Biggest band in the world for some years. Coldplay have long since opted out of tiresome binaries such as cool v uncool it’s the height of uncool to go on about how uncool they are. And did no one notice that Angel Moon looks like an unfortunate caricature of Grimes, the long-tressed, often winged, often alien-looking electronic artist whose own ventures draw far more knowledgeably on the history of sci-fi? The problem is not some minor cringe. While Coldplay’s hook-up with BTS, My Universe, crossed over with Gen Z, and their song with Selena Gomez, Let Somebody Go, made hay with millennials, here Coldplay appear to be courting the under-10s. Martin duets with her on Biutyful, a gentle love song about the redemptive powers of love in the face of everything going to hell in a handcart.īut while puppetry has an arty history, all this just feels like an appeal to an audience so young we’ve run out of alphabet to describe it. Sure, everyone loves a Muppet – Angel Moon is the work of the Jim Henson studio. One of the core messages of Music of the Spheres, Coldplay’s ninth album, released last year, is: “Everyone is an alien somewhere.” And while it’s hard not to applaud the band’s stance, it’s boggling to imagine what Martin had to say to his fellow talented multimillionaires to persuade them to carry on like demented football club mascots and play their instruments at the same time.ĭid no one balk at the embrace of puppetry, innovative as it is? Music of the Spheres is set in space and co-stars the non-human Angel Moon, who “sings” a couple of tracks. The headgear abounds with antennae, eyes and ears and for bassist Guy Berryman there’s a Marvin the Martian mohican. Oh, to have seen the expressions when Martin sketched out a series of lurid, light-up alien masks for the band to wear on Infinity Sign. The giant beach balls come out on Adventure of a Lifetime, two songs into this generous, career-spanning set – one that baffles as much as it dazzles. The band reportedly ferry stuff around using as little carbon as possible – although if any act could pull off a fleet of Phileas Fogg-style solar-powered hot-air zeppelins, it’s this one, with their Tiggerish optimism and penchant for unleashing brightly coloured balloons. If only they could wire up Chris Martin himself, who exudes gigawatts of energy running around, belting out the hits. The floor is wired to harness the kinetic energy of 90,000 bouncing souls. Anyone with any passing knowledge of Coldplay gigs knows that the play of the colour across the venue, like a murmuration of starlings, is one of the greatest spectacles in stadium showmanship. Sceptics should note that the band’s light-up wristbands, always magical, are now made of compostable plastic. Umpteen stakeholders would have pondered the tour’s environmental aspects in the wake of Coldplay’s 2019 announcement that they would stop touring while they worked out how to make it less worse for the planet.
Oh, to have been a fly on the wall at the production meetings for Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres tour, currently winding up a run of six sold-out nights at London’s Wembley stadium.
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