MosesTheMarshmallow

Same here - I re-listened today after the lyric video came out. I agree though about the beat not changing a whole lot, ie the dynamic contour of the song stays about the same the whole time. Orphans, ETIAW, CB are all sort of fast-loud songs that have a decidedly quiet/slowed down middle before exploding again. ASFOS and Paradise do a good job of building into the choruses with beat-drop type things. However, a positive thing I also noticed upon relistening today - let your brain focus on the electric guitar and importantly, the tambourine on the final chorus. It might change your experience of the song!!

Brilliant lyric video. So very 80s. Reminds me of that film Ready Player 1, which has the most 80s music and vibe. I eagerly await everyone else doing the heavy lifting to translate everything. ?

Interesting theory! I have a feeling once the full album or full story comes out, we'll think the HP lyrics are less generic. Right now it can feel like "oh this is just a song about being happy???" but once we know more, I bet HP will be about a refugee/immigrant child, or perhaps someone who is not neurotypical and feels weird about stuff they're experiencing - the shoelace line seems like it could be a reference to Western humankind's misguided desire for order and organization. Similar sort of thing with ASFOS where it's like, is this just like a generic love song? NO - it's actually a sort of last ditch Hail Mary but also goodbye love song. The past tense constructions are the big clue there, it's "I think I SAW you..." as opposed to "I see you". So it's really a song about a fictional or unattainable love.

Ah! I always thought that was just high hat and tambourine, but I think I can hear it when I really squint. ? Also I just remembered Chris playing acoustic guitar on Violet Hill *does* help with the transition from Life in Technicolor intro, which has the same guitar tuning of EADG-C#-C#. Though from watching MX-to-HLH he's obviously very good at switching between guitar and piano nowadays. I'd be curious to hear if and what the next-generation Violet Hill style song will be. Coldplay has a handful of literal bangers, from Politik, GPASUYF (which banged so much harder in 2011-2012), and Daylight to Violet Hill and Major Minus. Trouble in Town might be the most recent banging rock song. Usually every album has something fairly crunchy except for maybe Parachutes, GS or AHFOD. Maybe something that's a bit like Muse's stuff inspired by Rage Against the Machine (think of songs like Uprising)? I have no idea. ?

Interesting to have an acoustic guitar marked as Higher Power when there's no acoustic guitar in that song. There's also no acoustic guitar on AOAL. It's possible a "more-live" version of HP will involve playing acoustic guitar just for fun. There are a few rare-ish examples of this in Coldpay's history: During several ETIAW performances during the AHFOD tour, Chris plays acoustic guitar. I'm fairly certain it's plugged in and live. Though weirdly you can also hear the acoustic guitar on the backing track (the one Will plays earlier in the song, and then transitions to backing track). Full-band version of VLV during EL tour, yet Chris plays acoustic guitar (when normally he plays nothing except for occasional piano). And then he pretty seamlessly transitions plays some piano after the first chorus. Also it's worth mentioning for Violet Hill, Chris always plays an acoustic guitar, and there's piano on a backing track. Even though on the album version of the song there is NO acoustic guitar at all. I think in this case it was to allow him and Jonny to jump together. ? Alternatively, this photo may be for Chris Martin's SOLO performances of these songs, considering AOAL with acoustic guitar has only ever been done as Chris-only or Chris-and-Jonny.

Imagine Coldplay and Embrace doing Gravity together. ? Some more serious suggestions: -Kraftwerk, who has just been added to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! -Wolf Alice - they have an EXCELLENT space-y song that very much recalls Rocket Man, Life on Mars?, and Moving to Mars And cool, I'd love to see Gorillaz/Blur/Coldplay. Under the Westway is my favourite song by them and it's a bit vaguely Coldplay-y in the piano playing!

You might be right, but it just sounds to me more like Guy's voice than Will's. It's hard to tell since in Fix You they both since the exact same vocal line. But something about the soft-loudness sounds more Guy than Will to me (you've heard the IEM mix with Guy's vocals right?) Guy moving his head away from the mic may just be him breathing. I just thought he'd be more likely to make a mistake than Will because Will's singing is SPOTLESS.

I actually did NOT know that but that makes total sense and completely addresses my point lol. I was also confused about lip syncing for Church, again..not a hard song. You might say "oh but it's the first song" but at a few shows they open with Orphans and I'm pretty sure that's not lip synced (not counting the choruses where there's obvious a lot of kid voices/Will doing some of the vocal heavy lifting). To be honest though I guess I'm not surprised when the rest of the band has been lip syncing since the VLV era (possibly even during X&Y). I'm 50% sure this is not lip syncing in this performance since Guy's vocals are weirdly loud relative to Jonny or Will and you can hear him go a little out of tune after 4:15. Anyways I don't mean to hijack and talk about backing tracks like I am so prone to do. I hope the band will one day return to a way of performing that's not as reliant on backing tracks for instruments OR vocals, as they are all very talented gentlemen and all the evidence from early gigs and IEM mixes suggests they do sound good. I could be excited for another track like Fix You where all 4 members sing (haven't really had anything this substantial since maybe Up&Up). Also bring on the Guy and Will lead vocal tracks.

I'm still waiting for a song where Will sings lead vocals. Or Guy or Jonny!! The Clocks things was pretty evident but I never fully understood why either. -It's a song at the piano rather than running around. Chris gets very obviously out of breath when dancing on his feet for ETIAW/VLV for instance. -It's not the hardest or highest song to sing. Fix You and ASFOS both have higher notes and more falsetto.

Funny that you say this because I literally like all of the Coldplay songs and albums where Jonny has the most/best contributions, REGARDLESS of some of the other things people hate about AHFOD. I could write a glowing essay about AHFOD. The title track has a cool Gandhi reference and an amazing guitar riff, such an energetic beat. AOAL has a great riff. Up&Up is my favourite Coldplay song ever. Everglow is such a nice blending of old- and new-play. My only complaints are that 1. the guitar is sometimes too quiet, with Army of One being the worst culprit, 2. X Marks the Spot isn't a bad song but it doesn't fit too well on the album, and 3. putting Army of One right after Amazing Grace is kinda silly. Amazing Day should've gone there (and in fact that's how I sequence it in my itunes). But this is just my crazy Jonny-prioritizing opinion. ? I can see the argument that the guitar might detract from the synth. I would argue, why not both? Basically all the songs on MX suggest they can coexist, esp ETIAW, HLH, and POC. Speaking of guitars - Shakersonic I only JUST got your name. I got a little sad that Noel's last LP was so guitar-less in a particular way. Maybe I should change my CPing name to Live Anger. ?

If you can get Noel Gallagher, Damon Albarn, and Graham Coxon from Blur together to play a song together, then I'm sure this could happen. Also Paul Weller on drums?!?

I was worried they were going to destroy their own drone with those fireworks. ? Guy has a good smile in the first verse. ?

Does it fit on GS - maybe not so much, I'll admit. But chart domination? I'm not so sure. I think you're correct to point out the timing matters and that the inspiration is pretty timing-based. But I don't think Chris wants money, for one thing - they have enough. And for attention...honestly I think Coldplay would get more attention if they released another Clocks, Scientist, or Yellow. And if we're following your logic, can you explain where Fix You or VLV come from? Those are fairly different from Coldplay historically due to use of organ/barbershop vocals, and for the heavy strings in VLV. Ignoring VLV's potential resemblance to that song by that guy who sued, that might objectively be more different than any other Coldplay song given its near-lack of guitars. Those are historically some of Coldplay's most chart-topping and attention-getting songs, but they're not at all "pop derivative of something that came out a year ago." Same goes for ETIAW/Paradise (I can't think of a specific recent artist that these feel like they're ripping off), or AOAL/HFTW. I see what you're saying I just can't imagine this is the most efficient or logical way for Chris to make himself feel good. ?

I'll respectfully disagree. Chris and Coldplay are always making big nods to their musical heroes and musicians they respect with each thing they do. ASFOS is a ripoff of Aviici and EDM, yes, but it takes a lot of melodic craftsmanship to develop the beat drops in that song. And the instrumentation is actually 80% the band, really - it still boils down to piano, drums, bass, and guitar. Admittedly you can hear the guitar much better in live versions. When it comes to Higher Power, there's a pretty obvious lineage from Jump by Van Halen - Chris even covers its main riff during this performance of Charlie Brown. Starts at 2:40ish:

Sorry to double post but I forgot to mention, but CHVRCHES would be a fantastic artist to collaborate with and definitely my #1 choice for who to bring on both for Lauren Mayberry's vocals and also for the synth prowess from Iain and Martin. They are very much 80s-inspired synthpop but with serious non-poppy and often darker/emotional/angry lyrics. I love them, and could definitely see some overlap with the arpeggiated synths, and heavy synthy bass. The Higher Power arpeggiated/high synth background line (that Jonny also plays on guitar) sounds a lot like the live intro to Never Ending Circles (heard in the first few seconds of the first video). Tbh relistening to CHVRCHES helped me internally articulate my problem with Higher Power, which is that it lacks much of a "journey" or build. Think of SJLT, just in terms of the music - it has verses and choruses and a couple beat drops plus such a huge bridge and nice guitar solo. Or if you're an oldplayer, think of a song like Politik. That's a song that is loud-quiet-loud-quiet and then a bridge that builds on itself into the huge "give me lover over this" and Jonny guitar explosion.

If y'all had to pick ONE interview to watch, what would you choose?

As a lot of us were expecting, the guitar is amazing in the live version and annoyingly absent from the studio version. Especially when Jonny is LOUDLY doubling the synth riff, and the atmospherics in the 2nd verse. The guitar and bass are just so DIRTY and I love it. Will's vocals are so strong too - you could basically consider this to be a duet!

I'd love to see Coldplay and Muse collaborate - Muse has some great 80s-inspired songs. Panic Station is one that comes to mind though I also haven't listened to their most recent album. Lianne la Havas would be fantastic - she and Chris sound great doing that Sometimes it Snows in April cover. ? And as a guitarist, I feel like Lianne would push both Chris and Jonny to do more interesting thing since she has a very obvious jazz background in the way she plays. Similar argument for Esperanza Spaulding who is a fantastic bassist and singer. For the 80s theme, it'd be fun to see collaborations with Pink Floyd for a giant spacey guitar solo, Sting or Phil Collins for that quintessential 80s vibe, Echo and the Bunnymen since those are heroes of Coldplay and they're very much still active, and either of the main Smiths members (Johnny Marr or Morrissey). Also in the 80s - Annie Lennox! Kate Bush! Maybe they could re-record Speed of Sound and rip off Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill even harder. ? +1 for Noel Gallagher though since it's been done in Up&Up I don't know if it'll happen again. Though does anyone remembe rtaht story about Noel giving Chris a crazy guitar pedal after the 2011 BRIT awards so that Coldplay could write a song with it? WE STILL HAVEN'T HEARD THAT SONG!!!!

If anything is going to make it, I'd vote for Moving to Mars, A L I E N S but 10 minutes long, and Things I Don't Understand. ?

I'm going to shamelessly repost what I said in the Higher Power thread since this seems to be the higher traffic thread. But I will add this one thing - have y'all noticed the "Mediterranean Shipping Co" on the containers in the background? I feel like this must not be an accident, and potentially supports my theory that this album will be about refugees, given the connection with the Mediterranean Sea.

Yay new music. I have mixed feelings but to be honest I've had a mixed experience with hearing the lead singles of albums. I felt mixed about ETIAW but quite liked Magic (though felt Magic's climax was underwhelming). I actually really liked Orphans right away though there's too many kids in the chorus. Higher Power is an interesting song. Yes, A-ha comparisons but 2 songs that it really reminded me were the Boys of Summer, where in the verses Don kind of trails off / goes down because there's just so many words. Similar with Hurts Like Heaven but it's even more pronounced in Higher Power. And then Jump by Van Halen (which Chris actually covers briefly during the interlude of Clocks right after Van Halen passed away) - the synths have a similar flavour! My biggest problem with HP though is that the climax isn't that big. It has the understatedness of Magic for no good reason. No giant Jonny solo, no giant singalong, nothing. The end just kinda fades away. But I wanted something HUGE like VLV/Fix You. And despite the high expectations running around, this song is simply not as good as HLH (in a similar class of synth pop but with amazing guitar solos) or Birds (similar 80s drums and cool bassline, shiny guitars). Which is why I'm declaring Orphans > HP, because Orphans has great guitar lines AND it really goes somewhere as a song. But some great positives - such a great CHONKY bassline by Guy, and some of Will's best vocals - very reminiscent of Miracles (Something Special), Birds, and Champion of the World. I really like the synths in the chorus and they come in with such power. And if nothing else, I think 40% of you will like the song a LOT more once you hear the live version because Jonny's guitar will be way louder. ? PS why do people hate AOAL? It's got such a great guitar riff throughout the whole damn song and a nice guitar solo at the end, some great Will vocals, a funky bassline. Sure it's got a bit too much vocal sample but whatever.

I had the exact same thought and wonder if this might become a bigger part of live performances? During Ghost Stories they had a lot of launchpads sitting around the stage but to be honest I never actually saw any bandmember use them (of course Guy used the laser harp, Will had an electronic drumpad and the special spherical table thing for Midnight, and Jonny played some keyboard like on Another's Arms and Midnight...but yeah, never saw the launchpads get touched). Cool performance anyhow and appreciate the prompt upload and ability to stream! I was surprised Chris didn't use the launchpad that's installed on the piano for either ASFOS or SJLT, which would've been fun with some beats or synths. But nonetheless his solo piano versions were super good this time with very interesting embellishments. AOAL was executed fairly impeccably, IMO!

You'd think so, but I think for quite a while now Coldplay has recognized/advocated about refugee issues and framed it around this alien theme. Look at A L I E N S - if you look at the actual lyrics, music video, and advocacy (end of the video calls for donations to Migrant Offshore Aid Station based in Malta, which aids Mediterranean refugees). Very similar themes about refugee issues in Daddy and Orphans, and recall Moving to Mars is named after the Mat Whitecross documentary about refugees. A lot of the refugee experiences is about landing in a foreign environment, literally being legally labeled as an "alien." And a lot of refugees want to go home but they can't because of ongoing conflict - the lyrics of Orphans and A L I E N S both get at the idea of wanting to go home. So in my mind this makes perfect sense - an album that tells a refugee story but through the palatable lens of space rock. This is an update on AROBTTH, an album about heartbreak and a little bit about war (Politik), dressed up in palatable alt piano rock. VLV is very much also an album about the Iraq/Afghanistan wars, but dressed up in a poppy uniform (speaking of poppies, I theorize that Prospekt's March/Poppyfields must have something to do with opium poppy production in Afghanistan).

A tour named after a song that was never played in front of an audience, at that. ? Maybe we should have a poll?!?!?!?!

Did someone say, CHRIS MARTIAN?