Coldplay - Everyday Life

Coldplay
Everyday Life
2019
Spotify

Coldplay have alwyas felt like the most earnest superband in the world. They would tour the world filling hundreds of stadiums over and over, yet still act like the quiet song boys from down the street. They wore their heart on their sleeves but only just enough to let us in. This new album Everyday Life finds the band coming out of albums and EPs that were pop focused but almost totally uninspired. Head Full of Dreams was so pop focused featuring artists from Tove Lo to Beyonce that it lost that earnest feeling Coldyplay have always tried to embody. This album however swings the other way in a major shift. "Trouble in Town" an expansive track that features audio from what sounds like a Police officer harassing a Muslim man. Their politics, ideals and emotions have always been right there on the surface, even if they may look a little clumsy. "BrokEn" featuring a stand up Paino, Finger Snaps, clapping and a Gospel choir. Chris Martin has not gone full Kanye yet, but He's inching closer. "Daddy" one of the singles from this record sung from the perspective of what we can assume is His kids asking him to not go out on tour. Coldplay have often been accused of lifting when it comes to their music, but this album is so loose it just seems like they do whatever they are going to do naturally. In one way it gives the album this really expansive feel, but in another it feels like they are just fucking around for the sake of it.

Ambient noises are also often employed on this record: people talking, arguments, street noise, which gets right to the point of the statement they are trying to make, but it also just seems odd for Coldplay to do this. There is so much jamming on this album that it starts to become a bit maddening. Then the choral "When I Need a Friend" comes in which sounds like a Methodist Hymn. This album tries to be global picking up styles as the band travels the world, creating this sort of global synthesis sound. It just ends up sounding generic in it's attempt to be inclusive. Coldplay seem to be on the right side of history with most of their takes, but if these things have been said and said to death is it even a take anymore? "Orphans" feels the most stadium filling song on the album, the one time they find a groove and let it really blow out. In the end this album is one of Coldplay's most darining, but it misses a lot of the marks they are trying to hit. Some great ideas, but it's still Coldplay in the end.

6.3 out of 10