42Escapist

iAAM vs Atlas

Man in the Moon vs Champion of the World

There was also the animated musical film that was scrapped. It lived on as a comic strip, but as an animation fan I think it could've been really cool. The storyline is fresh enough in the band's mind that the video for My Universe brings back the evil alien Silencers who ban all music. The title Alien Radio dates back to MX and it was reused. Aiko is still around.

I do think iAAM is pretty good. It sounds so much like DAAHF. Right down to the production, which is strange for this era of the band's career. When Jonny's solo starts a couple minutes in, I'm practically expecting Chris to start singing "no I don't wanna battle from beginning to end..." The "Full Moon" edition of I Am A Mountain sounds like one of the old leaked Viva demos. Just Chris + his piano works surprisingly well. 🌈, the title track, One World, The Karate Kid, and A Wave are also highlights for me. However, as for the rest of the album + the Full Moon version... so much of it is unlistenable. It's a shame because I think they actually had about an EP's worth of decent material and could have gone the Prospekt's March route instead of lumping it in with something as bland as Good Feelings. It would've helped to remove Max Martin from the equation.

Aiko was one of the names on Chris' piano during the MX era. It's also the name of a character in the MX universe: Mylo's father and a founder of the rebel group known as the Car Kids. So Aiko has probably been a separate song this whole time. I wonder why they'd revisit the MX lore for just one song, though...

I was messing around with FaceApp, a photo editing app that includes a feature where you can morph two different faces together. An idea occurred to me after I saw a photo that was apparently the face of all five members of Radiohead combined into one. I decided to try it with Coldplay. I morphed Will's face with Chris's. Then, I morphed Guy's face with Jonny's. Finally, I morphed those two images together and combined it with Phil's face (because we shouldn't forget about Phil) This was the result. This is what happens when Coldplay fuses together into one person ?

Apart from Coloratura, POTP is my favorite of the new songs. It reminds me of One I Love, GPASUYF, Major Minus, and Violet Hill in particular. The lyrics in particular are some of the coolest Chris has ever written... on par with the best of VLVODAAHF. Which makes sense, doesn't it? The Man Who Swears had some amazing lyrics and deserved to be revisited like this.

I've always thought it'd be cool to make VLVODAAHF a double album. The first disc would be Viva la Vida and it'd be less dark, the other would be Death And All His Friends and it'd have a track listing much like this one Here's my idea: Viva la Vida: Life In Technicolor Glass of Water Lovers In Japan (Osaka Sun Mix) Strawberry Swing Famous Old Painters The Goldrush Chinese Sleep Chant Postcards From Far Away Rainy Day Reign of Love Viva la Vida Death And All His Friends: Violet Hill Cemeteries of London Lost! Lhuna Death Will Never Conquer Yes 42 A Spell A Rebel Yell Prospekt's March/Poppyfields Death And All His Friends The Escapist

According to this, they soundchecked Humankind ? https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/coldplay/2021/great-lawn-in-central-park-new-york-ny-138da92d.html

To be fair, they have been changing Fix You over the last several years. They gave it a more electronic arrangement in 2016 that sampled Midnight and added a string section backing track. They used it through the end of the AHFOD tour. Then, in late 2019 and very early 2020, they did a more acoustic arrangement that sounded more like something off of Everyday Life. The Glastonbury 2021 live stream had the original version. Now they're using the Midnight version again. They've been changing GPASUYF ever since the version from the Viva tour. It'll probably sound different once again if they decide to keep playing it. In My Place was stripped-down on the AHFOD tour and by the end of the tour, they had Will singing it instead of Chris. The Sirius XM broadcast the other night had a new acoustic version of Yellow. But other than that... I see what you mean. They aren't exactly going and re-arranging all the popular songs that get played on every tour. Just a couple songs here and there. Still the same Clocks, The Scientist, Viva la Vida, etc.

Something very interesting to note is that according to the excerpts from Chris's notes in the pop-up edition of Mylo Xyloto, lyrics from The Man Who Swears are listed under the title Major Minus. It's on the seventh image here: https://www.coldplayzone.it/album/i-retroscena-di-mylo-xyloto And there are lyrical similarities between both The Man Who Swears and the finished version of Major Minus, as well as People of the Pride. There's an underlying theme about an egotistical villain in a story about a revolution. So this is actually the second song to come from The Man Who Swears, rather than the first.

Wow... The Man Who Swears lives on. Sounds like something off of AROBTTH. One I Love. A Muse song. Yet it has Viva-era lyrics and similar vibes to Trouble In Town and Guns. I'm probably gonna have this one on repeat. I doubt the studio version will beat Coloratura, but this is definitely my second favorite of the new songs.

Took a short trip with my girlfriend to Las Vegas for the weekend and went to the iHeartRadio festival on Saturday. Second time I've seen the band now, and I still haven't seen a regular tour concert but oh well. It was fun, pretty short but it's nice to see them again. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about how good Fix You and Human Heart sounded... and nothing beats the Viva la Vida singalong when you're in the crowd. So good. I think the set was so short because of the time slot that iHeartRadio had given them, not because of what the band wanted. Billie Eilish's set was around the same length. Chris even said something like "okay, enough of my chit-chat, we only have 6 minutes." They'll probably be back to 2 hour concerts when the MOTS tour finally happens.

Hurts Like Heaven vs Violet Hill

Proof sounds a lot like Gravity. But Gravity is superior.

Well, this just changed. Now the ASFOS EP, which included the Ghost Stories bonus tracks, is on Spotify here in the US. Just added a couple days ago. Funny coincidence ? Ghost Story in particular is on par with Oldplay. No question. It's darker than most Oldplay, but the actual instrumentation doesn't sound too different from songs like GPASUYF and AROBTTH. All Your Friends sounds like a fusion between Viva and Ghost Stories, with war-themed lyrics, electronic beats from Will, a prominent yet somber bassline from Guy, ethereal guitars, and ambient sounds throughout. It's pretty good.

I'm not sure if Proof is on Spotify anywhere in the world. Here in the US, they took it down a couple years ago. I don't think the Ghost Stories bonus tracks were ever available. But at least most of the B-sides and EP tracks are available. Even obscure ones like A Spell A Rebel Yell.

This makes me think they're saving as much material as they can for MOTS Vol. 2, whether it's an album or an EP.

Coloratura really does seem so grandiose that the band might shy away from playing it. It reminds me of Hypnotised, and they have only played Hypnotised once--a stripped down version with zero backing tracks. It reminds me of Moving to Mars and All I Can Think About Is You, which have been played only once. I hope we get to hear Coloratura live in all its glory, since they do make use of plenty of backing tracks in their live sets. But I don't know, something about it makes me doubt they'll ever play a full 10 minute live version.

I'd love a deluxe edition like what they did with Ghost Stories. A lot of artists release deluxe editions with bonus tracks. But I doubt they'll do this since a MOTS Volume 2 is likely on the way at some point, whether it's another full album or an EP like Prospekt's March and Kaleidoscope.

Jonny's guitar tone in Coloratura is just so gorgeous and it's even easier to tell with this isolated track. He may not be a technical virtuoso, but he's one of those guitarists like The Edge who is just so good at creating such a beautiful guitar tone. And it does wonders for Coldplay's sound.

I'm fine either way as long as the bonus track is at least available to stream worldwide. I just hope they wouldn't wait until a year later to make it available outside of Japan, like they did with Flags.

Do they ever get around to releasing Car Kids or The Race? ? Hmmm... I love MOTS. I always tend to love the little ambient interludes, intros, outros, etc on Coldplay albums. But Higher Power... ehh. It's not one of the better opening songs. But then again, it may grow on me. Coloratura is a gorgeous closer, though. Currently my favorite of the bunch. It's like Muse's Exogenesis Symphony at the end of the Resistance album, which is super long but also beautiful. Openers: Square One Politik Life In Technicolor Sunrise Mylo Xyloto/Hurts Like Heaven Don't Panic Always In My Head Music of the Spheres/Higher Power A Head Full of Dreams Closers: Coloratura Death And All His Friends/The Escapist Twisted Logic/Til Kingdom Come Amsterdam Everything's Not Lost/Life Is For Living Fly On/O Everyday Life Up&Up Up With The Birds

It's interesting that Humankind and Human Heart are both on an album that's set in another solar system. Makes me think the whole album is meant to be an allegory for the diversity and beauty of our own planet. Sometimes people on our own planet feel so far away, as if they do not live in our world, yet we are still one. And, as the great astrophysicist and astronomer Carl Sagan suggested, we are one with the stars as well, because we are made from them.

And the live version of In My Place. I think he got to sing Don't Panic too during the AHFOD tour. But it'd be so great for Will to sing on a studio track. I hoped he'd sing Champion of the World when the song title was first revealed.