It’s fair to say that Coldplay’s fifth time headlining Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage earlier this summer was a bit of a crowd-splitter; for every belted-out singalong, there were lots of strange, meandering bits. From the obvious highs of 100,000 golden-hued wristbands wafting along to Yellow, to the relative head scratcher of closing on an brand new track (this album’s lead single feelslikeimfallinginlove) it was a mixed bag.
If you were on board with that set’s more eccentric moments – such as Chris Martin debuting a semi-Stateside twang, or serenading the actor Michael J Fox with Coldplay’s classic track Fix You – then there’s good news, Moon Music might just be up your street.
The band’s 10th album, and the sequel to their lukewarm sci-fi effort Music of the Spheres, starts out from a place of bleak resignation; markedly at odds with Coldplay’s recent embrace of universal love as a recurring theme. “Once upon a time, I tried to get myself together,” Martin sings, “Be more like the sky and welcome, every kind of weather.” But the sky here is as drizzly and grey as your typical British summer.
The idea of weathering a storm is returned to frequently, with Martin trying to unearth optimism within it all. Without the pouring rain, reasons a spoken-word fragment from Maya Angelou on 🌈 (yes really, we’re apparently turning to the emoji keyboard to name our songs now) there wouldn’t be any rainbows.
Along the way, it raises plenty of questions, such as: “Really, another album of heavy-handed space metaphors?” and “Why are Little Simz and Burna Boy both guesting on a song that sounds a bit like the Tracey Beaker theme-tune?”
Though Moon Music starts strong, departing from the unflinchingly jolly, stadium-filling optimism Coldplay have become known for into more interesting contrasts, this early promise soon takes a turn. Jupiter, a thinly-veiled metaphor for the shame caused by societal homophobia, couldn’t be more trite lyrically: “I love who I love,” Martin sings, with the shouty enthusiasm of an inspirational fridge magnet. “The message from above is never give up!”
Moon Music’s more ambient-leaning moments, many of them crafted with collaborator Jon Hopkins twinkle beautifully, and the strutting Good Feelings – featuring a confident guest turn from rising Afrobeats star Ayra Starr – is a runaway highlight.
For the most part, though, this is sonically all over the place, retreading all-to-familiar themes to an uneven soundtrack. From the soulless, stadium-baiting point of feelslikeimfallinginlove to Aeterna’s cackhanded grab towards club music, it shape-shifts about as often as the planet it’s named after.
