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London-based pop-rock act Coldplay released their 10th studio album, Moon Music, on Friday, October 4th. The album contains 10 tracks and is 44 minutes long. It’s a pop album with a space theme, but also incorporates funk, electronic, and Afrobeat influences.
Coldplay made a name for themselves in 2000 with the release of their debut album, Parachute. It was a commercial success and quickly garnered many positive reviews. It quickly reached number one in the UK and received much praise. As of 2020, the album has sold 13 million copies worldwide. They achieved success with their second studio album, 2002’s “A Rush of Cold Blood to the Head,” and reached the pinnacle of their songwriting and producing abilities with their third album, 2008’s “Viva La Vida.”
But recently, Coldplay’s reputation in the pop-rock scene has been at its lowest. Their ninth album, “Music of the Spheres,” released in 2021, received poor reviews. Many of the group’s longtime listeners noted that the album was basic, with few experimental or memorable elements. They didn’t seem to put much effort into the project.
The buzz surrounding Coldplay in recent years has been that they simply “sold out” and made stadium-filling albums without lasting impact. Many claim that they have lost what made them this great in the first place. With the release of Moon Music, it sounds to me like the band has brought back some of their experimental elements.
The album focuses on orchestral sounds, with few songs featuring guitars or drums. Many tracks tend to have long instrumentals and not a lot of lyrics. This is clear from the album’s first song, the title song “MOON MUSIC.” It begins with a large orchestral composition, then transitions into a soft piano ballad. Chris Martin brings a lot of deep vocals to this song, which I really enjoyed. I thought it was a beautiful opener and one of the best tracks on the album.
The second track “feellikeimfallinginlove” was released a few months ago as the lead single. It’s a love song with an impressive catchy chorus. Sonically, it’s one of the simplest tracks on the album, with straightforward lyrics to go along with it. It sounds good, but after that it becomes less noticeable. This is followed by “WE PRAY,” a song with great energy and pretty solid instrumentation, and the orchestra joins in again. It includes many features by other artists, all of which add variety to it.
JUPiTER has great acoustic guitar that propels the song forward, and Martin has neat vocals that utilize his high range. While catchy enough, the song isn’t very memorable and tends to be basic. The vocals just shine. “GOOD FEELiNGS” is a groovy summer song with vocals from Ayra Starr.
🌈 (ALiEN HiTS, ALiEN RADiO) is definitely the best song on this album. 6 minutes of pure beauty! The song is divided into three parts, with sections of ambient violin, a light piano ballad, and Will Champion’s wonderful vocals all transitioning nicely into each other, making for some great music. The final piece is a spoken word piece by the late Maya Angelou that talks about 19th century African American songs with the phrase “When the sun couldn’t shine anymore, God put a rainbow in the clouds.” It ends. I like the inclusion of this and how it ties in well with not just the song but the album as a whole. It perfectly captures the spacey vibe the group is going for with this album. This is one I’ll be revisiting often.
Unfortunately, it’s followed by iAAM, one of the less memorable tracks on the album. There’s some nice piano and some good vocals, but overall it’s a little too plain. AETERNA showcases some of Martin’s best vocal work on the album, especially the choruses. It has a solid groove feel to it. This song seems to be a standout for many Coldplay fans, and I can see why.
ALL MY LOVE is a very simple piano ballad. The lyrics are sweet, but they’re also very basic, so even though they come together in the end, they don’t mean much to me. ONE WORLD is the album’s closer and is primarily an ambient piece with small verses. The phrase “After all, it’s just love” is repeated. Although it’s a simple phrase, I really like it and feel that this song deserves to be the closer.
Overall, this was a step up from the previous album. It captures the cosmic theme very well and features a lot of beautiful instrumentation, although I’ll admit I’m a little biased towards the orchestra. Nevertheless, the instrumentation gives the album a lot of pacing issues, with some parts being a bit too long and leaving a lot of empty space. It feels a bit directionless and cluttered as I try to balance out a bit too much atmosphere in the tracklist.
The weakest part of the album for me is the songwriting. I didn’t get many lyrics for some of the songs, but the ones I did get were a little too simple. This is an album centered around love, but many of the love themes they touch on only scratch the surface. The band’s songwriting in general goes downhill with each album.
I don’t think Moon Music is bad, but I don’t think this will bring Coldplay back into the current music conversation. The instrumentation shines, but is dragged down by weak songwriting. So far, the album has received mixed reviews, with many fans enjoying it and others saying it was disappointing. I’ll be interested to see how my thoughts change in a few months, if I’m given a little more time to finish the album. Only time will tell.
I give Moon Music a 5.5/10. -JS
