42Escapist

Isn't the music of the spheres an idea of the construction of the cosmos? The same is true of the flower of life on the cover of AHFOD. Creation and destruction, as well as life and death, are themes of more than one Coldplay album. The Viva album begins with Life In Technicolor, ends with Death And All His Friends, and then goes full circle with The Escapist, which is sampled in the beginning of Life In Technicolor. The Ghost Stories album likewise goes full circle, from the snippet of O in Always In My Head to O at the very end of the album. Everyday Life begins with Sunrise and elements of Sunrise also appear in the title track at the very end... aren't sunrise and sunset just part of an ongoing cycle that will go on forever as long as the Earth orbits the sun? I can imagine that similar themes will show up on forthcoming albums. I have no doubt. The number 3 has so much religious significance, and Coldplay already touched on religious symbolism in AHFOD (with Hinduism and the Sufism of Rumi) as well as Everyday Life, with its message that we are all connected. And the message that we are all connected doesn't even require you to be religious in order for it to resonate with you. I like this a lot. All of these song titles sound like something Coldplay would use. Aviators continues the ongoing theme of flight. Bermuda Triangle is about the unknown in the universe. Black Hole refers to a celestial object. 3.14 comes from pi, which is connected to circles and spheres. A Telescope is used to look at the stars. Magnets refer to a force in nature, magnetism, that can appear as the magnetic field of a planet. Angels and Demons are types of spiritual beings that transcend the three-dimensional universe we know. Spheres appear throughout the cosmos. Alchemy is about creation and the fundamental building blocks of nature. And Ruins of the World references destruction... but destruction is followed by creation, and the remnants of a supernova can be the building blocks of a new star with new planets.

It's interesting that you mentioned alchemy. Don't quote me on this because I can't remember the source, but I remember reading that the working title of Ghost Stories was Alchemy. And Chris said this back in 2014, probably in reference to how he coped with his divorce: "Music, especially over the last couple of years has been very alchemising. I mean, if you are going through something difficult in life or whatever and music for me is always a friend and something that helps me figure things out." https://i.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/10228957/Chris-Martins-music-alchemy He also said this during an interview with Zane Lowe back in 2014. I found the quote in the Ghost Stories Wikipedia article: "The idea of Ghost Stories, for me, was "how do you let the things that happen to you in the past – your ghosts – how do you let them affect your present and your future?" Because there was a time when I was feeling like they were going to drag me down and ruin my life, and the lives of those around me. I was very lucky to meet a very good sufi teacher who started to introduce the idea of "if you sit with your experiences and the things you've been through, they alchemize." At the time he said that, I didn't really know what that meant, but I trusted that it would work, and the more that I was learning about that, the more music just started flowing through."

A few months ago, Liam Gallagher did his Live On The River Thames set. It was entirely pre-recorded, edited, and then streamed "live." Makes sense, considering the entire set was played on a moving boat with fireworks and other visual bells and whistles. Maybe this will be similar. But yeah, and when Coldplay did the Jordan live streams, they also pre-recorded Old Friends. It was filmed in an entirely different spot with just Chris and Jonny. And during the AHFOD tour, a bunch of songs had pre-recorded piano and acoustic guitar parts that Chris wouldn't even play. The "choir" during the chorus of Up&Up was pre-recorded too. I guess they just don't like having extra musicians onstage outside of special occasions. I would be completely fine with them having a touring keyboard player. I would be completely fine with them having a touring rhythm guitarist. Lots of very popular bands do that. Sometimes the touring musician is off to the side and doesn't have stage lights on them so the focus is on the main band members... but you can still see them. If you watch Yellow in Live 2003, apparently that's Chris's guitar tech playing the acoustic guitar offstage so that Chris himself can roam around the stage more. Oh well. If Coldplay don't want to do that nowadays, it's their choice.

That's what made me think of it, along with the fact that I've been listening to a lot of Blur and Gorillaz lately ? Probably the majority of Gorillaz songs are collaborations with other artists, many of whom are rappers... but not all of them. Imagine Gorillaz featuring Coldplay, instead of the other way around ? The most recent Gorillaz project Song Machine consists entirely of collaborations and it's supposed to have a "Season 2" so what if they bring in Coldplay for a song? ? Probably won't happen, but it'd be cool.

Speed of Sound vs Glass of Water

Champion of the World vs Lovers In Japan

Who else remembers what they did with Clocks during the AHFOD tour? I remember someone here finding audio of a bunch of performances in 2016 and coming to the conclusion that the individual band members were playing live but Chris was lip-syncing to a pre-recorded vocal track. Clocks was in the middle of each concert so Chris was probably just trying to conserve his voice. But it's a different situation here. I'm sure they have their reasons. And it's not like Coldplay live performances don't include a lot of pre-recorded elements... they just don't seem to like the thought of having extra musicians onstage.

Death And All His Friends vs Fix You

I'd love to see them work with Damon Albarn. I don't know if he would get along with Coldplay. He once called Chris "possessed" after watching Coldplay play Talk at the 2006 Grammys and has never really had anything good to say about them. He once jokingly walked away after a fan tried to get him to autograph a guitar that Chris had also signed (but he still signed it). Maybe Damon would be open to working together. I think he might enjoy Everyday Life considering how experimental some of it is and how Femi Kuti ended up playing on Arabesque.

Didn't Chris somewhat jokingly say something in a recent interview about giving songs titles with "emojis"? I could see them doing something similar to Colour Spectrum with these symbols. But only if it's not done too often and it's pretty clear what the actual song title is. I think the patch on Chris's soldier is supposed to be a UFO. Except it's kind of a neon drawing of a UFO so it looks swirly. The Race would fit the album, if nothing sounds too different from Higher Power. But would it be a good single? Hmmm... I could see it as an album opener or the second track following an instrumental intro. Kind of like Hurts Like Heaven, which was the 6th single from MX. Maybe The Race could be one of the later singles unless they're really confident it could be a hit.

Hypnotised vs All I Can Think About Is You

Looks like they're using even more MX-style designs on the instruments than what could be seen in the Higher Power video. I can't see it too well but it looks like the writing is in Kaotican. I wish I could translate it, but it's too blurry to be done very easily. If I had a little more time this evening, I'd sit down and try to decode it. If it's anything like the MX graffiti writing, it may consist of song lyrics.

Oh, that definitely sounded better to me than the studio version. You can actually hear Jonny's guitar magic over all the synths.

High Speed vs Eko

Maybe this is why they stopped playing most of the songs from Viva (apart from the obligatory Viva la Vida because it's a hit and a stadium crowd will sing along every time). There's a kind of darker atmosphere to the album that may not be as dark as Trouble In Town but still doesn't fit so well with the themes and sounds of AHFOD. I'm amazed they played Violet Hill at all during the AHFOD tour. Even then, they only played it sparingly.

Don't Let It Break Your Heart (Live 2012) vs Higher Power (studio version, just because we haven't actually heard that live version yet)

I wasn't around the Coldplay fandom back in 2011, but I was around in 2015 and I remember the same sort of reactions to Adventure of a Lifetime, Stargate, Beyoncé, etc. A Head Full of Dreams could have turned out so much worse even with Stargate's pop banger production all over it. I guess the biggest thing that keeps me coming back is sentimental attachment. And the fact that even Coldplay's most "generic" singles from the past decade are better in my opinion than anything Maroon 5 and OneRepublic have released in the past decade. I'd much rather listen to AHFOD than the majority of stuff on American Top 40 radio. So far, I feel the same way about Higher Power. I'm an Oldplayer in 2021 because I know they can do better, they've released 5 studio albums, 2 live albums, and around 3 more albums worth of B-sides/EP tracks that fit with my particular taste in music. That's still the majority of their back catalogue. So I'm content with that. So basically what Brian Eno did to Chris at one point? Apparently that's when Arabesque was born so hey, I'm all for it ? Especially if Brian Eno is the one kicking Chris out of the studio for a little while. The man is a genius and he's willing to do far more than just kick a frontman out of the studio in order to encourage creativity and help an artist get out of their comfort zone. If only Eno had done more on AHFOD than just sing some chorus backing vocals during Up&Up...

Everyday Life (Live) vs Up&Up

I'm interested to hear how the song sounds when it's played live. The album version of Hurts Like Heaven sounds like more of "synth-pop" song and less of a "rock" song in comparison to the live versions. I like the album version a lot, but the live versions sound more energetic and slightly less electronic. Higher Power could end up being the same way.

I love this about them. They're actually trying to do better from an environmental standpoint. They've used their status as public figures to help make positive changes in the world for a long time. I just can't see them doing the same thing they did with the Ghost Stories theatre tour. Not if the new album is another big release like MX or AHFOD with songs that are perfect for a massive stadium crowd.

See there's no sun rising, but inside I'm free

Ahh, I completely lost track and forgot about this thread! I'm gonna say... Oceans wins again. Oceans (Ghost Stories Live 2014) vs In My Place (Live in Buenos Aires with Will singing)

I've long since lost count of how many times I've heard Yellow on TikTok. At the very least, the younger generation is willing to like the hits... even the early 2000s hits.

I wish they would bring Moses back along with all the other unreleased material they played live between 2001 and 2003. But most of them were scrapped and Until The Water Flows Over was revisited in the Viva sessions before it too was scrapped. Coldplay have done the same thing with a few songs. That's true. But I can't help but think that Radiohead actively search through their back catalogue of leftover songs when they start working on each new album. Every Radiohead album has old songs. I don't think Coldplay do that anywhere near as often. But hey... I Might Be Wrong. ?

I want to see Coldplay work with Tom DeLonge if Music of the Spheres is indeed going to be filled with references to aliens and space travel. Tom loves that kind of stuff. He's a UFO enthusiast and his current band Angels & Airwaves has created music that's basically X&Y and MX but with lots of pop punk influence. Imagine a Coldplay song that sounds like Valkyrie Missile ?