lennyrott1

Man I forgot how intensely anti-mainstream pop this forum can be haha I'm an oldplayer and just wanna make it clear: I love Dua, Lil Nas X, Cardi B, Billie Eilish, Beyonce, Rihanna, Ariana Grande. I think we're living in a moment where pop stars feel truly talented and interested in pushing bounderies again, and I listen to pop music quite regularly along with alternative music (metal, punk, hip-hop, indie). I say this not as a prescription for you all, but just as an unashamed proclamation that some folks can like Coldplay and other brands of music, and that's okay. But that said, I like your post and metaphor Doomotron. I agree that most big name collabs in Coldplay's career haven't gone their way. Just to go over names Princess of China actually has a cool instrumental but lyrically it's complete trash and the song mostly is "oh-oh-ohs." A Sky Full Of Stars leans too heavily into Avicii's branding and makes Jonny, Guy and Will toothless on the song. HFTW is probably my favorite of all these, but I think it has a kinda boring chorus and they should have used Beyonce more. And Fun with Tove Lo is just boring. Tove Lo really adds nothing but soft backup vocals and the song itself should have been a B-side. And don't get me started on SJLT. There's no promise a Dua collab would break this mold. But I also wanna uplfit what others have said, including Everyday Life, because we should remember collabs can also mean smaller artists like Norah Shaqur, Jon Hopkins, the LOVE choir and more. So it's okay to not like big pop artists, but also let's remember that Coldplay for the last decade has been a band very interested in collabs and that likely won't change. If Dua gets announced for a huge pop song, fingers crossed its good. If Jon Hopkins helps produce some spacey ambient songs, awesome.

If I may try to break through the tension here -- I'd like both of those things ? I love Dua Lipa and think she's a real star. Future Nostalgia was a terrific album that bleneded modern pop sounds, perfect pop hooks/singalong choruses, and fun throwback intsrumentation. I also think the albums Ken Nelson worked on had THE BEST sounding recordings in Coldplay's entire career. The instrumentation feels like it's right in your face, the guitars are punchy, and the atmosphere feels alive. Ken Nelson probably is not coming back but a Dua collab is possible. They did tour together way back when. I think having her as a feature would be awesome but I'd also love some return to the feel of Oldplay.

For sure they sound bland and dull for now but it's only one small portion of the song. I totally share your concern as lyrics can really bring down Coldplay songs sometimes. My only defense is that Will's door has allowed lyrics in the past decade like: "spiderman's control, and batman with his fists" and "how come cars don't slow" and "all i know, is that i love you so, so much that it hurts" and "could have been a princess, you'd be a king, could have had a castle, worn a ring but NOO Oo O O O oo "

So hard to glean anything from this snippet, but agree that it has instant Mylo vibes. The melody feels pretty simple and lullabyish, but like it could be building to something more catchy and epic. Who knows if it's even a piano song! I'm sticking with my guess that they're returning to a pop alt-rock style similar to Mylo but this time instead of the Brian-eno xylobryte/ambient wall of sound, they'll do more new-wave style. New wave has made a huge comeback recently with Dua Lipa, Miley Cyrus, the Weeknd and now Justin Bieber to some extent. So I'm guessing there'll be some singles with big synths, maybe something that has super modern production with the help of Max Martin. Chris has always been a huge fan of 80's legends like A-Ha and Peter Gabriel. This style is perfect for modern pop singles but also lends itself to alternative tracks: big synth prog-rock sounds and post-punk. Maybe they could have a super-spacey ambient song with Jon Hopkins or some other electronic producer but then some straight up rock songs inspired by 80's rock bands like Journey, Van Halen, The Cars, Queen, Journey. At this point I feel like we can expect every Coldplay album to have 1-3 pop music swings including a feature, 1-2 slower ballads, 1-3 more alt tracks, some interludes and a few random unexpected songs.

Aww hell yeah! I love Brittany Howard. She's so incredibly talented and it'd be amazing if she'd work with the band in the future, but this was probably a Grammys-designed thing.

For the Grammy's my best guess is Chris will get the LOVE Choir to help out as I think they're LA based. So maybe they'll do Cry Cry Cry or BrokEn -- something similar to the stripped-back NPR Tiny Desk Performance. My second best guess is that he's collaborating with other artists to do some sort of tribute song. It'll be interesting to see how the performances go this year. If COVID never happened imagine the whole band performing Arabesque with Femi Kuti and and an orchestra and melting all our faces.

Oh right -- I forgot he mentioned it during the Instagram. BRING IT FORTH!

I sometimes worry they "technically" have released it when they did those Amazon Music live songs. Or has Chris said anything after this came out? https://www.amazon.com/US-AGAINST-WORLD-LIVE-LEIPZIG/dp/B07JJFHY6J

So my read of the copyright situation is this: It seems like Music of the Spheres, like Los Unidades, is specifically for releasing music (audio recording). MYLO and VIVA DEPORTES, on the other hand, seem to be brands/logos that could be put on physical materials -- shirts, handbags, bracelets etc. I don't think this signifies MX2 or anything Viva related. I instead think it could be part of a roll out of new merch or reissues the band wants to sell in their shop or do in partnership with other orgs. Oct. 19 2021 will be the 10th Anniversary of MX, so maybe they're celebrating with a re-release of the album featuring unreleased tracks or demos? Or maybe just some merchandise that says "MYLO" will be incorporatd in their next tour. One theory I liked was that Viva Deportes could be related to World Cup or Olympics -- maybe Coldplay has been asked to do a song or set of songs with artists across the world to celebrate.

^I totally agree with your ideas for inspiration for LP9. New Wave sounds/80's pop-rock is coming back in style and I think Coldplay could kill it. Though for the record, I absolutely love WAP and think it's one of the best tracks of 2020. But I agree that Coldplay's strength has always been in making more emotional sounding rock music. It isn't to say that there have been some awesome experiments over the past decade that I really enjoy, but "newplay," if I can use that term, is less consistent with fans and critics. EL was a return to form in my opinion, but was still a bizarre album. I hope it's a sign that the band will get back "to basics," which doesn't mean making MX2 or X&Y2 or even a Parachutes sounding record. I just mean making a mostly rock record that's about 42 minutes long, where songs transition nicely into one another and there's consistent inspiration front-to-back. We could still get a Dua-featuring banger, but hopefully 8 or 9 of the 12 tracks are actually alternative rock. Overall though, I like these ideas floating around of taking some of the loud rock/ambience of X&Y and combining it with some of the electronic elements and pop-hooks of GS & MX. But using past Coldplay records as a predictor has never really worked haha. My dream today is a veritable rock opera that tells a consistent story about characters flying through the solar system. Guitar solos, heavy riffs, moments of serene, beautiful ambience. Propulsive percussion.

^Yup!! I find this era so fascinating. They release their best album with Viva La Vida and head straight back into the studio with Brian Eno to work on more material. Some of their best songs since Viva (ALIENS, Arabesque, Charlie Brown) all came from this time period. My hope is that they will rework more demos from that time as it really was the "creative height" of their career, in my humble opinion. I'm sure they are always going back to pull old ideas out of the attic, but I also really wish they'd pull a radiohead and drop all their old demos from that time. I WANT CHARLIE BROWN WITH ACCORDIAN NOW.

Okay so if I can just fantasy speculate real quick. Others mentioned this way back in the thread and sufjan stevens already did this, but how cool would it be if the album was actually solar system themed and each track found ways to incorporate the ACTUAL music of the spheres (some of the odd frequencies and sounds that come from planets). So the track listing could include: Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. You could also have other tracks like UFO, Galaxies, Moons, Etc. Earth could maybe just be a reworked version of Life Is Beautiful and the whole album would sound like a rock opera -- tons of spacey MX/X&Y synth sounds but with some of the grand, rootsy, classical sounds of VLV. Producers could include Brian Eno, Jon Hopkins, Markus Dravs, Madeon, and maybe some other special guests like they had on AHFOD to do backup vocals or to add extra guitar. Okay fantasy over. It's safe to say that the album will probs be very mainstream and my fantasy would be way more alternative and with few, if any, singles.

^Well said. At this point the COVID crisis continues to reach it's worst levels here in the U.S. and there still could be more political violence. From an artistic standpoint, I wonder how Chris' songwriting over the past year and how that might affect MOTS, assuming it would be a more pop, happy-go-lucky sound. I agree that the next album cycle won't role out until there's enough time to announce and plan a tour, which could easily be in 2022 at this point. That said, I always wonder what prevents the band from releasing other music in the meantime. Like imagine they drop an EP this month that has some dark/political songs inspired by recent events, or some unifying song that ties into the global pandemic. Then they could move on to the new album cycle when it makes sense. With so many artists releasing a ton of music and b-sides and remixes this year, idk why Coldplay tends to be so secretive and quiet.

I would love for them to pull a Taylor Swift and drop two albums next year. I'm sure they have enough songs to scrape together. But I doubt it... they probably have a big rollout plan for Music of the Spheres (or just LP9) and tour ideas ready to go that they want to stick to.

Interesting. It'll also be the 10-Year Anniversary of MX this October, so it's possible they are also working on a re-release or remaster featuring some unheard b-sides. But I don't know. Coldplay doesn't strike me as a band that would do a re-release, greatest hits, or a sequel to a former album. Overall I'd be really excited if the Music Of The Spheres is a spiritual sequel to MX mirroring VLV and EL, @I ran away I still predict MOS will be a pop rock album that has some singles going for a shiny, atmospheric 80's revival vibes and dance grooves. Given the success of The Weeknd, Dua Lipa, Doja Cat, etc, I could envision Coldplay bringing back the sounds of New Order, Duran Duran, A-Ha. MX had some 80's/Springsteen elements imo, especially on charlie brown.

GIVE US THE MUSIC GUY. I hope he says "me gusta" to the new music and not to his shoes & pants.

Yeah I've really enjoyed the instagram lives this year. It'd be cool for them to do another one and actually tease some new music or even perform a new song to get the pot stirred going into next year.

^I can try my best... Here are my main takeaways of what's a certainty, sorry for not including links: We know LP9 WILL HAPPEN. An interview last year from an executive at their record label said the band is hoping to follow up Everyday Life with a more standard Coldplay album as soon as possible. The band has acknowledged the tease in the Everyday Life lyric book which shows a billboard saying "Music of the Spheres, Coldpay coming soon...." This has led most folks to assume LP9 will be Music of the Spheres, but we do not know this for sure. The band is in studio and has been in studio. Whether it was the iHeartRadio festival or the Instagram live performances, or Instagram posts from producer Rik Simpson, we know the band has been together and that means likely writing and recording. Some sub speculation. One Insta post from the band earlier this year showed a guitar with tape on it that said "Rescue St." which was a scrapped song from the Mylo Xyloto era. This seems to suggest Chris was playing it. During his solo Instagram lives, Chris hinted at a "new song" and "we have another song called UFO..." suggesting new music recording. On the most recent insta live with the full band, Chris mentioned wanting to be "let out of their cage," suggesting frustration over how long COVID-19 has persisted and his desire to perform live. Guy Berryman has confirmed in a few interviews that the band is working on their next album and are excited to tour but obviously want to wait out the pandemic and find ways to make touring more environmentally friendly (carbon neutral/negative ideally). Phil Harvey has been extra active on social media this year and seemed to acknowledge fan speculation on Music of the Spheres and confirmed "the race" will be released one day.

I think that the monolith thing IS something that Coldplay would do and is a brilliant PR stunt (if that's what it ends up being). However, I think this is a classic copycat scenario. The first one in Utah was estimated to have been there for years and technically it's installation was illegal. The next one is Romania looked very different. Then the next one in CA was again installed illegally. Now the one in England is again illegally put up. Coldplay wouldn't do a tease or promotion without working with the necessary parties. Most likely it's artists across the world doing imitations and playing into the hype.

Very cool! I'd totally forgotten about this. That intro is pure bliss to me. MX is Coldplay's most fascinating album imo because it has such a weird, unique, colorful undertones to each track but they made some choices to bury those instrumentals under melody driven pop music. The MX instrumentals/reprises you can find on youtube are so frigging cool. I PRAY that one day this album gets a re-release with demos and alternate versions like this one above. I think critics never realized how unique this record was.

Nah I think 11/5 probably never meant anything... U.S. is daily adding record COVID-19 cases. The rest of this year is looking grim and I suspect much of 2021 will be the same. We're really gonna be delayed here folks.

^ 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.