lennyrott1

^ LOVE THESE LIVE VERSIONS. Their studio masters tend to be pretty clean sounding by toning down lead instruments like guitar and strings. I am dying for them to release these versions of these tracks because they get the emotion across so much more. LIJ live is so blissful and lovely and Trouble in Town live feels much harsher and intense.

David Holmes, their manager said that in an interview in 2017, I believe, so I actually also wonder if the whole 2021 Tour thing would be the plan all along. But for festivals, recording the album and release times, COVID definitely screwed things up I'd bet.

^totally agree. They usually do a great job weaving in singles into their albums in way that's not to jarring. Like the transition from Birds to HFTW is amazing despite those songs having totally different feels. Orphans was maybe a little to upbeat for EL, but nonetheless I wish it was more successful on the radio. Almost 1 year later I still think it's an amazingly good pop single, but it likely will never get much recognition.

^Stay strong! This year has been really tough on me as well -- working from home every single day in a job I don't love and not knowing when exactly anything will change. music also helps A LOT to keep me energized and feeling good. Depending on how you look at it, I think there's some solace in knowing there are so many others around the world experiencing the same stresses right now. It can be hard to count our blessings. I'm sorry to hear that your day-to-day work causes anxiety and dread... I hope that it can get better or that you find another opportunity.

Random thought I've been mulling over after listening to EL in full a few times this week: One of the reason's I think coldplay has struggled to have the same amount of critical success over the past 5 years is a lack of focus. I love AHFOD, Kaleidoscope EP and EL but all of them are just so unfocused. The genres are all over the place, the themes and lyrics are incredibly generalized. Go back to MX and GS -- at least a story is being told. Sure, i'd argue those stories are vague and the lyrics are a major step down from earlier Coldplay, but at least there's a theme that's stuck to. The only thing keeping EL from potentially being my fave Coldplay album is it's lack of focus. We jump from somber classical music, to alt-rock lite about loving someone, to a song about systemic racism, to bombs over Syria to best friends of past. I'm a defender of the album but man it's hard to explain what it's about and why. My hope for LP9 is that thematically, lyrically and musically its tighter and more focused. Perhaps a space theme is the way to go, especially if tells stories about characters from beginning to end, like MX but I'd hope more obvious and poetic.

Amazing! I love this song so much but my biggest complaint is that Chris' vocals don't fit super well with the choir. This fixes that problem!

Agree with JC90. Good to see a performance but always incredibly important to keep expectations in check because I've been burned on many of my hopes and dreams since I started speculating in 2010 (god I'm old). That said, I really enjoyed the color palette and visuals of the performance. The person who I assume worked on this also did that solid Paradise "live performance" last month, which was great. If the speculation continues down a route of a "space-themed" album with UFO's and ALIENS, I could see them incorporating some of these colors and visuals styles into the next era. It would maintain a colorful and exciting experience that doesn't retread the MX and AHFOD eras.

I think it's safe to say teasing, if not a new single/music, will be coming by end of year, based on the Warner CEO's statements, which is very exciting! But given how nothing has been confirmed by the band we truly have not much to go on still other than the Music of the Spheres billboard (assuming that's still LP9). Also above artist rendition is super Kid A! Assuming music of the spheres is the actual album title, I'll be curious to see if they use the circular black and white graphic... My guess is no just because it's very similar to AHFOD and I expect the album to be a upbeat and colorful.

^Yeah I mean ... I've been leaning into the theory that Music of the Spheres is a mixture of new songs and reworked songs. The Spheres could represent their entire career and form a sort of unique "Greatest Hits" or "Lost Demos" release that includes alternative versions and remasters. It'd be super exciting and a good way to feed fans before LP9 truly hits. The only thing that sways me from that theory is that Chris has mentioned "new songs" and some of the instagram posts we've seen from Rik Simpson have hinted at new music. Plus the evidence from Parlaphone saying they want to follow up with another album. It's not like they knew COVID was going to stop the whole world when they were teasing Music of the Spheres in the EL Booklet, so it's most likely something brand new.

Odd... the Zwadlo post is interesting but truly it could be anything and it's bizarre that PH responded, again in vagueness, seemingly trying to temper expectations of new material. It's both exciting and disappointing as it seems PH's tweets are trying to warn us that new music isn't happening. But something COOL is happening... so maybe that lends to the theory that music of the spheres is a rework of older material.

Something will be teased. There have been too many rumors, teases, and now essentially confirmation from Phil Harvey over twitter that stuff is happening. Plus, ColdplayCorner posts some cryptic moon phase emojis a few weeks back... they did the same in 2019 before everyday life. Looking forward to seeing them perform live, regardless. If they didn't have something to sell soon, I have no clue why they'd say yes to playing this festival... the lineup is pretty b-tier already.

It would be a dream come true for me. EL seemed to recycle material and ideas from previous eras (the scrapped Wedding Album, Arabesque) so I'd love for the boys to go back and pull some demos from the Viva and MX eras for LP9. You'd think at this stage in their career they have so many ideas on the cutting room floor to work with. Then again, Chris is a songwriting machine and they may never run out of new ideas either. I just have such nostalgia and love for "enoxification"

^heck yeah I think it's awesome they won that. I hope that it encourages the band to continue making pop singles that have different themes, good lyrics, and that buck the trends of most radio pop. (trying to connect this to LP9) Orphans should have had more Top 40 play in my opinion, but maybe I'm just getting old.

I'm feeling pretty iffy on whether they play new music but i hope I'm wrong. As the OP outlines, they don't always perform new music in-between eras, and audiences will be plenty happy seeing them return to their biggest hits for 30 mins, and maybe including Orphans or COTW for recency. At the bare minimum tho, this does signal an "awakening" post EL. It'd make huge headlines if they performed new music, but their presence at one of the few music festivals happening will be enough publicity if they intend on re-emerging with a new era by the end of the year. IMO, they'll likely have hints to the LP9 era on stage -- outfits, symbols, color palette, etc. I remember in 2015 when Chris wore the AHFOD era clothes and they had flowers all over stage and Coldplay written in Hindi, and none of us knew what exactly that meant. Imagine how exciting it would be if Will's drum has mars on it and the graphics are of stars and planets and Chris' guitar has UFO drawings all over it.

Well I don't necessarily read Guy's Insta post as Coldplay-related at all. I think he's saying the auto project has taken 8 years since that was the "this project" he references in the previous sentence. If he was referring to LP9, I'd be excited that it took 8 years since that would mean it was started during the MX Tour. Regardless, it's cool that they're recording music and that means something could be coming soon.