It feels like Coldplay aren’t really making albums anymore, instead they’re making setlist alterations for their stadium tours. ‘Moon Music’, like 2021’s ‘Music Of The Spheres’ before it, feels more like listening to the second disc of a best of compilation — you’ve heard all the hits so here’s some more, just not as good.
The band try to do a lot of things here, but most of them barely leave a mark. The opening title track’s synthy sunrise straddles Chris Martin’s lo-fi croon like a rocket, riding it all the way into a string arrangement that falls some way short of stratospheric. It’s an inauspicious start, but not an outlier.
The pretentiously-titled 🌈 — a three-act suite mostly sung by drummer Will Champion — is sub-Public Service Broadcasting guff fumbled by Martin’s obsession with vocal harmonies. It’s barely saved by a Maya Angelou recording that deserves better.
Closer One World is almost ‘Shore’-era Fleet Foxes, its synthy pads popping off with all the excitement of boils bursting. Those two songs alone cost nearly a quarter of an hour you could’ve done something else with.
Elsewhere, ‘Moon Music’ sticks closely to producer Max Martin’s playbook of perfectly safe pop. Feelslikeimfallinginlove could have been titled Feelslikeimphoningitin as Martin goes GCSE English with his lyrics: “I know that I was born to kill, any angel on my windowsill, but it’s so dark inside, I throw the windows wide.”
The Glastonbury-debuted We Pray’s thumping club beats don’t do much better. It’s too safe and too familiar, committing the cardinal sin of dulling Little Simz’s usually scalpel-sharp wit in the process. There are a couple of curveballs — Jupiter’s acoustic campfire vibes, Good Feelings’ kitchen disco in the company of Ayra Starr’s silky vocals — but they only momentarily put a little pep in the record’s step. Coldplay’s music used to move mountains, but on ‘Moon Music’ this is the best they can muster.
Coldplay Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Mon August 18 2025 - HULL Sewell Group Craven Park
Tue August 19 2025 - HULL Sewell Group Craven Park
Fri August 22 2025 - LONDON Wembley Stadium
Sat August 23 2025 - LONDON Wembley Stadium
Tue August 26 2025 - LONDON Wembley Stadium
Wed August 27 2025 - LONDON Wembley Stadium
Sat August 30 2025 - LONDON Wembley Stadium
Sun August 31 2025 - LONDON Wembley Stadium
Wed September 03 2025 - LONDON Wembley Stadium
Thu September 04 2025 - LONDON Wembley Stadium
Sun September 07 2025 - LONDON Wembley Stadium
Mon September 08 2025 - LONDON Wembley Stadium
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