Why Chris Martin Is over the ‘Moon’ About Coldplay’s New Album

Chris Martin made headlines when he announced his band Coldplay plans to stop after two more albums. They may continue touring, but the 12 album will be Coldplay’s recorded full-stop.

Moon Music is the band’s 10th and latest album and is everything you’d expect from Coldplay. Depending on the listener, that’s either exciting news or more of what you dislike from Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, and drummer Will Champion.

Come Together

Martin explained to New Zealand DJ Zane Lowe how Coldplay has evolved. “It used to be all about us,” he said. “Now it’s not about us at all. We’re just there to facilitate a gathering, really. It restores my faith in humanity. Every day I get to see people singing together. We love it.”

Coldplay differs greatly from the post-Britpop group that made Parachutes or A Rush of Blood to the Head. Though some may long for the days of the scruffy London balladeers mining The Bends or Grace for their next “Yellow” or “Fix You,” they’ve remained one of the world’s biggest bands.

But that light-Radiohead version of Coldplay is long gone. Now the band exists—and occasionally disappears—behind a team of producers and songwriters crafting New Age-adjacent pop tunes.

Therapeutic Moon Music

When Coldplay’s third album X&Y, arrived, critics blasted it for sounding too “Coldplay.” Then, with help from Brian Eno, they left the musical corner they’d backed themselves into and emerged with the excellent Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends. That’s when colorful costumes replaced the black jackets and white sneakers, and Coldplay were off in a new, more ambitious direction.

Fast-forward to today’s Coldplay, and it’s an exploding shipping container of Sharpie highlighters and silly emojis for song titles. Martin lives in a permanent state of wonder and aims for worthwhile goals like healing and togetherness. His Peter Pan vibes might be too much for you, but stadiums filled with happy people wanting something similar are flickering lights in a fractured and dark world.

“We Pray” is the second single from Moon Music and features Martin singing with Little Simz, Burna Boy, Elyanna, and TINI. The message is simple: There’s more that connects us than divides us. It’s tempting to shrug off the cliché, but Coldplay persists in its mission of global therapy.

I pray that I don’t give up
Pray that I do my best

Believe In Love

In “feelslikeimfallinginlove,” Martin expresses the fear of falling in love. He told The New Yorker he sees humans divided into two camps: “One is calcification and sequestering and separating: my stuff, my tribe, my this, my that.” The other half, where he sees himself, “is so open to everything. Those people fall in love a lot more, but they also have a lot more heartbreak.”

The track is upbeat but not entirely sunny. His band is a long way from “Trouble,” but traces of the earlier gray-sky vulnerability sometimes sneak past the taut production of hitmaker Max Martin.

I know that in this kind of scene
Of two people, there’s a spark between
One gets torn apart
One gets a broken heart

Escapism

In the same interview with Lowe, Champion said Coldplay now knows “what we’re supposed to be doing, which is to provide a nice kind of two hours of escapism.” The communal goal fits the universal language of Martin’s lyrics.

People don’t come to Coldplay shows for wit. They come for the feeling. And when the feelings are vague, they can be anything you like. He also said the shows are places where “people are happy to be together, and there’s no arguing.” Hard to argue with that.

I Am a Mountain

Still, the old Coldplay reemerges on “iAAM.” It’s a highlight of Moon Music and a nice break from the Martin-and-electronic-producer approach. Backed by fierce drumming from Champion, Buckland’s moving guitar licks, and Berryman’s propelling bass, Martin shines with his signature piano and falsetto singing, Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain. If Coldplay needs to stop making albums for the rest of the band to be heard again, so be it.

The idea of a final Coldplay record is nothing new. Previously, Martin has described various albums as an ending or talked about when a band should stop. Martin says the same intuition bringing him songs has convinced him how to finish “the Coldplay thing.”

Perhaps the answer was already revealed in “Clocks,” one of Coldplay’s finest recorded moments:

Closing walls and ticking clocks
Gonna come back and take you home.

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Photo by Jim Dyson/Redferns