Coldplay
Moon Music

Coldplay continue to garner antipathies and criticisms, but they forge ahead on their path and release another album in which they prove to be a moderately more valid and refined pop band than much of the rubbish circulating.

"Moon Music" continues the discussion of the previous "Music of the Spheres," continuing the journey in that imaginary solar system already explored in 2021, and it does so more or less in the same way. It starts from a strong pop base, undoubtedly capable of chart appeal, but goes deeper, creating simple yet certainly not flat songs like much of today's panorama. The melodies are strong and decisive, endowed with a solid musicality and instrumental work that may not be excellent but is present and tangible. This well-developed musicality ensures that despite their simplicity, the tracks have great atmospheric potential, truly bringing the listener into a parallel universe and into a space perhaps not boundless but still vast.

The offering then has a good variety; it moves from the ethereal synths of "Feels Like I'm Falling in Love" to the acoustic living room and fireplace setting of "Jupiter." It touches on the brilliance of certain Supertramp moments in "IAAM" and gets one dancing with the funk/disco straddling the late '70s and '80s of "Good Feelings" or with the more modern "Aeterna," more than ever related to "A Sky Full of Stars." The only one that doesn't shine is "We Pray," a sort of urban r'n'b and rap built on its hypnotic beat and somewhat plasticized string riffs, you can feel it's a track made to break into radio while pretending to be innovative but without being so.

But the offering, as always, is not limited to tracks with great radio impact. Coldplay once again demonstrate their ability to go beyond the pop song and present a handful of tracks that completely deviate from the commercial logic, even dressing in an orchestral and symphonic vein never disdained by the band. Already the pianistic and orderly "All My Love" is less catchy than usual, but it's nothing compared to what happens in tracks like "Moon Music," "Alien Hits/Alien Radio," and "One World"; in the first and the last, there is ample scope given to the orchestral vein, they are courageous and daring incursions into classical music with lavish but lulling melodies. In the second, electronic flashes, loops of psychedelic sounds, and vocalizations in Sigur Rós style are mixed. Coldplay have once again shown they can dabble, in small doses, in experimentation, and they do so without having much to envy to groups ostensibly more gifted.

It's hard to determine which album is better between this and the previous chapter. I perhaps liked the previous one a tad more because it had a more pronounced melodic depth, it had some more peculiarities even in the more pop moments, and it had that 10-minute monster finale. In any case, on this latest occasion, Coldplay have shown they do not deserve the criticisms they receive every day.