42Escapist

Gravity vs Everyday Life

It looks like people are really beginning to doubt that Coldplay is behind the postcards and poster in London. But I can't think of who else would be doing it at all. Maybe it's like those random monoliths people were building around the world. Whatever this is, it's pretty neat. Definitely feels like Coldplay because it's not too different from what they did when they teased Everyday Life. It's just awfully soon after they first launched the Alien Radio teaser site and social media accounts. And it's worth noting that the Alien Radio social media accounts have been silent for about a week. It could be that they're trying to shift the focus to the postcards. It could be that Higher Power comes from Kaotica but these postcards are supposed to be from aliens on a completely different planet, so naturally they're giving these new teasers a different aesthetic as opposed to what they used for Higher Power and Alien Radio. ?

Oh, wow! ? That unknown song sounds really cool, even though it's just a little sketch. And yes! I hear Jon Hopkins all over that ambient intro music. It totally sounds like something he would create with Coldplay.

It's my favorite of the two new songs. Not that Higher Power hasn't grown on me, but I love this kind of experimental stuff from Coldplay. Even though Chris was technically the only band member participating ? I'm hoping KING show up in the album version. I had never heard of them before but I loved their parts in Human Heart.

Human Heart vs Daddy

Coldplay's set starts 56 minutes into the stream and this link still works. You can replay the entire stream if you like.

I'm really thinking that Music of the Spheres intro is probably going to be the first track on the album, just like Mylo Xyloto before Hurts Like Heaven. The first proper song will probably be Higher Power. It sounds so cool, like a combination of MMIX and the O intro in Always In My Head. Jon Hopkins probably had something to do with this song because it definitely sounds like something he would have worked on. Human Heart was really good. It's like When I Need A Friend but without the Gregorian chant vibes. Very haunting, very touching, very ethereal. Far more experimental than I expected. At the same time, KING's contribution to Human Heart reminds me of BrokEn, except with only two extra singers instead of the Love Choir. Which is interesting because BrokEn fills the gap between Trouble In Town (which ends with the sound of a heartbeat) and Daddy (which begins with the same heartbeat that continues throughout the song). It's basically... a broken heart. Just a little observation I had. ?

Alright, I finally got to watch it. Very good performance, I loved it so much. The visuals were spectacular and as any Coldplay fan probably knows, they love that kind of stuff. They sounded amazing and I loved how much fun they were having with it. It's not Glastonbury without a ton of rain so it's fitting that they had to play in the pouring rain... as well as to a ton of Worthy Farm cows ? The Music of the Spheres ambient intro was really cool. Sounds like a mixture of MMIX and the bit of O that plays at the beginning of Always In My Head. Higher Power sounded better than ever. The Scientist was great as always. Viva la Vida was great as always. The new song Human Heart was beautiful... I definitely hear the similarity to When I Need A Friend but this is even more ethereal and haunting, with much less of the Gregorian chant kind of vibes. I really like it. Clocks was amazing and I think they've probably broken their own record of how many lasers they used... and that's saying something ? The transition into Fix You was cool, reminded me of Live 2012. The song itself was great as always, looks like they're no longer doing it with the acoustic guitar like they did in the Everyday Life era shows so it sounds like it always did before the AHFOD tour when they changed it up. A Sky Full of Stars isn't one of my favorite Coldplay songs but it ended up fitting into the set pretty well and the visuals were once again spectacular. I liked the "I'm gonna die on Worthy Farm" bit ? And the message of peace at the beginning of the song was fitting. I'm watching Damon Albarn's set right now and he's also sounding great.

Same here. I can't wait to watch this at some point... been dealing with an annoying internet outage all day so I haven't been able to watch anything, and I was really looking forward to both Coldplay and Damon Albarn's sets ?

Cemeteries of London vs Major Minus

Higher Power (Zhu Remix) vs Orphans

I've been listening to a bunch of New Order for the first time over the last few days and Coldplay could learn a thing or two from their songwriting if they want to do 80s synthpop. Alternatively, Coldplay could take inspiration from Depeche Mode. They already did with Anton Corbijn's alternate music video for Viva la Vida because it's a tribute to the video for Enjoy The Silence (also directed by Anton Corbijn). And I know for a fact that Chris is a fan... https://pitchfork.com/news/rock-hall-2020-depeche-mode-honored-by-arcade-fire-coldplay-chvrches-zz-top-members/

Honestly, this entire plot synopsis would make for an amazing space rock opera. It kind of reminds me of the MX story from the comics. I really need to read this... I'm gonna try and track it down because I love this kind of science fiction.

Church vs Always In My Head

Look at the animation on the top left of the screen around the very end of the video from 3:25 to 3:28... It reminds me of one of the symbols on Chris's shoulder during the American Idol and Brits performances of Higher Power. It also reminds me of this particular image from an article that talks about the concept of the music of the spheres. https://www.crystalinks.com/harmonyspheres.html And look what's in the Ghost Stories cover art... You can see it animated in much of this video, which is a snippet from the visual album version of Ghost Stories that was available for streaming on iTunes around a week before the actual album was released. As the object gets bigger it greatly resembles the aforementioned animation from the end of the Higher Power lyric video... Also, fun fact, the object has a bunch of lyrics on it from the album, and some of them are very similar to lyrics from The Race. You can see them in this old post from @Batman in a thread I made about this back in 2014. There's also the phrase "every human life is irreplaceable, therefore it is a gift."

I like this kind of concept album. Or really any concept album because everything ties together in some way. I guess it makes sense that a planet called Kaotica isn't exactly a happy place to live. I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being a metaphor for the experience of being an outcast. Someone who's a social reject may live among other people but feel like they're living alone on a distant planet. If that's the theme of Kaotica, then perhaps Higher Power is supposed to be about what it's like when somebody in that situation finds someone who reaches out to them. Somebody who tries to make them feel wanted and accepted.

The Scientist vs 42

Difficult... The Scientist vs In My Place

Chinese Sleep Chant vs A Whisper

Gravity vs X&Y

Careful Where You Stand vs See You Soon

Amsterdam vs A Rush of Blood to the Head

We Never Change vs Green Eyes

Gravity vs Everything's Not Lost

What If vs Moving to Mars