“Is anyone out there, I’m close to the end,” Chris Martin murmurs. This confession – in the closing seconds of their song ‘Moon Music’ – is the kind of sombre moment rarely associated with latter-day Coldplay, a band who’ve become synonymous with joyful, technicolour pop so bright and warm it could melt whole icebergs with one chorus. That line not only dims the band’s vibrant light, it also reveals the purpose of their 10th album – to pull Martin and those feeling like him back from the brink, one pop song at a time.
Resilience might not be the first word you think of when you think of global stadium-fillers, Glastonbury-history-makers Coldplay, but ‘Moon Music’ is an exercise in it nevertheless. The sequel to 2021’s ‘Music Of The Spheres’ – and one of the band’s final records – gently and subtly distils that spirit of weathering any storm, going on a journey from that bleak opening moment to a more accepting, happier ending.
Along the way, it uses different stories to complete its mission – and approach the subject of love from different angles. On the euphoric ‘feelslikeimfallinginlove’, Martin ignores the possibility of heartbreak, throwing himself deep into a new romance. The acoustic guitar-driven ‘Jupiter’ comes from the opposite side of things – repression rather than liberation, taking its title from the name of a woman who “wasn’t free to be exactly who she ought to be” and “longed to be herself or die”. The message central to the song – to “never give up/Love who you love” – might feel trite and obvious, but for those listening from suffocating spaces, it could be exactly the encouragement needed to get through another day.
‘Moon Music’ uses these tales to centre other voices and other lives. The disco groove of ‘Good Feelings’ finds Martin swapping verses with rising Afrobeats singer Ayra Starr. Both narrate the memories of a couple separated by the sea, focusing on the good times past rather than the anxiety of their current moment.
‘🌈’ – yes, we are in the era of emojis as song titles – weaves in a recording of poet and activist Maya Angelou between a glistening, cinematic instrumental. “I had a lot of clouds, but I’ve had so many rainbows,” she says at the song’s end, a nod to the idea that, to get to life’s beautiful stuff, you’ve got to embrace the drab parts too. In the album’s second half, that philosophy takes hold. “Stood on a sea of pain/Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain,” Martin sings in ‘iAMM’, but this is no invitation to wallow in sadness. “I’ll be back on my feet again/‘Cause I am a mountain,” he declares.
It’s not just in Coldplay’s lyrics that this resilience can be felt, but in their musical choices too. Multiple songs on ‘Moon Music’ – like ‘Jupiter’ and ‘Good Feelings’ – fade out, only to return to the speakers again. These fake-outs don’t just keep you guessing but mirror that feeling of having exhausted all your options, only for you to find the strength to push forward.
By the album’s end, Martin is on the other side – determined to keep holding on. “Whether it rains or pours, I’m all yours,” he promises another over the Beatles-esque piano of penultimate track ‘All My Love’. It’s a beautiful 180 from the way ‘Moon Music’ starts and, as Coldplay’s last “proper” single, a fitting finale of sorts for the band. As the album’s closing track says, “in the end, it’s just love” – what better note could Coldplay’s swan song begin on?
