lennyrott1

Fun to see people posting again here! In 2015, I said VLV, which is still my personal favorite. I think you can make a good argument for almost every Coldplay album except MOTS, which I think is just objectively mediocre. In 2021, I think fans should start considering Everyday Life. Not everyone loved it initially, and even I had issues with the pacing and how some themes seems only lightly touched on in a somewhat superficial way (Trouble in Town, Guns, Eko). But now, I start to understand Chris' vision for the album a bit more and because all the songs are so damn good and the collaborations are so cool, I would maybe add EL to the candidate list along with VLV, AROBTTH, and Parachutes.

There is a tendency with Coldplay for studio recordings to feel a bit more spacious and empty than live recordings. I'm sure there are examples of songs I actually prefer from the studio, but not many. With MOTS, I'm not feeling particularly hopeful. For one, I struggle to see how songs like Biutfyul and LSG will be performed live. Biutfyul apparently went through a lot of revisions for Everyday Life, so maybe they'll perform a totally different version on acoustic instruments? LSG doesn't necessarily need Selena Gomez, I guess I'd be interested in hearing Jonny live here but I just don't like this song very much. Infinity Sign is likely not being performed live, and personally I think MU doesnt sound very good so far live. So that leaves us with HP, which sounds studio quality, Coloratura which sounds pretty solid, Heart which I actually prefer live and POTP, which has better distortion and a much better solo. Of course, I suspect Humankind is going to BOP live and I'm excited for that.

I'll be disappointed if one of the MOTS volumes is a live album and right now I don't think one will be. Vol. 1 is definitely my least favorite Coldplay album and kind of pushed me away from listening to Coldplay over the past few months, but I'm hopeful they can do better. A lot of artists right now have been putting out albums back-to-back far more quickly than the traditional 3-4 year album cycle. We know Chris is a song-writing machine and recent AHFOD demo leaks reveal there's great songs that could still be revisited by the band. I think it's totally possible that Vol. 2 is a very alternative record (think more songs like Coloratura) and that Vol. 3 in a couple years could return to pop and collabs. This would please critics and fans and appeal to everyone over a 2-3 year period. If MOTS era is just Vol. 1, an EP and some live stuff, I'm really not gonna like it.

To clarify, I think some of the 2010 demo leaks we've heard really suggest Chris wanted to put out more stuff like ASFOS that leaned into pop EDM. Not saying that's ineherently bad, but I'm not a big fan personally of Coldplay when they veer too far from rock music, most of the time. Like the brief demo for Gold that leaked, for example, wasn't my cup of tea. And in terms of the drama of this "leaks" discussion... Look, I don't think anyone here should feel guilty or like they're doing something unethical by listening or sharing leaks. Leaks like this tend to only run in small fan circles and aren't going to commercially affect songs like "Break of Dawn" if they ever come out. If Coldplay cared enough about something like that, they'd hire a big firm to come after us. At the end of the day, these are lower quality demos by literally the wealthiest band in the world. I just don't see tangible harm here. And if there was harm, then it'd be up to us as individuals to choose whether they wanted to act on that. At this point, AHFOD is an old album, which feels weird to write. I reall hope we get a studio versions of some of these new/exclusive songs bc honestly I find them more interesting and better than most of MOTS Vol 1.

It's fascinating what AHFOD could have been -- it sounds to me like Chris writes songs and takes instrumental bits from the band to create mixes. Then I imagine they settle on their favorite songs and record in studio together to finalize the mix. My takeaways from the smaller leak are: Break of Dawn and the alt verison of AHFOD are very, very good. BoD reminds me a bit of this song. You have interesting percussion and guitar styles we've never heard from Coldplay and the songs have extremely powerful and catchy hooks. The album could have leaned more indie rock. It sounds like Break of Dawn, Up&Up, Set Me Free (aka Birds) all leaned into a fun brit-pop alt rock indie style. The album also could have been a cringey electro-pop mess. Forever, Whatever is extremely interesting -- it almost sounds like a Kanye song. But taken with Drunk & High, Legends, and this mix of Miracles, I think it sounds like they were going for a more modern pop, light and chillwave type of sound. In the end, we know that working with Stargate helped the band meld multiple genres on AHFOD into a pretty consistent package. However, these demos reveal some ideas that I think could have improved the era. I hope we eventually hear a completed The Race and Break of Dawn. And even some of the sonic concepts on Forever,Whatever would be interesting to hear on an upcoming volume of MOTS given the weird alien vocals.

To continue showering on the praise for X&Y, perhaps at the expense of of MOTS, I think the album does do a better job of giving a spacey feel than MOTS overall and I agree that the instrumentation is incredible -- Jonny has some sort of solo on nearly every song. The songs both simultaneously feel ambient and open while also having rich rock instrumentation. Guy and Will really take a step forward on that record. But the part of X&Y I want to highlight is how catchy it is! I know people argue over Oldplay vs. Newplay, but Oldplay had major pop appeal -- it's why people hated on them so much back then. The chorus and hooks on Square One, Talk, The Hardest Part, Speed of Sound, A Message, Fix You... all of those songs get stuck in your head. Now fast forward to MOTS, and what exactly is an earworm? I guess Higher Power a tiny bit, MU is too but it's SO repetitive, Humankind is also solid here. I think what concerns me with newer Coldplay is that the consistency in songwriting isn't there. Chris isn't writing as many "classics" and at this point, I'd say Coloratura is the only song on MOTS that's left a lasting impact on the majority of fans. And usually I don't care if the songs don't feel classic if they deliver good instrumentation, but on MOTS most of the instrumentals are sleepers for me. EDIT: Want to be clear that it's silly to make a 1x1 comparison between these two albums that are 16 years apart. The musical style is gonna change. But my argument is that the catchiness and pop appeal have faded for me.

It's hard to say -- I think there's a ton of people who really, really like it! And I don't want to be a bummer here. Personally when someone likes something I don't, I just get jealous because I want to see the merit in everything and enjoy it. I hope this album warms up to me, but it left little impact on me personally, but I might have different taste than others and that's okay! I'm thankful the band is trying new things, I just hope they can continue improving on some of the new musical ideas they're working with right now.

Good conversation and definitely appreciate everyone's thoughts! It's true that basically no Coldplay album is truly conceptual except maybe Ghost Stories. MX also was more understandable after they released the comic book, but that was really only for big fans to dive into deeper. Perhaps with more Volumes and videos we'll get a bit more clarity on the themes behind MOTS. I think the issue I have overall is how MOTS was marketed so heavily as a space album. I've almost forgotten that Alien Radio had different clips from around the world, featuring really interesting ideas and themes -- like maybe MOTS was gong to be the futuristic space sibling to Everyday Life -- but none of those clips or ideas made it into the album. The notes on spotify for each planet really seem to imply that very little thought went into why each planet was the way it was -- almost like it just came out of Chris' sketchbook. Why are there two vacation resort planets? Haha I do love the theme of "We are Allone in the universe" and "Everyone is an alien somehwhere" but reading MOTS lyrics doesn't really add up to me. AHFOD on the other hand I think does a good job having multiple songs about being uplifted and healing. The songs thematically work together from beginning to end, in my opinion, even if some of them aren't my favorite musically. Coloratura seems to be the only song that is interested in the universe and believing in love as the thing that keeps us together -- as some sort of magical place where "everyone's allowed." I get that LSG is the breakup song, Human Heart is the humanity song, POTP is the rebellious song, but what do they mean together? Hopefully we learn more soon!

I'm curious what people think about the anticipated Music of the Spheres Vol. 2 and Vol. 3. Personally, I'm feeling a bit miffed about how MOTS was supposed to tell a story and have metaphorical planets and how it basically dropped the ball completely on that promise. Sure, the planet concepts and alien languages are cool, but musically and lyrically the band seemed to put NO EFFORT into telling a story. I'd like to say the music videos are helping, but there's really not anything connecting HP to MU. Personally, I'm afraid the band is gonna keep on creating "planets" which are just random sounding pop songs for two more albums and we'll have three albums that don't really tell any story. I am coming into this question with a bias, as now that the album's been out for a month I think it's safe to say it's Coldplay's worst, and user scores and critic scores seem to agree. I'm glad the album is connecting with so many people but I think the concept feels empty. Will they improve on it?

Yeah I've found myself less inclined to listen to MOTS than any other Coldplay album, which bums me out and I can't tell if it's because of the music or just my taste. I agree that if a different band released the album, it would get better scores. But also, as an album, I think it's incredibly incohesive. It almost makes me want to improve my score for AHFOD and GS because even though there's parts of those albums I don't like, the albums are consistent in themes, tone, and overall instrumentation. MOTS is just too all over the place. The differences in sound between a track like Biutyful vs. Coloratura or Humankind vs. My Universe are incredibly jarring.

In my opinion, it's a terrible outcome for the evolution of Don Quixote yes. It seems Don Quixote wasn't the right song for MX, GS or AHFOD, so they took another stab with Life is Beautiful, which I think sounded like an absolute bop right up there with Charlie Brown, ETIAW for its amazing stadium rock vibes. Jonny's jangling plucked guitar and soaring chorus, the bouncy bass and fast drumming from Will. Not to mention the catchy synths, the breakdown, Chris' acoustic guitar. My hype for Infinite was huge. But for whatever reason, they took samples of Jonny's guitar from Life is Beautiful and put it into a similar song Humankind, which I think is great but not as great as what a studio LiB could have been. Then they took the synth and Ole Ole Ole and mashed it up into the bizarre Infinity track. I see some Coldplayers loving it, but in my opinion the drums are repetitive, the guitar is barely audible, the beat and chant feel awkward. I appreciate Coldplay trying to make an experimental track between My Universe and Coloratura, but boy I think they missed the mark. Had this song been LiB, I think I would have considered MOTS a much better record.

Very interesting. I could see this being mostly true but definitely things can always change. We're at a cool moment where we actually know the title of the next two albums (not specifically, but we know there will be Volumes and general themes!) Here's my guess: Oct. 15, 2021 -- MOTS Vol. 1 March - Aug 2022 -- MOTS World Tour Leg 1 April 2022 -- MOT Vol. 2 released, a quieter more alternative volume. Songs not necessarily played live. December 2022 -- MOTS Vol. 3 released, a bigger album, lots of collabs and singles 2023 -- Second leg of the MOTS tour worldwide. Era ends. 2024 -- Coldplay drops self-titled album and announces hiatus.

This is a fun mystery, but I'm not feeling like they're going to change the formula much on Vol. 2. However, it will be interesting to see how the many negative critical reviews will effect anything. Probably not, but you have to imagine the label is like "hey guys, press isn't great on this." Here's a brainstorm of possibilities for Volumes 2 and 3 Personally, I think it will be two full albums coming in the next 1-2 years that follow the same template. There will be huge singles with modern pop production featuring big artists. But, there will still be surprises -- more Viva/MX demos, maybe more harder rock songs, the occasionally stadium rock song like Humankind, sappy love songs. This will be the one Coldplay era with the most songs & most diversity in music, but it will overall get poor reviews and mixed reactions from fans.

So I was thinking last night why MOTS feels like a solid but incomplete album to me, and then it hit. Jonny. I hadn't taken into account how little impact Jonny has on this album as a whole. So I went back to every Coldplay album and asked myself, "does this song have a notable Jonny moment?" That means it could be a guitar solo (e.g. Paradise, Don't Panic) or it could be a driving presence of guitar throughout the song (e.g. A Whisper, Strawberry Swing, Ink). This is subjective, obviously, but the differences are stark. I am excluding all interlude tracks from the count (MMIX, MX, MOTS), including important thematic tracks like Kaleidoscope, and short tracks on EL. The tracks I think don't have much Jonny guitar at all are in parentheses. Songs with Jonny Parachutes -- 8 of 9 songs (Parachutes) AROBTTH -- 9 of 11 songs (Clocks and Amsterdam -- Jonny's guitar is very muted) X&Y - 12/13 (Til Kingdom Come) Viva - 8/10 (LiT and Viva La Vida) MX - 10/11 (UFO) GS - 6/9 (Midnight, O, and Oceans) AHFOD - 8/9 ( Army of One) EL - 9 of 12 (Daddy, Cry Cry Cry, Guns) note, this one is tough because I'd argue Jonny does additional acoustic guitar on Eko and Old Friends, so I'm counting those. I'm not counting Sunrise, WOTP/POTP, BrokEn, or WINAF Mots - 3 of 9 (Higher Power, Let Somebody Go, Biutyful, Human Heart, Infinite, My Universe) Now obviously there are other elements that make some of these songs great without Jonny. Guy for example, has great moments on MOTS. However, I find it pretty wild that on 6 of the 9 songs on MOTS, his presence is barely felt. Arguably, there's only one guitar solo on the whole album -- Coloratura. People of the Pride's solo is very muddy and hard to hear.

I'm hoping there's a secondary leg of the tour, maybe to follow up Vol. 2. The closest show to me would require a plane ride. Given the extra cost of flying + staying somehwere, and the extra carbon footprint, I'm going to wait this out! Though having spent $230 on a AHFOD tour ticket for medium-tier seats, I'm surprised how much cheaper it is on this tour!

Good analysis! I agree it seems like MOTS is an extension of EL especially in the theme of togetherness, one people, inclusiveness, world languages etc. I will likely always think of these albums together despite their stark production differences. The more I think about it, the more I'm kind of angry they did a space theme but didn't deliver any narrative. There's not ONE song that actually discusses the "planet" in a tangible way except Coloratura. Honestly, they could have named this album "Music of the Pizzas" and had songs like "Hawaiian" "Pepperoni" and they still just would have been love songs that have nothing to do with pizza. Instead they went with spheres, but it has nothing to do with planets or space.

Oldplayer here! I've been on the forums since 2010 (used to have another profile that I got locked out of) and I wanted to send off my thoughts on MOTS before I likely take a break from doing this sort of forum thing! It's nice to see everyone's reactions to the album and that there's a lot of different faves. First up my longer written thoughts: Track x Track Thoughts/Review

Hey all, I'm bored waiting for the new album to drop, so thought it'd be fun for folks to share what they think Coldplay will perform during a MOTS world tour era. This is particularly tricky because with nine albums out and the band historically performing tight two-hour shows, it is hard to imagine how they play all of their hits while still leaving room for moments that feel intimate, unique and pleasing to old-school fans who have seen them before and don't want to hear the same setlist. There's also the question of whether the tour set up will be like AHFOD, with A,B, and C stages or if they'll do a 360 stage like U2 did a while back. Finally, a question hanging over me: Will they perform anything from fan favorite Everyday Life? There are no rules to this! this can be your dream set list or it can be your realistic prediction! Putting mine in spoilers as an example.

Eh I think a lot of us still on here are old-timers who still like the formatting of this forum. I also got turned on to Discord before Everyday Life dropped and that seems to be the place where discussion is moving. Also Reddit and Twitter have become more active. So hard to know if there's less hype or if people are just more distributed.

At this point, I'm confused about what constitutes a single 2021 since artists are constantly dropping songs leading up to albums, but I assume so far Higher Power and My Universe are promotional singles while Coloratura is just an album track. So with that in mind, I think Let Somebody Go HAS to be the next single since it features Selena Gomez. Perhaps once My Universe starts dipping in the charts, they could release it as another shot at hitting #1. Maybe a few weeks after the album is out they'll put out a video or some way of promoting it.

I've always listened to leaks! My philosophy is this: If I get hit by a bus the day before the album drops, I don't want to miss the opportunity. Plus others listen the leaks so it's not like I'm missing out on the shared moment & discussion. I specifically remember listening to GS on a Tuesday before it came out, then AHFOD on the day after Thanksgiving in 2015 while I was running errands. I listened to EL a think on the Wednesday before it dropped early in the morning as the sun rose, which was magical. I don't recall if MX leaked, but like MOTS we'd heard like half the album by then... Edit: And yes, I guess it's technically stealing BUT I do end up buying/streaming these songs a thousand times and delete the leak as soon as the album's out.

Dang! I was not expecting the song to have a beat like that. Interesting.. I guess it's continuing that trend of doing the 80's style but with very modern production. It sounds like a groovier Everglow.

I am so so excited to hear Humankind and Infinity now given they are going to be stadium rock songs (most likely, we'll see how Infinity plays out). I fell in love with Coldplay during the Viva and MX eras where there was a huge focus on acoustic guitar arena rock songs and singalong chants and I'm really anxious to hear how they modify that in 2021. On the RS review, I wonder if the reviewer felt that Biutyful and MU are weaker just because they stray away from the alt-rock songs of the rest of the album? I do think Coldplay has had an issue ever since AHFOD of having inconsistent sounds on their records or songs that genre-wise don't quite compliment the other songs around it. For example, HP, MU and Coloratura are all pretty dang different in their own respects, but at least have a rock backing to them. Maybe Biutyful is gonna be really poppy & electronic compared to the rest of the album?

After hearing the live version, I'm curious how folks think the song will be received for it's lyrical content/message. I'll put my thoughts in spoilers!

Again, entirely all subjective though I think occasionally as folks have pointed out some songs just straight up have mixing problems. What's exciting is that Taylor Swift and other artists are laying the groundwork for music re-releases, so basically re-recording songs and albums. So far, I've found the updated Taylor Swift albums to have better production and layers than the originals, and we can probably attribute that to modern technology & more expensive production value. I do hope Coldplay re-releases some old material, whether demos or revamped songs. X&Y has been talked about for a while and I actually love how that album sounds, but I'd be extremely interested in hearing them re-do it. Also, as Chris has mentioned songs like UFO 2 and UATW could make a comeback and it's my belief that with the Dream Team + folks like Max Martin and Jacob Collier, they could make some of their old songs truly spectacular and take them to the next level.