Completely unannounced - and quite possibly on the advice of Beyoncé - Coldplay decided to plonk a new track on the internet this week called Midnight, writes Digital Spy.
Okay, so Beyoncé probably didn't have a hand in it, but once we recovered from the initial shock of there being new Coldplay available for our ears, we had to try and decipher the change in sound the band have seemingly taken.
Digital Spy continue: Their previous album Mylo Xyloto heard them sprinkle pop electronics over their soaring serenades, but the first teaser from album number six strays much further beyond that. It's subdued, murky, twinkling, but definitely not lead single material on first listen.
What hit us the hardest is Chris Martin's robotic vocals. The frontman's tone has become ubiquitous in modern soft rock, but 'Midnight' hears it distorted, with any hint of recognition gently drifting away further into the darkness. It's probably a nod to the track's namesake, primed to make the vocal effect waft around the song so you don't really know which direction it's coming from. You're almost blind to where the track is going to go next.
But most likely that's the point. As much as Coldplay have been branded MOR-rock in some circles, you can't deny the band are not afraid of taking risks. They've filled up stadiums with their gliding piano ballads, they've hinted at revolution with their thumping anthems and they've already got frisky with Rihanna in a music video, so smacking us with yet another turn is what we should have all been expecting.
What Chris Martin and his Auto-Tune will sound like when morning comes and they're out of the woods, we'll have to wait and see, but one thing is for certain: Coldplay never fail to shake up their sound and become even more successful with it. As always, it's just going to take us a little bit of time to get used to it.
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