Coldplay: Moon Music review: Is your new favourite Coldplay track on this album?, writes ADRIAN THRILLS
COLDPLAY: moon music (parlophone)
Judgment: heavenly sounds
Ten albums in a career that began with a modest debut album, Parachutes, in 2000, Coldplay’s Chris Martin has suggested the band’s days are numbered.
“We’re only going to make twelve real albums, and that’s real,” he said in an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe this week. “It’s very important that we have that limit.”
He explained that a deadline would ensure they could maintain quality control. And while it is advisable to be wary of musicians hinting at early retirement, the bar is set high on the new album Moon Music.
Embodying all the qualities that made them one of Britain’s biggest bands (and for the most part clearly the hackneyed lyrics that have let Martin down in the past), it’s a consummate Coldplay record.
The countdown to today’s release has gone smoothly. In June the group performed a glittering headliner at Glastonbury on Saturday, while tickets for next year’s stadium tour are selling fast.
Ten albums in a career that began with a modest debut album, Parachutes, in 2000. Coldplay’s Chris Martin has suggested the band’s days are numbered
Another indication of Coldplay’s status came last month when their ubiquity reached the England cricket team
The quartet’s ten Wembley shows will surpass the previous record of eight, held jointly by Take That’s Progress Live show in 2011 and Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
Another indication of Coldplay’s status came last month when their ubiquity reached the England cricket team. After his side were humiliated by Sri Lanka in the third Test at The Oval, batsman Joe Root explained a poor performance by saying: ‘Coldplay can’t be number one every week.’
However, there is a good chance that Moon Music will comfortably top the charts. Produced by Swedish pop maestro Max Martin, it combines elements of their two previous releases: the adventurous spirit of 2019’s Everyday Life and the powerful hooks of 2021’s Music Of The Spheres. Even their fiercest opponents would struggle to overcome their gift for melody. to deny.
Like Music Of The Spheres, which is set in a fictional planetary system, Moon Music is littered with celestial images. “I try to trust in the heavens above,” Martin sings on the title track, which starts as a symphonic overture and evolves into a simple but moving piano ballad. The main character in the LGBT song Jupiter is a woman named after the giant planet.
With next year’s tour in mind, there are songs seemingly designed to be sung back by the band by tens of thousands of fans. Feels Like I’m Falling In Love is dizzying and euphoric, and iAAM (short for ‘I am a mountain’) is driven by Will Champion’s pounding drums and a searing electric guitar solo – a rarity for Coldplay these days – from Jonny Buckland.
When the band enlisted former Disney Channel star Selena Gomez and K-pop boy band BTS to help with Music Of The Spheres, it came across as an unsubtle attempt to recruit a younger audience. The collaborations here have greater artistic merit, however, with rapper Little Simz and Nigerian singer Burna Boy delivering great turns on We Pray.
Chris Martin believes Moon Music is one of the band’s strongest albums. “If you’ve ever liked Coldplay, your favorite Coldplay song is probably on this album,” he says. So, is there another Viva La Vida or Fix You? That’s a high bar, and things like that usually only become clear once the songs have been played live, but I see two contenders.
A handout look at the new Coldplay album called Moon Music
The first, Good Feelings, is an exciting R&B duet between Martin and Afrobeats singer Ayra Starr. The other, All My Love, has all the makings of a crowd pleaser. Sung by Martin in a tender falsetto, it is reminiscent of the Beatles’ Let It Be and Carly Simon’s Nobody Does It Better.
On Moon Music, Coldplay once again reaches the entire universe. But the underlying themes are more down-to-earth, with everyday emotions expressed in simple, if overly sentimental, pop songs. Or as Martin puts it on One World: ‘In the end it’s just love.’
This album will not generate many new admirers, but Coldplay fans can indulge themselves.
JAMES BAY: Constantly Changing (EMI)
Verdict: Shifts back into gear
James Bay never delivered on the promise of his 2014 debut album Chaos And The Calm, which made the Hertfordshire singer a BRIT Best Male Artist. He foolishly abandoned his blues sound on a poppy second album, Electric Light, and found himself out of step with the times when he returned to Heartland Rock on 2022’s Leap.
He should do better this time. The three biggest British songs of 2024 so far are by introspective male soloists – Noah Kahan’s Stick Season, Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things and Teddy Swims’ Lose Control – and Bay repeats his reputation as a pathetic storyteller on Changes All The Time.
Created with American musician Gabe Simon, who produced Kahan’s Stick Season, Bay’s folky ballads and rockers exude a candor.
There are also two notable co-writes, with Killers frontman Brandon Flowers on Easy Distraction, and Grantham singer Holly Humberstone assisting on the country-soul ballad Dogfight.
Both albums were released today. Coldplay will launch a UK tour on August 18, 2025 in Craven Park, Hull (coldplay.com). James Bay’s tour kicks off on February 1, 2025 at the O2 Academy, Glasgow (ticketmaster.co.uk).
Harley Quinn’s Jazzy tribute to the Joker
LADY GAGA: Harlequin (Interscope)
Verdict: Jazzy detour
What Lady Gaga’s fans will think of her latest foray into jazz is anyone’s guess. Her fans – ‘Little Monsters’ – have become accustomed to her spectacular costumes (such as the infamous ‘Meat Dress’ from 2010), crazy wigs and over-the-top live shows.
Her most recent album, 2020’s Chromatica, was a celebration of her roots in electronic dance music.
Gaga is in her element on the cheerful big band numbers Get Happy and Good Morning, and she lets loose on the show tune If My Friends Could See Me Now
But the singer (right), born Stefani Germanotta, also enjoys updating the Great American Songbook, as she showed on the two duet albums – Cheek To Cheek and Love For Sale – she made with the late Tony Bennett. Guided by the master of intimate singing, her instinctive phrasing proved her jazz qualities.
She follows a similar path on Harlequin, a ‘companion album’ to the new film Joker: Folie à Deux (reviewed opposite), in which she stars as Harley Quinn.
A mix of covers, songs from the film and two original songs, it’s a soundtrack of sorts.
Somewhat confusingly, an official cast album is also available, plus an original score by composer Hildur Guðnadóttir.
Gaga is in her element on the cheerful big band numbers Get Happy and Good Morning, and she lets loose on the show tune If My Friends Could See Me Now, but Harlequin misses the warmth of her duets with Bennett.
Most interesting are the original songs. Folie à Deux, which appears in the film, is sung with a hint of menace. Happy Mistake, which is only on this album, is a grim ballad about fame: perhaps a teaser for an upcoming studio album. “I can try to hide behind the makeup,” she sings, “but the show must go on.” A trouper to the end.