Review: Coldplay's 'Music Of The Spheres' Both Expansive and Intimate
What a year it's been for music! The pandemic had brought music venues and concert gatherings to a halt and forced many of the major players in the business to conduct their business seeking alternative opportunities for getting their latest tunes to their fans, while creating new innovations. There was the advent of the web concert, which couldn't replace the live music experience, and quarantine anxiety hasn't really lifted off the general public, which hasn't found a reason to go beyond the confines of their living room comfy chair.
Fortunately, musical artists have attempted to stem the tide and help heal and reconnect us all. For the UK rock band Coldplay, it was telling that when the band got back together, frontman Chris Martin was leading the charge on inspiring their fanbase and the world at large to come out from the shadows and rejoin the larger community. On their latest album, "Music of the Spheres," the group's tenth full-length piece, the band collaborated with pop music super producer Max Martin to help light the way.
The overall setlist is electro-synth inspired, and gives the album a futurist brighness and optimism. Coldplay is accustomed to providing their audience a mixed bag of instrumentation and production; they are all musically formidable, and the quartet, including guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion, and Martin have given us several musical milestones over the course of their winning career. On "Music of the Spheres" they all agreed that they were building something from the ground up, and chose a title that would dictate their trajectory.
The album's first single was perfectly suited for our times. "Higher Power" is exactly the uplighting jolt of energy that the world needed to carve a path through its brush with COVID-19, mask mandates, and vaccinations. It's an inspirational track that starts your feet tapping and sends tingles all the way to the top of your head. It's the ideal entry point for this journey that also includes the ballad "Let Somebody Go" with Selena Gomez, who reveals rich depths and textures with her very vulnerable vocal styling on the track.
The collaborations continue on "My Universe" featuring BTS. The K-Pop band is without a doubt the most commercial brand in popular music, and the far more articulate and enduring Coldplay effectively bring them into the track with its message of bridging gaps and bringing people from all over the world together. It's an unusual recipe, but one that works .
At times the tracks feel extremely atmospheric and on a larger landscape than you'd expect, but that's on purpose; "Spheres" is expansive one moment, then suddenly becomes very intimate. It's an exciting musical journey, and one that will take you to light years and back in the span of a hour.
"Music of the Spheres" is available now.
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