Race? We will find out this time next week.

[Famous_Old_Painter]

3 hours ago, Doomotron said:

That said it doesn't explain what the new information actually is, so at the absolute minimum it has to have something to do with the tour. Other than that we're free to speculate. Performing a new single live? The new album in its entirety live like with Everyday Life? Performing with Radiohead for the next leg of the tour? A new 20-minute version of Coloratura? A live show dedicated to scrapped versions of The Race? We will find out this time next week.

All of those options sound good to me!

What I think makes it a bit more intriguing is that Alien radio shared it.

[CP-EST]

13 hours ago, Doomotron said:

That said it doesn't explain what the new information actually is, so at the absolute minimum it has to have something to do with the tour. Other than that we're free to speculate. Performing a new single live? The new album in its entirety live like with Everyday Life? Performing with Radiohead for the next leg of the tour? A new 20-minute version of Coloratura? A live show dedicated to scrapped versions of The Race? We will find out this time next week.

Isn't it obvious what it's about? 😀 Asian tour dates being announced, I think.

[Famous_Old_Painter]

54 minutes ago, CP-EST said:

Isn't it obvious what it's about? 😀 Asian tour dates being announced, I think.

Maybe, but I'm hoping for something more 😅

[mountie926]

Sorry forgot the capture the text above the picture.
Here it is including translation

[marcofratini]

Any news guys? I was hoping for a first single to be released early in the summer, do you think it’s still possible?

Edited June 29, 2023 by marcofratini

[stuckontheedge]

5 hours ago, marcofratini said:

Any news guys? I was hoping for a first single to be released early in the summer, do you think it’s still possible?

It's killing me!  I feel like every other day I'm scouring the internet looking for any clues as to when anything new

will be released!

[maeli]

If we are lucky, we are getting a new single this year... I think in autumn or winter.. with album release in spring...or we get the new single in spring and the album in summer 2024. But Chris said the album will be released at the beginning of 2024. so my bet is autumn this year.

[JustSomeone]

Aeterna isolated in (relatively) high quality.

Gives a glimpse of what the album version would sound like!

 

[Doomotron]

That's really good. More of the song can be heard like the bass-heavy parts which didn't come across in the live recordings. That said the section starting at 1:10 sounds different and not very good. I'm not sure how the uploader got the clean audio (soundboard or AI maybe) but either way hopefully the studio version isn't like that.

EDIT:

Having listened to the version with headphones, I definitely don't think it's the perfect audio that the name promises. The guitar sections (the weird bits I pointed out after my first listen) are given higher priority than the rest of the song, making a backing track the main part of the song. I've tried editing it in Audacity but it's a problem with the recording itself. I assume the IEM in the title refers to in-ear monitor. If it's true we still need a proper soundboard upload. While it's not an amazing recording and not even the full song, the Sao Paulo upload is the one I believe will be the closest to the future studio version.

Edited July 7, 2023 by Doomotron

[BerheavedTripod8]

Not really related to Moon Music, but more MOTS in general. Considering the imminent announcement of a 3rd European leg, does the "melodic orbit in three parts" still hint at three volumes for Music of the Spheres? Or have they always intended to go around the world in three different "orbits" for their live shows?

[Doomotron]

3 hours ago, BerheavedTripod8 said:

Not really related to Moon Music, but more MOTS in general. Considering the imminent announcement of a 3rd European leg, does the "melodic orbit in three parts" still hint at three volumes for Music of the Spheres? Or have they always intended to go around the world in three different "orbits" for their live shows?

I expect it means both. We know Moon Music is a MOTS sequel album, so that lends itself to being the trilogy we expected.

[CP-EST]

7 hours ago, BerheavedTripod8 said:

Not really related to Moon Music, but more MOTS in general. Considering the imminent announcement of a 3rd European leg, does the "melodic orbit in three parts" still hint at three volumes for Music of the Spheres? Or have they always intended to go around the world in three different "orbits" for their live shows?

First, this theory is quite Europe centered, so I think it can't be true. I think "melodic orbit in three parts" still refers more to the concept of MOTS having multiple volumes. Secondly, considering Moon Music is expected to be released next year, it's very possible they want to tour it more than one year. So, tour could go on in 2025 and have more legs in different parts of world, including even 4th leg in Europe.

[Flockofbirbs]

1 hour ago, CP-EST said:

First, this theory is quite Europe centered, so I think it can't be true. I think "melodic orbit in three parts" still refers more to the concept of MOTS having multiple volumes. Secondly, considering Moon Music is expected to be released next year, it's very possible they want to tour it more than one year. So, tour could go on in 2025 and have more legs in different parts of world, including even 4th leg in Europe.

Idk... based on their previous tours + production, I expect a short 3rd leg of mots tour next year followed by Moon Music in the end of 2024. But for some reason my guts tell me Moon Music will be more like a B-sides thing with a few concerts like for the time they did Ghost Stories. I simply can´t imagine the guys touring for 4+ years straight with no breaks 😅
This all reminds me of the Time Imagine Dragons toured with the album Evolve (2017) and then released Origins (2018) because they produced so many songs which didn´t make the cut for evolve 😌
 

[CP-EST]

44 minutes ago, Flockofbirbs said:

Idk... based on their previous tours + production, I expect a short 3rd leg of mots tour next year followed by Moon Music in the end of 2024. But for some reason my guts tell me Moon Music will be more like a B-sides thing with a few concerts like for the time they did Ghost Stories. I simply can´t imagine the guys touring for 4+ years straight with no breaks 😅
This all reminds me of the Time Imagine Dragons toured with the album Evolve (2017) and then released Origins (2018) because they produced so many songs which didn´t make the cut for evolve 😌
 

Yeah, it's just a guess, but I don't think any of their previous tours can be used for making predictions for MOTS tour, because it's already different with having 3rd big leg of Europe and they do exclusively only stadiums with having relatively conservative schedule and breaks between legs.

Considering the hints of Moon Music being  released at the beginning of 2024, it's hard to imagine they just release some B sides/lowkey album and then continue with stadium tour.

Also, considering what they say about new songs, it seems they are already excited to play at least some the new songs in stadium shows. Also have been talking about having already worked out some live visuals for new songs and saying it's going to be amazing.

It's just a guess, but putting all the pieces together I see them using Moon Music to burst new energy into MOTS tour. Continue on, with maybe returning to some of the major venues in Europe like Stade de France and Wembley in 2025. Because why not tour stadiums as hard as possible and then go into more quiet mode after that with the musical album and the album Coldplay. (not sure about the release schedule of those)

[BerheavedTripod8]

It always makes me wonder how far they're planning ahead. For example, did they purposely leave some songs off vol.1 because they knew they had enough for 2 (or 3)? Or are they, for example, counting on writing more during/in between touring. They obviously hinted at MOTS in the everyday life booklet and in cry cry cry as well.

[Doomotron]

On 7/18/2023 at 6:59 PM, BerheavedTripod8 said:

For example, did they purposely leave some songs off vol.1 because they knew they had enough for 2 (or 3)?

It's hardly uncommon. Radiohead Amnesiac was made up almost entirely of songs rejected from Kid A. The next album will certainly have songs that were cut from MOTS or earlier albums. A Wave, for example, was definitely written during MOTS' recording, although whether it's on the next album is yet to be seen. I hope it is though.