Album of the Week: Music Of The Spheres from Coldplay is an all-round gem
Coldplay collaborate with the likes of Max Martin and BTS on Music Of The Spheres.
★★★★☆
Coldplay’s wide-eyed positivity has long set them apart from their stadium rock contemporaries. They lack the preachiness of U2 and, unlike The Killers, are not defined by songs they wrote half a lifetime ago. And rather than modulating their upbeat tendencies, with each new record they grow bigger, brighter and bolder.
They certainly pack in interstellar qualities of giddiness on their ninth studio LP. As the title indicates, this is a high-flying record full of flourishes of multicoloured escapism. It has but one message: things can only get better. And, after 18 months of lockdowns, that idea feels perfectly timed.
Chris Martin and cohorts also continue to push at the boundaries of arena-primed anthemic rock. They’ve collaborated with everyone from Beyoncé to Jon Hopkins (not to mention U2's old mucker Brian Eno). And on Music Of The Spheres they are swept up in the irrepressible tractor beam of Swedish hit conjurer Max Martin (Baby One More Time and a million other hits).
Together he and Coldplay have midwifed a record that turns feelgood pop into a bit of a Jedi mind trick. The most immediate track is Higher Power, a collaboration between Coldplay and BTS that really ought not to work but which does (BTS rap, Martin croons and somehow they co-exist in perfect harmony).
Elsewhere, People of the Pride suggests Wagnerian noodlers Muse with a spritz of Springsteen and the 10-minute Coloratura sounds like something from Radiohead’s In Rainbows as re-imagined for CBeebies. And who could resist that?
Coldplay recently indicated that they will probably only make another three albums. And, given their stance on climate change, it is unclear when they will tour.
And yet, for all that uncertainty, the sentiment that comes through loudly and ebulliently on Music Of The Spheres is that the future is bright. Listening to this shiny, happy fever-dream it’s difficult to disagree.
