Coldplay knows how to maintain freshness, even at the cost of some awkward moments - Walla! culture

2021-10-19T19:22:22.302Z

In the new album the feeling is that Coldplay are trying to make themselves accessible and flatter themselves in the most pleasant way possible. They not only call their songs by the names of emojis, but are produced by Max Martin and collaborate with artists like Selena Gomez and BTS. It helps not to freeze on the yeast, but also yields moments of embarrassment

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Coldplay knows how to maintain freshness, even at the cost of a few awkward moments

In the new album the feeling is that Coldplay are trying to make themselves accessible and flatter themselves in the most pleasant way possible.

They not only call their songs by the names of emojis, but are produced by Max Martin and collaborate with artists like Selena Gomez and BTS.

It helps not to freeze on the yeast, but also yields moments of embarrassment

A classic from a first listen: Adele's new is one of her best songs

To the full article

Like any Coldplay album, "Music of the Spheres" is a concept creation. This time the story is an invented solar system with nine planets and moons, and each such star receives a song that makes up the entire package. Because Coldplay is a serious band, even when its members write a piece whose idea is, unpleasant to say, goofy, be careful not to disqualify it and instead try to understand the hidden meaning.

This album comes out two years after "Everyday Life", the British band's least conventional and successful album. On the previous album it seemed that Coldplay were looking to challenge themselves with world music, fusion, jazz, Arabic music and songs that dealt with difficult issues like wars, weapons and refugees. In the new album, however, the feeling is that Coldplay are trying to create the complete opposite. Instead of challenging and delving into it, they seem to be trying to make themselves accessible and flatter themselves in the most pleasant way possible.

And here the question arises, to whom should Coldplay actually make themselves accessible? After all, this is a super-communicative band. A band that already two decades ago released huge midway hits like "Yellow", "In My Place" and "Speed of Sound" and a decade ago made a perfect connection to the pop world thanks to collaborations with current stars such as Jay-Z, Beyonce, Rihanna and Avitz 'Y.

The answer is, apparently, to a generation that did not know Joseph.

That is, for today's youth and children.

To reach this generation, Coldplay not only call their songs by the names of emojis and write fairy tale songs about fictional stars.

They brought in the almighty magician of the pop world, Max Martin, to produce them.

Now, unlike twenty years ago, when Martin produced everything that moved, today the Swedish is a kind of exclusive producer.

Since Martin and Taylor Swift stopped working together in 2017, the Swede has been involved in a few projects.

Ariana Grande and Ed Sheeran in 2019, Weekend in 2020 and Coldplay in 2021.

Martin takes one project, a maximum of two a year, and that's all he does.

And what he does, becomes, as is well known, gold.

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This accessibility was also made through the selection of the singles from the album. The first, "Higher Power" which came out in May is a power-rock segment with influences from the eighties. The bouncy song includes energetic guitars and a Chinese accompaniment with a retro scent, which managed to fit in great with the comeback that rock music won in the summer. Thus "Higher Power" played beautifully in the playlists of contemporary radio stations between the Manskin section and that of Olivia Rodrigo, i.e. in the right place. Coldplay played her.

But if on "Higher Power" we could still think he succeeded in the right kind of luck and timing, the success of the next single made it clear that there is nothing coincidental here. For the song "My Universe", Coldplay joined the k-pop band BTS in a kind of duet. BTS is known to be a psychedelic phenomenon - a successful Korean boys' seven - including in the United States - that even the Backstreet Boys at their peak can envy.

"My Universe" is a classic coldplay piece with a pompous sound, featuring the BTS breakers singing here and there in Korean. Sounds unrelated, but it worked and the song went straight to number one on the Billboard United States Billboard charts - a total of the second time in Coldplay history at the top of the world's most important charts. The previous one, by the way, was "Viva La Vida", sometime in 2008.

To get into the head of the teens, Chris Martin, lead singer and leader of the band, also enlisted two such creators: his two children, 17-year-old Apple and 15-year-old Moses. Apple gets credit for writing a Martin duet with pop star Selena Gomez (another attempt to reach the younger generation), "Let Somebody Go." This is a minor ballad that Coldplay has created of its kind several times before, starting with a quiet piano accompanied by apprehensive vocals, and evolving into a gentle electronic production, Coldplay's caressing guitars and Martin's' or 'Ooooo' cries.

Martin's second son, Moses, may not have written anything, but he is host to background vocals in the third section of the album, "Humankind." The song, a powerful rock piece in the spirit of "Higher Power", is one of the best on the album, though it must be noted that without the release, no one would have guessed that it was Moses who makes the background vocals and not his father himself.

The elitists, it is likely, will claim that Coldplay sold themselves. The band that was once placed head to head with quality ensembles like Radiohead and Muse, now creates commercialized music for children. The claim may be true, but for Coldplay it's a long-term strategy that helps the band maintain relevance. Constantly reach a new audience and stay on top. If Coldplay had stuck to their artistic-alternative line, as Radiohead or Muse did, it is likely that like these two bands they would have faded from consciousness. Coldplay takes a different approach. Radiohead can run an entire career with the same producer, Nigel Goodrich, who produced all of their albums from the second to the ninth. This loyalty creates a fixation that Coldplay manages to avoid.

Another smart thing that Coldplay seems to have realized is that no matter what they do, their old audience will probably be less interested in the new materials. This audience, which today is in their thirties and forties, will in any case continue to get to their shows and pay $ 200 per ticket. These people will want to hear "Clocks", "Trouble" and "Fix You". The songs from the new album, whatever they are, are a kind of disruption for them to indulge in the past.

Those who will be interested in the new materials are the new audience that Coldplay is adding to their fans, ie the young guys. Audience expansion is a strategy that only benefits with Coldplay. They stay fresh and their performances are not just nostalgia encounters like the rounds of other artists from Dorm.

Despite this, Coldplay also exaggerated a bit with the accessibility of the new album to the younger generation. For a few moments towards the end it becomes a bit awkward. In the "Biutyful" segment, Martin does a duet with himself. In one role he sang as a human being, and in the other role they played in the production with his voice, so that he would sound like an alien. The alien Martin sounds more like Alvin from the Chipmunks, than like a foreign entity, and the song does not add much respect to Coldplay. Even the instrumental section that comes one song before the end of the album, sounds like a production for a shekel and a half. Chants of "Ola Ola Ola" of a stand in a football stadium are accompanied by cheap electronic bits. It is really not clear what the purpose of all this is.

Fortunately, the album, which is 41:48 minutes long, ends with the impressive work "Coloratura", which lasts over ten minutes.

I mean about a quarter of the album is just this song.

"Coloratura", another planet in the solar system in question, is a fascinating segment that develops in an exciting, heavenly way.

This is a very coldplay song but also a very Pink Floyd, very stylish Danny, very spacey, and most of all - very glad it's here.

A passage that again mentions that Coldplay are capable of reaching the highest qualities there are, and even if the decisions they make sometimes seem dubious, in the end, they prove every time they know what they are doing.

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Source: walla

All tech articles on 2021-10-19

Coldplay knows how to maintain freshness, even at the cost of some awkward moments - Walla! culture

Coldplay knows how to maintain freshness, even at the cost of a few awkward moments

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