Maps of Music

Music of the Spheres (2021)

Where the lyrics of Music of the Spheres take you, and where it was really made.

The closing track "Coloratura" runs over ten minutes, the longest song the band has ever released, and it was the album's most praised piece even though most critics panned the rest of the record.

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Album story

Overview

• Music of the Spheres (subtitle: Vol. I: From Earth with Love): ninth studio album by British rock band Coldplay
• Released 15 October 2021 by Parlophone in the UK and Atlantic in the US
• Produced by Max Martin, a producer new to the band's discography
• Guest appearances: Selena Gomez, We Are King, Jacob Collier, BTS; Jon Hopkins returns as a contributor
• Second concept album after Mylo Xyloto (2011)
• Explores pop, pop rock, space rock, space music and ambient influences
• Set in the fictional planetary system The Spheres: nine planets, three natural satellites, a star and a nebula
• Each of the twelve tracks corresponds to one celestial body in The Spheres

Background

• Band envisioned a space-themed record from 2010, when Chris Martin proposed building "a solar system"
• That idea became the universe of Mylo Xyloto, which later inspired this album's universe
• Everyday Life (November 2019) hid a clue: a billboard reading "Music of the Spheres" in the booklet
• Concept drew on the Mos Eisley cantina band in Star Wars, which made Martin wonder what musicians across the universe would sound like
• Martin said the planets were a canvas for exploring the human experience
• Band announced the Music of the Spheres World Tour on 14 October 2021, one day before release

Recording

• Berryman said the band planned to tour this album, so live performance shaped its energy and song selection
• Max Martin met Chris Martin at a Rihanna concert in Sweden in 2016; their first work together was "Orphans"
• The band described Max Martin as a new band member for the album
• "Humankind" was the hardest song to record; the band could not get its feel right until the end of the sessions
• Recording and mixing took place at Hansa Mix Room Studios (Berlin), MixStar Studios (Virginia Beach), The Rainforest (Los Angeles) and Fairyland Studios (London)

Cover

• Artwork by Pilar Zeta, who had also worked on A Head Full of Dreams and Everyday Life
• Artwork shows the planetary system inside a large white circle, on a gradient from black to blue
• Pilar Zeta's Argentine background is noted in the Spanish-language account of the album

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in London in 1997 by Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland and Guy Berryman, who met at University College London.
• Will Champion joined in January 1998; the group first went by Big Fat Noises and Starfish before settling on Coldplay.
• Signed with Parlophone in 1999 after the EP Safety (1998) was financed by lifelong friend Phil Harvey.

Members

• Chris Martin: lead vocals, piano, keyboards, guitars.
• Jonny Buckland: guitars, keyboards, backing vocals.
• Guy Berryman: bass guitar, keyboards, backing vocals.
• Will Champion: drums, percussion, piano, backing vocals.
• Phil Harvey: manager, later creative director, often credited as a fifth member.

Career

• Debut Parachutes (2000) won a Brit Award and a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album; A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002) and X&Y (2005) followed.
• Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008) won a Grammy for Best Rock Album and topped charts in over 30 countries.
• Music of the Spheres (2021) included My Universe with BTS, the first British group song to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
• Over 170 million records sold worldwide; the Music of the Spheres World Tour became one of the highest-grossing tours of all time.

Reception

At release

• Received mixed reviews from critics, many of whom criticised its overtly pop sensibilities and style
• Metacritic average of 55 out of 100 from 18 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews"
• Rhian Daly of NME gave four stars and said the album feels like quintessential Coldplay, with surprising moments buried in its tracklist
• Ludovic Hunter-Tilney of the Financial Times gave two stars, praising its cheerful lyrics but criticising a superficial feeling
• Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph gave three stars and called the album a "giddy sugar rush"
• Alexis Petridis of The Guardian gave two stars and called its pop tones a "desperate" attempt to stay on top of the charts
• Neil Z. Yeung of AllMusic gave four stars and called it the band's most unabashedly pop-centric album to date
• "Coloratura" was the most praised track, acclaimed for its lengthy, unconventional structure and production

Records

• Debuted atop the UK Albums Chart with 101,045 units, Coldplay's ninth number-one
• First release of the 2020s to move over 100,000 units in a week in the UK
• Reached number four on the US Billboard 200 with 57,000 units, the band's eighth Top 10 album
• Topped the French chart for a sixth time with 15,908 units
• Debuted at number 15 in Japan with 5,926 physical copies
• Nominated for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The closing track "Coloratura" runs 10 minutes and 18 seconds, the longest song the band has released.
• Selena Gomez confirmed on Twitter on 4 October 2021 that she was featured on "Let Somebody Go".
• The album was launched with a one-off show at the O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire in London, announced on 1 October 2021.
• The band worked with BMW on a mobile, rechargeable show battery for the 2022 tour.
• The 1985 folder in Everyday Life's booklet carried a billboard reading "Music of the Spheres" with the small line "Coldplay coming soon".

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

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