Album Review: Coldplay, Music Of The Spheres

Following the lead of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, Coldplay have officially entered the Space Race, with Music of the Spheres – an album, produced by Swedish hit-maker Max Martin, concerned with all things interstellar.

Pulsing with cosmic energy from the get-go, lead single ‘Higher Power’ is Springteen meets electro-pop, with a soaring confidence that extends into the ‘80s-influenced ‘Humankind’. Before long, however, we find Coldplay stepping away from the sci-fi flash, and instead exploring the vast bareness of space – most notably in the tender movement from ‘Let Somebody Go’, with guest vocals from Selena Gomez, to the layered vocals of ‘Human Heart’, featuring We Are KING and Jacob Collier.

Genres are hopped between at high-speed in our tour of this planetary system – with a few head-spinning moments, such as the repeated rounds of ‘Olé, Olé, Olé’ incorporated into ‘Infinity Sign’. Because apparently space sounds like the tail end of a particularly raucous gig in an Irish field...

The mighty stadium-fillers out in force too. Tracks like ‘My Universe’ and ‘Humankind’ will likely garner plenty of traction, particularly given the appearance of the seemingly unstoppable BTS on the former, but they’re also some of the most uninspired moments on the album.

In fact, when Coldplay do veer off the expected course, the results are captivating. Spanning over ten minutes – or roughly one quarter of the album – ‘Coloratura’ is their longest song to date, as well as one of their most innovative. With vibrant instrumentation that brings to mind both prog-rock and Pixar soundtracks, it’s the closest the album comes to vividly conjuring up the feeling of an epic journey through the cosmos.