Higher Power audibly takes the Weeknd’s Blinding Lights as its inspiration but works on the principle that the biggest-selling single of 2020 was perhaps too understated.
In fairness, Coldplay have pivoted towards pop before – on their Stargate-produced, EDM-infused 2015 album A Head Full of Dreams – but it has rarely sounded as deliberate or as non-organic as this. The less charitable interpretation is that these are collaborations that have been actioned with one eye on the Spotify stats. Leaving aside the NME’s game suggestion that BTS and Coldplay represent an obvious match because “they are two of modern pop’s deepest thinkers”, the charitable interpretation of what’s going on here is that Coldplay realise rock music has been in a moribund artistic state for some time now and the real action is in pop. Swedish pop super-producer Max Martin is fully in charge, and this time the guest list includes singer and actor Selena Gomez, the fifth most-followed person on Instagram, and K-pop superstars BTS. Everyday Life’s esoteric collaborators – Femi Kuti, Belgian rapper Stromae, whoever suggested they sample Alice Coltrane – have been politely shown the door. You literally couldn’t escape it even by leaving the planet: lead single Higher Power was beamed into the International Space Station. In contrast to the understated release of Everyday Life, Music of the Spheres arrives with an all-guns-blazing promotional campaign. There was a lot of straightforward Coldplay-ing among the experiments, including Orphans, a song so keen to attract thousands of people bellowing along that it borrowed the “woo-woo” vocals from Sympathy for the Devil.įear that their place at the top might be slipping after 20 years has evidently rattled the band. It still clearly wanted to be loved by a mass audience. It dabbled in African music, doo-wop and gospel and included what appeared to be an unfinished demo – yet it was far from the kind of up-yours gesture to which artists who have tired of adulation are often prone. In America it sold barely a tenth of its predecessor, A Head Full of Dreams. Coldplay’s last album, 2019’s Everyday Life, was their only one in the last 20 years not to go multi-platinum. In recent years, that’s started to look like a problem.
For example, in the “Best Rock Song” category (which was one of the categories it got nominated for), it lost to “ Walk” by the American rock band Foo Fighters.The artwork for Music of the Spheres. Production: Markus Dravs alongside Daniel Green and Rik SimpsonĪlbum: Coldplay’s 2011 album “Mylo Xyloto” (their fifth album)ĭate of Commercial Release: June 3rd, 2011 (through Parlophone) Did “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall” win a Grammy?ĭespite being nominated for two Grammys in 2012, it took home no Grammy. Songwriters: Chris Martin and his fellow Coldplay members (Berryman, Champion and Buckland) in conjunction with Adrienne Anderson and Peter Allen It sold almost a one hundred thousand copies within its first week.Ĭhris Martin told Music Week that the band, just like many people have gone through seasons where people have been hostile towards them, yet they chose to turn the negativity into positivity. On the Hot 100, it made it to number 14 (its peak position). The song was influenced by Peter Allen’s 1970s hit song “I Go To Rio”.įollowing its release, the track reached number 6 in UK (i.e.
This was the same day Coldplay performed it for the very first time during the Rock im Park Festival in Germany. This Coldplay classic was released on the 3rd of June, 2011.
Facts about “Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall”