Coldplay’s new album “Moon Music,” released on Oct. 4, marked the band’s 10th album since their debut in 1998. The platinum edition of the record, which dropped two days later, includes a total of 20 songs, four of which feature additional artists.
The first song on the record, “MOON MUSIC,” features electronic musician Jon Hopkins and is instrumental until over halfway through the song where soft vocals from lead singer Chris Martin begin. The song is ethereal and sets the tone for a mystical, heavily instrumental album. But instead of the album consisting of songs like the first one, it includes pieces of all different styles.
“MOON MUSIC” ends with a seamless flow into the second track, “feelslikeimfallinginlove,” but the prior sound is not found here. This second song is more upbeat and provides an interesting contrast to the first song, but it is also a shock to the system on a first-time listen.
The third song, “WE PRAY” features English rapper Little Simz, Nigerian singer Burna Boy, Palestinian-Chilean singer Elyanna, and Argentinian singer TINI. The song includes aspects unique to each artist’s genres and allows for all of the featured artists to contribute in their own way. However, this combination of many styles also makes it so the song seems disconnected.
The cultivation of such different music styles within one song is overwhelming and makes it difficult to distinguish whether or not the melodies are from one or five different songs. In contrast to Coldplay’s other music, this song stands out as a mish-mash of styles and a brand-new concept for the band, which creates an incredibly disjointed and dysfunctional rhythm to the album.
Coldplay’s new album solidifies my opinion on their soon retirement, as the music being made now seems like its only intention is to produce more albums instead of producing quality music.
The album follows no clear pattern, creating a confusing compilation of music with no throughline and making it seem as though the band wrote songs and just carelessly threw them together to create a record.
The theme of the album is supposed to be about expressing individuality and one’s self in different stages in life, according to an interview News, Music, Entertainment (NME) did with Martin. Each song does this, but the lack of uniformity in the genre throughout the album disrupts the flow from song to song. Some solid transitions between songs help tie the album together but, overall, the stark difference between musical styles is disjointing.
“JUPITER” is the most similar to other Coldplay songs. The heavier guitar instrumental aspects are what previous Coldplay albums have included, along with strong vocals from Martin, to accompany the aforementioned heavy instrumentals.
The album includes a variety of techno-electric theme songs, reminiscent of 2016 radio pop music with a rudimentary beat and repetitive vocals. This is most well noted in the song “GOOD FEELINGS.” The lyrics are very generic and the song is more well suited as a background for an infomercial on TV rather than a song in a hit album.
The deluxe version of the album is split into two parts: Disc 1 and Disc 2. Disc 2 begins with a very similar song to the intro track on Disc 1, ethereal and heavily instrumental The second song on the second half of the album, “feelslikeimfallinginlive,” has a very dystopian beginning, further exemplifying the range of styles included in the album.
The most memorable song on the album is the second to last song “All My Love (Live in Dublin),” recorded from one of the band’s previous shows. In this track, the band is heard teaching the crowd the bridge to the song so that they can sing along in the beginning. I enjoyed this touch as it included the fans in the album and made it more personalized for avid Coldplay listeners.
The final song on the album, creatively entitled “👋,” also features Hopkins. The song concludes the album on a similar note as it starts on. I appreciated the full circle moment and I thought that it closed out all of the chaos of the album well.
“Moon Music (Full Moon Edition)” is arguably Coldplay’s most chaotic and non-uniform album. Although themes of the album, including becoming comfortable with oneself, self-expression, and changing your day around in a positive way are important, the mix of genres throughout the album led to a fragmented and “thrown together” record, making it both confusing and mundane to listen to.
