Famous Old Painter

Instructions unclear, team of Max Martin and Stargate assembled

I wonder if it'll leak. I know in 2024 leaks basically never happen, the last album to leak was Ghost Stories wasn't it? And that was only a few days in advance because Target were stocking copies early.

Just iAAM, and that's because it was featured on the soundtrack of an EA game. Given the game was officially released today I wouldn't even call it a leak as such.

It probably won't be. The Neon Forest leak had vocals and Angel Song apparently has Will singing.

Despite my criticisms I still think iAAM is a fantastic song. I keep listening to it over and over and it really grows on you. It will probably be a highlight of MM when all is said and done. But I really think fans hyped it up way too much on the basis of a soundcheck and some biased reviews, and it was never going to be the Colora2ra people wanted. My hype for MM right now really hinges on 🌈. That'll be the difference between a mid album and a late career comeback for me.

I think the issue is they want to have it both ways; be the band that does experimental alternative stuff whilst also having huge mainstream hits. On MOTS they had these ideas sequenced next to eachother and it was a clusterfuck, as you said. On MM they're aiming for the middle ground between the two, and the middle ground just isn't that interesting. So now the mainstream charts are ignoring them, whilst Oldplayers think the new material is lazy. If they committed to one side and stuck with it, they would be more successful. If they fully committed to the pop things like they did with My Universe, they would get some big chart hits. If they fully committed to making Viva style stuff with Brian Eno, the fans would love it. Instead they're trying to have it both ways and aren't getting a lot of traction from either side. On one hand they're promoting the album by calling it the closest album to VLV, and hyping up Brian Eno's contributions, and hoping nobody notices the Max Martin producers credit. Meanwhile they're pushing We Pray as a single. It sends a really mixed message.

That's the weird thing to me, MOTS had really punchy production. Even the songs I dislike from that album hit pretty hard sonically; be it the thick 80s sheen of Higher Power, the pounding dance beats of My Universe or the head-banging energy behind POTP. All the songs from MM so far have that stuff toned down and buried in the background somewhere, and it just sounds flat. It's especially noticeable with FLIFIL and iAAM which are meant to be slow burners that built into a giant climax, but they don't work because the mix is pretty much the same the whole way through.

MOTS, for all its faults (and my lord there were faults) was at least adventurous. Everything we've heard from MM so far has played it very safe, perhaps a little too safe. We're getting some pretty bland middle-ground sounding stuff, which has me worried. I wonder if it's a production/mixing thing. A song like iAAM really should be leaping from the speakers and raising hairs, but it's sonically the same kind of meh that FLIFIL is. Both songs (and We Pray) just lack a punch, for lack of a better term.

It hasn't been long at all. Coloratura sounds like a full band and Humankind sounded pretty Myloish.

Well maybe if they were planning on releasing it early then updating the album afterwards (like they did with the edits of Higher Power and Coloratura) Thing is, this version clearly has noise from the previous track at the start. If this were an edit, they’d remove it from the mix surely?

My only criticism is it’s not long enough, and they tried to compress everything into 3 minutes. When the instrumental is leaked I might play around with it, create an extended version which allows the vocals to breathe a bit more.

Not a part of 🌈 no. Possibly a part of Moon Music (song)

I'm assuming the leak came from someone getting their hands on the game early.

They also said that it was at least 4 minutes long, possibly longer. So maybe the ending section of 🌈 doubles as the intro to iAAM. It's an interesting thought. Who knows?

I'm assuming the mods nuked the discussion on Reddit pretty quickly (discussing leaks is against the rules there) because I'm not finding anything

Definitely sounds like it connects to the previous track (which is 🌈). Maybe the short length will make more sense when it's played back to back, time will tell. And does it flow into Aeterna or does the leak just cut off early? It sounds like someone put a filter over it intentionally to make it sound super lossy. Perhaps we'll hear it for real in a few days? Also if The Only One is Moon Music, I hope they've given it a big rearrangement like they did with Jupiter.

The video has a strong MX aesthetic, did they forget they're in the Moon Music era now?

I’m surprised We Pray isn’t more successful tbh. Usually the second single gets the big push but apparently not this time.

So we have lyrics for every song now except Moon Music and 🌈, correct?

I could see the repetition of iAAM working if the vocal melody is good.

It's just frustrating, because I know Chris is still capable of writing lyrics that are deeper and more meaningful than this. They came up with a ton of ideas for Moon Music yet this is the wordplay they choose to release to the public. Ugh

Jupiter lyrics apparently leaked https://genius.com/Coldplay-jupiter-lyrics The "Jupiter named for a planet called a melody / wasn’t exactly where she ought to be" lines are absent, but "orchestra of rainbows" turns up. And more "la la la las" in case you were worried there'd be a song without them. Also these lyrics aren't great.

All My Friends are Aliens is in the booklet too. Maybe FRNDZ is a fleshed out version of that? Or something completely seperate? Either way it came very close to making the album, whatever it is.

So the song Moon Music was originally separated into three parts. Earthling is written as Earthling pt. 1, implying there are other Earthlings we don't know about? Then there's FRNDZ, whatever that is.

People are acting as if Everyday Life wasn't filled to the brim with great slow songs