Coldplay’s ninth studio album, “Music of the Spheres” incorporates a familiar and upbeat sound and positive messages — all while bringing the album’s concept of outer space into the tracks.
This album demonstrates Coldplay’s ability to push boundaries creatively. “Music of the Spheres” incorporates a new sound while implementing the band’s signature positive messages, feel good lyrics and instrumentals.
“Music of the Spheres” is definitely an album to listen to from start to finish in order to get the full experience. Smooth transitions from each song form a story and fans or new listeners of the band get both familiar and new sounds from Coldplay. Ballads, upbeat tracks, instrumental songs and a pop rock anthem all successfully implement pieces of Coldplay’s previous work while also paving the direction that the band may go towards in the future. From rock to pop and the unconventional structure of the last song, Coldplay defies sticking to a standard structure, with each song clearly distinguishing itself from the next and in turn creating an eclectic and powerful body of work.
A few of the song titles throughout the album are symbols instead of words, helping visually capture the outer space concept.
The intro track, “⦵” sounds as if listeners are taking off into outer space: A robotic voice says the phrase “Music of the Spheres,” capturing the sound of an astronaut counting down before a spacecraft launches. Tracks “*✧” and “∞” are mostly instrumental. They bring peaceful instrumentals that smoothly blend into each other using mellow piano notes that blend into the tracks that follow.
“Humankind” contributes to the outer space theme at the beginning of the song with what sounds like an electronic alien sound and transitions to a catchy and uplifting drum beat and acoustic guitar. Lead vocalist Chris Martin’s powerful vocals on the track are reminiscent of Coldplay hits such as “Paradise” and “A Sky Full of Stars.” This overlap between the past and present sound of Coldplay brings a comforting feeling.
On the track, Martin sings “We’re only human / But from another planet / Still they call us humankind.” The connection between the concept of being human but from a foreign world again links the album’s underlying theme of exploring the cosmos. This track feels very positive, and even like a bunch of people coming together as one, with the upbeat tempo and instrumentals. A listener can easily visualize this song being performed at a concert and picture the crowd cheering and smiling while singing along to a song about what it’s like to be human.
The ten minute closing song, “Coloratura,” goes through a large range of instrumentals that somehow all tie together. An opening dreamy piano section starts the song before transitioning into the sounds of buttons on a spacecraft. The song then goes into a peaceful xylophone sequence before adding in familiar guitar sounds.
Although this may seem like an unlikely combination, the partial pauses in the song make the range of sounds in this track work without being overwhelming and chaotic. Before moving to the next sound, the fade out of one sound into a quick silence allows the next new sound to prosper on it’s own, making it exciting to hear what will happen next. The lyrics reflect the album theme when Martin sings about outer space concepts and objects: “Through Pioneer and Helix, Oumuamua, Heliopause and Neptune.” A slow piano and xylophones ends the song, which nicely wraps up the abstract album.
This album can be experienced live next year on Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres world tour, which the band has taken action to ensure is as eco-friendly as possible. The band pledges to cut their CO2 emissions by 50 percent in comparison with their previous tour and implement low carbon and green technologies to create their stage show. The tour kicks off in March 2022, with the band playing in Chicago at Soldier Field on May 28th and 29th.
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