As strong as the record starts and ends, Moon Music has a rough, forgettable middle that is impossible to ignore. Though none of the low points are as truly awful as tracks like "My Universe," the album's transparent attempts at anthemic pop come up short. It's passable for Coldplay, but I'm not giving them their flowers for a record that's merely passable.
There are very few rock acts today that are as massive as the London-based quartet known as Coldplay. As influential as U2 are to Coldplay, the two arena pop-rock bands seem to have at least this in common: they've ridden high throughout the first half of their career and are coasting into irrelevancy in their second, sometimes comically nosediving as a result. It's widely acknowledged amongst the public that Coldplay are pretty much past their prime at this point when it comes to being a relevant act or making career-high musical statements. I certainly hope they still have gas left in the tank but they haven't been winning my vote in recent years. This past decade hasn't been the greatest for Coldplay. For every decent (A Head Full of Dreams) or solidly impressive album (Everyday Life), comes a head scratching misfire (Ghost Stories) or an absolute piss poor failure of an album (Music of the Spheres). That piss poor failure of an album, 2021's Music of the Spheres, did not do the band any favors and it really made me lose any faith in the band (and possibly humanity as a whole) from returning to at least making a decent body of work that wasn't insulting or revolting.
Cut to the band's newest album, titled Moon Music. Their tenth studio album is actually being billed as a second volume to Music of the Spheres, actually titled Music of the Spheres Vol. II: Moon Music. Since this isn't marketed as the album's title (it's just Moon Music), I originally didn't know this was a sequel of sorts until doing some research (aka going on Wikipedia). Thankfully, when initially listening to Moon Music, I wasn't expecting another helping of the hideously tasteless pop that was mostly on Music of the Spheres. In many ways though, the idea of this album being a successor does reign true. The atmospheric imagery, the emoji song titles (which was cringey in 2021 and is appallingly cringey now), the pillowy and shimmery electronics, ambient, electropop, and synth pop. Many of the collaborators that are prominent on Music of the Spheres return, such as EDM artist Jon Hopkins and pop super-producer Max Martin. Tastelessness does retain on Moon Music (it is a sequel to Spheres, after all) but aside from that, it's a follow up that highlights what the band does best and has low points that are more tolerable and less garish than what was presented previously.
The album's ambient, spacey pop and electronics can be quite pretty at times and that's definitely the case on the album's opening title track. It has a lush, gorgeous quality with its strings, ambient sound, piano, and the signature quietly hummed vocals you will typically hear from frontman Chris Martin. It's honestly pretty fantastic and it's quite reminiscent of what made Coldplay so great and memorable to begin with. I love the barebones, skeletal instrumental that gives Martin and his piano plenty of room to do their thing. Lead single "Feels Like I'm Falling In Love" continues with a solid tune that follows in the footsteps of an All That You Can't Leave Behind-era U2. It's pretty, inoffensive, and straightforward and despite it not nearly reaching the heights of a "Viva la Vida" or a "Clocks," it's vastly better than some of the band's most recent singles (I'm looking at you, "My Universe"). The song doesn't do too much and I'm glad they have the awareness that not every song needs do be overstuffed with sounds. I greatly appreciate the band's attempts at simpler pop songs that hark back to the band's more memorable heyday.
Thankfully, we don't have anything that's extremely garish and offensively awful like the bland BTS collab "My Universe" or the cheesy Muse b-side "People of the Pride" from their last album. There are some tracks that go for the poppy, anthem-like quality that we've come to expect over the past fifteen years of Coldplay. "We Pray" is the dead ringer for this, which is a sappy, hip hop international crossover anthem featuring Little Simz (London), Burna Boy (Nigeria), TINI (Argentina), and Elyanna (Israel). It has these booming hip hop and electronic beats backed with orchestra strings, giving off a sense of grandiosity and importance. The song ends up being lackluster and flat with Chris Martin's singing/rapping, its forgettable chorus, and the song's general straightforward messaging of togetherness and optimism. It's not terrible, the guests are fairly adequate and each checks off their own duties, but there's just a lack of creativity or personality to the band's attempts at equality, which has been the case in the past on tracks like the cheesy and uninspired "Paradise." "Jupiter" isn't terrible either; it's pleasant on the ears and its swaying strings and its harmonies definitely float the listener up into the pillowy, cloudy sky. Despite this, its surface level acoustic pop that gives off Ed Sheeran vibes and I'm straight up not digging that. Seeing that one half of The Chainsmokers is involved with "Good Feelings," I was not at all excited about getting into this track. But to be fair, it could've been a far worse trainwreck than it actually is. Yes, it's sickeningly irrelevant dance pop that sounds a decade old at this point, but at least it's mediocre. Guest vocalist Ayra Starr does have a great feature here and it's arguably the best feature on the album.
"IAAM," which is an acronym for "I am a mountain," is a straightforward and passable pop rock tune that aims super hard to reach for the peak of that mountain but it falls short of that. It's ok but it completely pales in comparison to previous tracks that Coldplay have done, where they are attempting the same exact thing of making a triumphant, inspirational reach-to-the-top anthem. It sounds over a decade too late and belongs in a Mylo Xyloto b-sides collection. "Aeterna" is a synth and electronic-heavy dance cut that sounds perfectly fine but it's pretty forgettable and it's meant to be played in the background of a video in which a twelve-year-old Twitch streamer overconfidently shows off his Rocket League highlight reel. It also sounds like a leftover from some of the instrumental ideas off of their previous album (think "Infinity Sign"). I was pretty surprised and impressed with "Alien Hits / Alien Radio," where the band actually provides something that is quality, creative, and more unique to listen to in the track listing. Stylized as a "rainbow" emoji for its title (which I'm just going to completely ignore here), the song features parts from two different songs. The first half is a lo-fi, post rock epic that has these satisfying vocals and a rising, louder ascension. The second continues the post rock, but is slowed down and features these pretty falsetto vocals. Yes, it's pretty much just cosplay of post rock bands like Sigur Rós and is basically a ripoff of them, but it's tasteful and much more enjoyable than the electro pop that's displayed across this record. After listening to both halves as fully fledged tracks on the deluxe edition of the album, they really should've included both in full and gotten rid of more filler instead of slashing these two in half and splicing them together.
The album closes with two of the best tracks, being "All My Love" and "One World." "All My Love," which is being touted as the band's last promotional single, is an undeniably great ballad that's quality Coldplay from the songwriting to the vocals to the production. "One World" is a great closer, being another piano ballad that reaches for themes of unity, which is pretty bread and butter for Coldplay's core songwriting over the past fifteen years. It's a straightforward piano ballad that later ventures into very pretty electronics and ambient music from Jon Hopkins and a post-rock like finish with the shimmering guitars and harmonies. As strong as the record starts and ends, Moon Music has a rough, forgettable middle that is impossible to ignore. Though none of the low points are as truly awful as tracks like "My Universe," "Sky Full of Stars," or even the godawful "Something Just Like This," the album's transparent attempts at anthemic pop come up short. It's passable for Coldplay, but I'm not giving them their flowers for a record that's merely passable. If Moon Music had only the ideas that work, the ballads and post rock and expanded upon them, then would we see this album as a promising return for the band. But that didn't happen here and Coldplay are still relentlessly and unabashedly swinging for the fences for this trendy, formulaic electro pop music that was honestly much more relevant on streaming nearly a decade ago. During the promotional tour for this album, Coldplay have declared that there will only be two more studio albums after Moon Music before they will retire as a recording band. If they want to be remembered as the high quality band that they once were, they should really give it their all at making something truly great, something worth remembering, instead of what is being presented here. And for the love of all things high and mighty, we do not need a third volume of Music of the Spheres. I think we've heard enough.
My Rating: 5 / 10
Favorite Songs: "Moon Music," "All My Love," "Alien Hits / Alien Radio," "Feels Like I'm Falling In Love," "One World"
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