nvdmm

EL had their best production since AROBTTH. I'm still fucking bummed they didn't tour that album!

This song has the potential to be one of their best in recent years. We can all hope they've got something for us oldplayers too. I guess we'll just have to wait for the studio version.

I talked about it in the thread for the song. I think it's pretty okay but not what people are making it out to be. Some are comparing it to Pink Floyd which is fucking ludicrous! It also not get as good as anything on EL.

As a prog rock fan (namely Pink Floyd and King Crimson) I really appreciate this song and am now more optimistic towards the new album. It's still not as good as anything on EL but certainly miles better than most of the stuff on AHFOD and MX. First of all I think it's way too long for what it offers. They should have cut some parts shorter and made other sections longer. Secondly there's not enough of Jonny to really make it sound more progressive. And lastly the song doesn't really have an interesting composition (see Arabesque) and so after a few listens there isn't much to draw you back in. Overall a solid 7 for me. Just to compare, Everything's Not Lost (especially the Live 2003 version) gets a 10 from me and it's not much shorter than this. I sincerely hope the rest of the album is more akin to Coloratura than HP or My Universe.

We've been doing this shit for years my friend. Welcome to the democratic republic of Coldplaying, where we can wholeheartedly praise and adore the band's great music and crap on the terrible ones all in on place! Great response. Thank you.

Awards and Spotify success don't equate to great musical craftsmanship. Just look at Anathema or Porcupine Tree. Their genius and prowess is leagues ahead of Coldplay but they're hardly ever recognized and their sales aren't exactly chart topping. I can guarantee you if Pink Floyd were releasing music today the vast majority of people would write them off. Coldplay are making terrible decisions by following the wrong crowd at the wrong time. Just look at Keane's latest album. They too embraced some of the current popular trends but they handled it masterfully and when you listen to the album the signature sound and feel of the band is all over it. The lackluster reaction to Higher Power despite the band's efforts to constantly bash it in our ears is a sign not to be ignored.

I've been listening to M83 for years and it sounds nothing like them. I don't understand where the comparison is coming from. I wish some Coldplay fans didn't suffer from a superiority complex when people compare the band to the likes of Maroon 5 and Imagine Dragons. I wonder what the defense will be now! We used to joke around on here when VLV came out about how they'll one day collaborate with Beyonce and Pitbull. I'm staggered it all came true, except its only worse!

I found the whole BMW thing astonishing! They keep banging on about being left-field and not worried about commercial success and then this happens. I'm reminded of when U2 was involved with Apple. Wrong move both then and now.

They must be high as fuck when they're making decisions! The beautiful instrumentation with the organ and the piano didn't deserve to be murdered by those unchanged vocals. The guitar work is lovely too! Another recent one that was weird was how better the music video version of Orphans was, compared to the studio version; so much so that I replaced it on my playlist. The first half is super acoustic and beautiful and Moses' voice just makes it "work" somehow.

This guy sums up VLV and oldplay perfectly. He also talks about how glorious Rainy Day is which I found very true indeed! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPuW1_1lvb0 (By the way we used to be able to embed Youtube videos before but I can't fathom how to do it now)

Oh it was glorious! I genuinely felt I was gifted the pleasure of having my favorite band doing exactly what I had wanted of them for many many years. If they had toured that album I would have gone bankrupt from trying to attend every single show possible. I find it extremely bizarre when people say they couldn't have toured EL. As if every great rock band's concert is a Disney fest!

I thoroughly enjoyed their Brit performance and I've grown to like the live version. I still think Orphans is their best recent pop song because it feels like the four of them just playing in their backyard and at the same time it has a "worldly" quality to it. But then again everything on that record is a fucking masterpiece!

It's great to have you back by the way ? I very much enjoy talking with the old guard ?

Yeah it's reminiscent of some of the reasoning people provided here during VLV/MX/AHFOD! "They put Viva la Vida on the album to get people's attention. They don't want to be remembered by Viva la Vida". Well that didn't age well!

While what Chris says about not giving a fuck about what people think is true, they're very much aware of the opinions of their core fan base, specifically here and on reddit. And people have been overwhelmingly surprised at just how epic that performance was. It wasn't just Jonny either; both Will and Guy also upped the ante. I hope the positive reaction sends a message and they act on it immediately. They still have a tonne of time left to finish the album.

Jonny's magic work on American Idol breathes so much life into the song. It's a million times better and I actually liked the version they played. What on earth were they thinking with the studio version?!

Yeah we've had these discussions a billion times before, with a lot of interesting folks who aren't on here anymore. I do miss our back and forth with some of them!

I've been listening to 'Flags' and 'Trouble In Town' nonstop to cleanse my soul from this gibberish!

You literally read my mind!!! ?

It's a TikTok friendly chart song and I don't exactly listen to those but I think the likes of Twenty One Pilot and Imagine Dragons are better at this. Coldplay CAN do great pop-rock ballads like Rainy Day and Army of One but with those you at least have beautiful strings and interesting guitar work by Jonny and overall much better instrumentation. Looks like MX/AHFOD all over again!

Same people, same band, vastly varied output. We're now less shocked when something crap like Higher Power is released, after experiencing their music these past few eras. But that doesn't take away from its crappiness! To minimize our frustration I think we should expect much worse. Like a collaboration with BTS...oh never mind that is actually happening!

Thank you for all the amazing work dude. I hope we can get it back up very soon ❤️

I can tell you oldplayers are NOT happy my friend!

Well here I am wishing the Everyday Life era lasted forever! I think we all knew they were heading this way but I was hoping it would more closely resemble MX rather than AHFOD. But its Disney and popsicles all over again! I have to say though with EL I reevaluated my position on the band after a decade. I now firmly believe they actually are still capable of creating great records, its just their choices too often stop that from happening.

Your points are valid and I think naturally just like any ordinary person they all have other interests to attend to. It's a habit of theirs to go completely silent between major works and I don't believe they're distracted or have lost interest. You're absolutely right about EL. Of all their recent albums people should have noticed and listened to this was it. It's unfortunate they chose to keep it quiet.