Coldplay is back with their 9th album ‘Music of Spheres’ their first since ‘Everyday Life’ back in 2019. The album is the band’s second space-themed concept album, after 2005’s X&Y, and explores pop, pop rock, space rock, space music and ambient influences. It is set in a fictional planetary system called The Spheres, which contains nine planets, three natural satellites, a star and a nebula, with each one of them corresponding to a certain track on the record. According to lead singer Chris Martin, its concept and themes were inspired by the Star Wars film franchise, which made him and the other band members wonder what other artists could be like across the universe, while also using the planets as canvas to explore human experience.
There are four wasted songs so there are really 8 songs on this album as “Music of Spheres” and its sequel plus “Alien Choir” and “Infinity Sign” are either under a minute or less but are mostly instrumentals or a crowd chanting. It looks like they wanted to make up for those four songs with a ten minute song to end the album which has some nice piano/harp playing and a little jam session but it barely has anything to it when it looks like its building up to something but then stops.
Chris Martin then wastes his time with Selena Gomez on “Let Somebody Go” and “Human Heart” with We are King and Jacob Collier when both tracks are not much to go on in general even if both songs are emotional. While I have no idea what he was thinking on “Biutyful” it has a baby sounding voice singing half the song it makes you go “WTF”?! The track “People of Pride” disappoints you because there are parts of it that rock out but the auto tune/orchestral/special effects and actual vocals don’t add any value to the song.
The remaining three tracks are the only good ones left and two of them have issues. In “Higher Power” their first single it has a weird intro and is super fast paced sounding like a hip-hop song and is trying too hard to be commercial. With “Humankind” you can skip the first 40 seconds or so as the special effects/techno vibes start to ruin it before it actually gets good plus he falsettos too much. The best song is “My Universe”(debuted at #1 on the billboard hot 100) and that is because BTS saves it as they do their boy band ritual of taking turns singing in Korean/English and the fast talking part from the deepest voice of the group. Definitely sounds like a commercial/nightclub song but is super catchy that will get you to sing along.
It doesn’t matter that some of the tracks were nominated for Grammys, the album for best album or best pop album because this is one of the worst albums out there and is disappointing for this band as they have been one of the premiere rock bands since they started. This album is way too experimental and poppy for an alleged rock band. Just because you are a talented singer/songwriter/musician Martin doesn’t mean you have to put out an album every few years and you can get credit for trying something/sticking to a theme, but this album should be jetted into another galaxy so we don’t have to hear it ever again.