Coldplay - Coloratura

I never thought I would hear Coldplay return to their best form, and to be *this* adventurous at this stage in their career. But maybe this shouldn't have been a surprise. 'Everyday Life' is incredibly underrated, in my opinion. While perhaps not their most musically challenging work, the indie-art sample arrangements and lyrical content made it by far their most politically charged album ever, and I think it is much better understood as a sort of modern anthropological conceptual album, which was something that the Grammy committee certainly would have enjoyed. But since 'Ghost Stories,' there has been a notable trend of Coldplay abandoning much of their identity in favour of current trends in pursuit of mainstream chart success. They deserve full credit for actually being successful at this strategy though, because many artists that have done this have only become increasingly irrelevant. And I was very prepared to put Coldplay in the same boat but they just attained their 2nd Billboard #1 ever, much to my surprise, so something has to be working there. But they still keep racking up hits, despite the fanbase always chattering on how they prefer the "old" or "sad" Coldplay. And I guess the big-name collaborations help too. "A Sky Full of Stars" with Avicii was a global top 10 hit. A Beyonce collaboration in 2015-2016 kept them very much in the discussion, followed by a global top 5 smash with the Chainsmokers which I abhorred. However, that was over 4 years ago in 2017, so with no attempt at a mainstream chart hit with "Everyday Life," maybe a 10-minute epic as the lead single of their following album should not be a surprise.

It feels perhaps cliche to compare this with a song like "Bohemian Rhapsody." The word "Galileo" even features prominently in both songs! But the indulgent and ambitious structure of this keeps reminding me of that. But like "Bohemian Rhapsody," the transitions are unexpected, and each new section introduces a mysterious turn of events, from the harp arpeggio transition to the crashing left hand piano octaves breaking into one of Jonny Buckland's best ever solos. Maybe a better comparison is "November Rain" where the song continues to build over its 10 minute length to one of their most satisfying final choruses. I should make it very clear that I don't think this song is as good as those two classics that I mentioned, but this song possesses a feeling of classic epic-ness that I have not felt in a very long time that I really cannot think of a better comparison.

At least we know with their next single, a collaboration with BTS, that they have not abandoned their chase for mainstream relevance. But I'm comforted to know that they, even after 20 years, might still be able to produce music up to their best level. This is arguably one of their best songs ever in at least 10 years, and maybe more.