Coldplay - Moon Music (October 4, 2024) Album • Page 5

I totally get that. I want that too! But I do think it's too bad that this album seems to be getting clobbered critically mainly on the basis of being...not that? These last few albums aren't my favorites, but I appreciate that they're pretty consistently taking big swings musically.

That said, I'd really love it if they do take a back-to-basics approach on their last couple albums. I'd say there are plenty of examples across their last few albums that they can still hit it out of the park when they want to write a big crowdpleaser.

 

I kinda like this whole thing tbh with the exception of “We Pray.”

 

Somehow this is growing on me. It's a quick, breezy listen. Far from their best but it's a solid pop album.

 

Had my first listen today and it’s enjoyable and inoffensive. A lot better than Music of the Spheres, although the last track here didn’t quite hit like it should have. There wasn’t much that I didn’t like, even if it feels on the safe side.

 

Also, this was the first album that we (my wife, my daughter and I) have listened to for the first time all together so that’s something. She’s 2 and a half years old and was engaged with it. She loves the moon and rainbows so maybe she’s one of the target audiences.

 

Just noticed a Full Moon Edition of this album on streaming with more songs, looks like it just came out today.

 

Just had my first listen and have to say I am severely underwhelmed and it has me thinking that I perhaps even underrated Music of the Spheres. (and I liked that album a decent amount)

No doubt some beautiful music in here but man, it’s like nothing really takes off like I want it to. “Feels like” is a decent single but is a little anemic, but as a fan of the band’s old and new material alike “We Pray” might be the worst song they’ve done. I feel obnoxious saying it but I cannot stand the melody/rhythm/lyrical conceit… it’s nails on chalkboard.

Rainbow is decent but the spoken word is a gimmick, and One World is a nice closer but again sort of peters out.

Jupiter and All My Love are probably the highlights. Only one listen of course but dang, was hoping for more.

 

I agree with a lot of the comments here. This album pretty much peaks with the first song for me, and it’s probably the Jon Hopkins parts. The singles are uninteresting and most of the other songs never “take off.” There are moments of cool stuff on rainbow, iaam and aeterna but they don’t elevate the songs enough.

 

I spent a lot of time with this over the weekend, and I'm really coming around on it. Reading the NME interview with Chris helped contextualize the album for me, because it sounds like he really tries to create this joyful, hyper-positive, multi-cultural, "all you need is love" universe in his music as a means of working through his own depressions and existential crises with the modern world. Through that lens, I actually think this album is really beautiful in what its reaching for, in a totally uncynical way.

That said, this album needed one more banger, and I can't believe they had one in the can and cut it:

 

my daughter has been watching these Disney movies The Descendants about bad guys from various Disney movies’ kids, and they are musicals where the characters constantly break out into song & dance - We Pray sounds like the songs from these movies

Man In The Moon is pretty great though

 

I think if you tuck "Man in the Moon" into that penultimate slot, between "All My Love" and "One World," the album improves at least half a letter grade.

 

Yeah I've had this album on repeat a lot over the weekend and think it's not as bad as has been discussed in a lot of places. Not including The Karate Kid and Man in the Moon is just a big miss on their part. I enjoy both quite a bit. I do wonder if you add one or both in and take out We Pray what the response is...

 

I actually like "We Pray."

 

Me too. It's been stuck in my head a lot since Friday, and not in a bad way.

 

I really dig the Little Simz verse.

 

Give it that “Sky Fall Of Stars” treatment

 

Damn right. It seems like a no brainer!

 

Hasn't this approach somewhat removed the nuance from the lyrics on their last two albums? I'm not asking for Leonard Cohen, but the cracks in that universe are where the interesting things lie. Would love to know what it would sound like for him to explore that again, the way he did on Ghost Stories. At the very least, he should let it show up even if he wants to sing about pushing through it. Everyday Life isn't perfect, but man are there some interesting ideas all over that project.

I don't feel that I know anything new about Chris Martin after listening to these 13 new songs. Maybe they shouldn't have left earth (and I mean that in multiple ways).

 

Though tbh the real problem is that they're such a big band that they need any new songs to work for crowds of no less than 60,000 people, many of whom English is not their first language.

 

I think your second post answered the question of your first, which is the pull to global, stadium-sized universality. We love Ghost Stories, but I think there's a reason that album was less celebrated in the general fanbase, and isn't as much of a live show staple. And Everyday Life is, I believe, far and away the least successful Coldplay album.

They're so like U2 that I think they are now facing the same challenges: what do you do when you reach that level? I think Songs of Experience is arguably THE most interesting U2 album lyrically, give or take an Achtung Baby, and is actually really grappling with things. But a lot of it is extremely personal "Bono dealing with a near-death experience" stuff, and I've talked to people who flat-out say they don't want that and want them to make big, widescreen music that anyone can project their experiences onto. I think the same is true of Coldplay.

That said, I feel like I didn't know Chris's "music as coping mechanism" situation, at least not to that extent, until this album. That obviously came out of the interview more than the songs, but I think you can sense it based on how he's been writing songs over the past few years. (And, if I'm being completely honest, I don't really know how much I learned about Chris Martin from, like, A Rush of Blood to the Head, either, other than that he's really good at writing big, stadium-filling anthems.)

 

Being honest, I don't listen to music to learn things about the songwriter, I listen to music to learn things about myself.

 

I signed up for the presale for the upcoming 2025 tour, i've yet to see them live but I hope they lean more heavily to their Ghost Stories and prior albums.

 

So what's the story with this new edition of the album, is it alternate versions and B-Sides, basically? Will listen soon.

 

Big get for madison and camp randall stadium

 

With the Full Moon edition there’s enough good material here that they could have really put together a better initial track list. I like the alternate IAAM version better too. I’m glad they released it right away, it makes me like the album a lot more, but I’m kind of scratching my head about it lol