![]() ![]() Top 40 sage Max Martin is on board in the role of Mr. “You are my universe/I just want to put you first,” he sings on the rapturous “My Universe,” a sleek, sunny, disco-spritzed highlight featuring BTS. Martin’s deep space is mainly personal and romantic his HAL 9000 is a heart emoji. That unique level of thematic specificity notwithstanding, the record itself doesn’t get weighed down by any sort of Rush-size storyline, nor is there some pain-in-the-ass heavy-handed sci-fi message to deal with (beyond the predictably intimated vibes of harmony, wonder, etc.). As its title suggests, Music of the Spheres is a concept album about outer space, specifically a distant solar system called the Spheres it’s an almost unnervingly well-timed idea, arriving right on top of a new Dune movie and just a couple days after our Twitter feeds were all gummed up with whoa, dude images of William Shatner gazing out at our sad, salty world through the window of Jeff Bezos’ space penis. This time out they’ve gone even further, reaching for a humanism so universal it’s literally intergalactic. That LP attempted to add realist specifics and global sonics to their vaguely defined universal humanism, setting politically-tinged lyrics to music that filtered in West African pop and reggae elements. In some ways, Music of the Spheres picks up where the band’s last album, 2019’s Everyday Life, left off. Obviously, big gulps of redemption are what we’ve come to expect from Martin. “We’re only human, capable of kindness, so they call us humankind,” Martin sings on “Humankind” over a radiant haymaker of aspirant guitar churn, blindingly bright Eighties synth stabs, and upwardly mobile drum swirls - a sound so uplifting it makes or Bono or Bruce Springsteen at their most heroic sound like junior-high goths who just got their screen time taken away. ![]() Musically and lyrically, the band has rarely sounded so ecstatic. Once again, they’ve set up shop at the 50-yard line of pop-rock possibility, and in their eternally expansive vision, reimagined the middle of the road as a land of hope and dreams. You can sign up to the pre-sale here.“You’ve got a higher power,” Chris Martin tells a brand new flame - and, by extension, each and every citizen of Earth - on Coldplay’s ninth album, adding, “I’m so happy I’m alive.” He may be literally the only person who feels that way in 2021, and that, of course, is part of the Coldplay magic, such as it is. A pre-sale will run from Monday, 15th May at 10am until Tuesday, 16th May at 9am. General tickets will go on sale Tuesday, 16th May at 10am local time via Live Nation.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |