Coldplay: Moon Music review — uncool, unsubtle and I can’t help but like it
Coldplay are back with Chris Martin sounding like a groovy vicar.
Coldplay – Moon Music (Parlophone)
Critic’s rating: ★★★
By the time of their 2021 album, Music of the Spheres, you had to wonder if Coldplay were not actually a band at all but a hugely successful global corporation with music at its core. Spheres had some nice moments, including a cosmic odyssey called Coloratura, but elsewhere guest spots from the manufactured K-pop band BTS and the shiny American superstar Selena Gomez suggested a commitment to total commercial domination over any attempt at artistic integrity. Now Chris Martin and the crew have returned to the space theme, and although they do indulge in the mawkish approach to big subjects that has always been their least appealing quality, they have also remembered to make an actual album of cohesion and character – and be an actual band in the process.
Moon Music is bookended by two symphonic pieces worthy of Ennio Morricone. The opening title track features yearning strings, alongside a wistful piano tapping out a sweet melodic motif that sticks in the mind, before Martin comes in to berate himself for being such a worrier when really he should be putting his faith in the universe. The closer, One World, is a simple message of peace that combines the affecting emotion of Yellow-era Coldplay, when Martin sounded like a shampooed version of Neil Young, with the kind of rousing orchestral music that accompanies slow-motion sequences of sporting prowess on television. Both evoke a sense of wonder at the scale of the solar system; moon music indeed.
Within those two atmospheric moments is material that can only be described as peak Coldplay. Feels Like I’m Falling in Love, on which young Apple Martin has a writing credit, has nothing new to say on the subject – “you’re throwing me a lifeline, this is for a lifetime” is not exactly up there with Joni Mitchell in the romantic lyricism stakes – but the straightforward, uplifting spirit of the song is what people come to this stadium-filling band for. Jupiter, a cheerful acoustic strum augmented by a rousing choir, is Coldplay’s attempt at an LGBT anthem. It’s a tale of someone attempting to be their true self in the face of a disapproving world, with Martin singing, “I love who I love,” in a happy-clappy celebration of acceptance. It’s about as challenging as a rainbow flag in Tesco, but it does display the lack of cynicism that is key to Coldplay’s enduring appeal.
Sometimes Martin’s groovy vicar tendencies get the better of him. We Pray could have come from a new Christian movement, with Martin praying that his brother is blessed and that he can be forgiven for his sins against a faux-modish production, before Little Simz comes in to rap out a few more prayers of sufficient vagueness to be palatable everywhere, and the Nigerian superstar Burna Boy offers evangelical support by shouting out the odd “Oh yeah”. For those of us yet to be touched by the spirit of the Holy Ghost, all of this down-with-the-kids praying comes across as supremely unconvincing.
Ultimately, though, you can’t help but like and admire Coldplay for being the uncool ray of sunshine they are, the band who keep smiling, keep hoping, keep praying, no matter what. They really make sense as a live act, with only U2 and Taylor Swift matching their ability to make everyone in the stadium feel a part of something special. On top of this they have pledged 10 per cent of earnings from their forthcoming tour to the Music Venue Trust, which is massive. It will help keep grassroots venues in Britain alive and ensure a future for the bands that come up through them, of which Coldplay were one.
“We’ve been through high, every corner of this sky,” Martin sings on All My Love, a sweet piano tune with shades of Seventies John Lennon. “And still we’re holding on together.” You can imagine people singing along to this by candlelight, ideally in a church, and it gets to the heart of the Coldplay phenomenon. For all their shameless attempts to be all things to all people, they really do seem to want to make the world a better place.
“The older I get, the more I believe that love is the only answer,” Martin said in a statement accompanying Moon Music’s release. Famous people say that kind of thing all the time. The difference is that when Martin says it you actually believe him, not least after spending time with this unsubtle but ultimately likeable album.
The Times
