Album Reviews

The challenge of writing a review about a band you are admittedly not intimate with — one that some interwebs sources consider to be “the most successful group of the 21st century,” having sold more than 100 million albums and counting — has upsides, as well as down. Such is the case for my being asked by AP editor Mike Mettler to review Coldplay’s new 140g LP Moon Music, which was released by Parlophone on October 4, 2024.

Now, Coldplay is a group that I actually really do like, from what I have heard from them over the years — yet oddly can’t claim to be a deep fan. Add to that mix a curious wrinkle of the band employing yet another new disc-pressing formulation and process that has been dubbed EcoRecord (more on that in a moment), and you have the prospect of a potentially gnarly review! The good news, however, is that my experience listening to Moon Music — with little in the way of any preconceptions — has been overall very positive.

We don’t know the exact DNA that went into the making of Moon Music, but given the somewhat (shall we say) constructed nature of the music — and, as you will soon learn, the massive levels of likely global collaboration evident in its production — we think it’s fairly safe to say this album was probably a digital creation.

My album came pressed on translucent pink not-quite-vinyl, employing that new EcoRecord formulation. The hype sticker on the cover also promises that each LP was made from nine recycled plastic bottles! While there does seem to be store-to-store color options and deluxe-edition variations, the given SRP for the “standard” pink version of Moon Music is $27.99, and you can order it via the Music Direct link graphic at the end of this review. However, if the Moon Music LP is sold out at the moment on MD, and/or you want to pursue any of those additional variants that we’ll be showing all throughout this review, go to Coldplay’s official site here, and scroll down just a bit to where you can find some of the more elaborate options with additional music and live tracks.

From official online sources, we learn a bit more about the eco-friendliness of this new release, which was manufactured by Sonopress in Germany: “In tandem with Coldplay’s ground-breaking sustainability measures on their current tour — which has so far produced 59% less CO2e emissions than their previous stadium tour — the band have gone to great lengths to make the physical release of Moon Music as sustainable as possible. This will be the world’s first album released as a 140g EcoRecord rPET LP, with each copy containing nine recycled PET-plastic bottles recovered from post-consumer waste. This will prevent the manufacture of more than 25 metric tonnes of virgin plastic and provide an 85% reduction in manufacturing process CO2 emissions/kg compared to traditional 140g vinyl.”

Using non-vinyl formulations for the making of records is not a new thing. In the 1950s, some labels marketed LPs made from regular plastic, usually due to budget issues or intended for children’s music releases. Those records tended to feel a little bit fragile, and often tinted the music a bit on the brittle (and often quite noisy) side. They also had a tendency to wear out rather rapidly, especially when played on turntables fitted with the commonly heavy record player tonearms — and relatively crude styli — of the times. Generally, those discs have not aged well — though some of them, such as those from Max Roach and Charles Mingus’ Debut Records label, are quite collectible these days, in part due to their scarcity.

Fortunately, the new EcoRecord formulation is a brand-new process, and hopefully the resultant product is much more robust. According to a press release issued around this same time last year from Sonopress — a subsidiary of Germany’s largest media group, Bertelsmann, which owns production plants worldwide — the EcoRecord platform was developed collaboratively by both entities: “They replaced the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) used in traditional record production with circular recycled PET (CR PET), and reduced energy consumption by about 85% through innovative processes that don’t use natural gas or steam during record production. [. . .] Circular recycling is an exclusive chemical recycling technology of SK chemicals that breaks down discarded plastics through chemical reactions into raw material units and then uses these raw materials to produce recycled plastics. Compared to traditional recycling methods, which simply clean and reuse waste plastics or cut them into flakes and recycle them, this method ensures that the quality and safety of the plastic remain high even after recycling countless numbers of times.”

These albums are not “pressed” in the traditional manner of vinyl, however. EcoRecords are produced in an injection molding process that reportedly exerts a pressure of up to 300 tons. One other thing that we do know about the Moon Music EcoRecord is that the disc lacquers were cut by Geoff Pesche at Abbey Road Studios, London. We’ll come back to the disc quality in a bit, but let’s talk about the music within this new Coldplay LP first.

Moon Music is a perfectly fine, upbeat, modern 21st century pop record with slight rock leanings. If you are looking for the harder-edged, guitar-driven sound of early Coldplay hits like “Yellow” (from their July 2000 debut LP on Parlophone, Parachutes) or the immediately hooky “Clocks” (from August 2002’s A Rush of Blood to the Head, also on Parlophone), or even the epic feel of “Viva La Vida” (from their June 2008 album Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends on, you guessed it, Parlophone), you might be disappointed purely from a songwriting standpoint.

That said, I suspect you’ll come to find there are some growers here on Moon Music. Expect to hear plenty of current trendy sounds for sure, including samples and spoken word moments. Yes, there are some hip-hoppy bits here and there too, so you’ll also get some of that thumpy fat synth bass you might hear coming from someone else’s car stereo while sitting in traffic. Moon Musicisn’t a big showcase for electric guitar sounds, but there are more than a few nice acoustic moments.

Moon Music is a genuinely massive team-based production, and the last two pages of the included, full-color 45-sleeve-sized booklet offer remarkably detailed track-by-track performance and compositional credits. For example, there are co-writes with American DJ duo The Chainsmokers and Nile Rodgers. Longtime collaborators Jon Hopkins and Brian Eno — both of whom co-produced the band’s acclaimed, aforementioned Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends — are present. Several tracks were crafted with the primary album producer, Swedish chart-topping production mastermind Max Martin (Taylor Swift, The Weeknd), whom the band has been working with since October 2021’s Parlophone release, Music of the Spheres (Vol. I: From Earth With Love). It is worth noting here that Moon Music is also considered to be the second volume in that series, as it boasts the distinction Music of the Spheres vol ii in smallish type at the very bottom of the back cover and on the first credits page of the booklet.

After getting beyond the (perhaps shocking to some) realization that a group like Coldplay relies on a small global village to bring their musical ideas to fruition, I had to give them much kudos for this honest transparency in an era of hidden and/or buried credits. I also appreciate that the group points out how portions of their royalty proceeds will support select charities such as Choose Love (providing aid to refugees), Life Rolls On (“dedicated to improving the quality of life for people living with various disabilities”), and Orchard of Abraham’s Children “impactful interfaith, peace building, and multicultural educational work in the Middle East”). Again, it is refreshing to see such mainstream super-popular artists doing good things with their position of influence.

Anyhow, back to the music. Amazingly enough, with all the production mayhem and the many guest shots to account for, the star of the mix remains Coldplay frontman Chris Martin and his vocals — and his voice sounds really nice on Moon Music. Happily, there is not too much reliance on special effects here, as I’m not hearing any telltale signs of the dreaded Auto-Tune — once again, another sign that certain artists are finally getting beyond that horribly overused production gimmick.

I love how Side A of Moon Music and the ostensible title track opens with a string arrangement excerpt from “Forever Held” by Jon Hopkins, which reminds me — at least aesthetically — of an album issued 40 years prior, The Unforgettable Fire, U2’s October 1984 Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois-produced classic on Island. The U2/Eno vibe continues with the opening cut on Side B, an untitled track represented with an emoji-like rainbow graphic that is alternately listed on some online sources as “Alien Hits / Alien Radio” or “Neon Forest Angel’s Song.” This song is followed by the inspiring “iAAM” (Side B, Track 2), with its resonating chorus of “Stood on a sea of pain / Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain,” which feels perhaps like — perhaps, just perhaps — a nod toward Eric Clapton and Bonnie Bramlett’s classic “Let It Rain,” the closing track to Clapton’s eponymous August 1970 solo debut on Atco/Polydor.

The arpeggiated synth lines on “We Pray” (Side A, Track 2) remind me of the type of song one might hear during an emotional moment in a Marvel superhero movie (and I mean that in a good way). I also like how Coldplay immediately contrast this flavor with an acoustic-guitar-based piece, “Jupiter” (Side A, Track 3), a sweet tune that feels like a twist on Dave Matthews’ music. Some tracks on Moon Music — such as “Aeterna” (Side B, Track 3) — remind me of dance-pop favorites such from two 2013 releases: 1) Ra Ra Riot’s January 2013 LP Beta Love (on Barsuk), and 2) The Polyphonic Spree’s August 2013 LP Yes, It’s True (on Good Records).

“All My Love” (Side B, Track 4) is a nice power ballad that also feels like it’s just waiting to be placed into a film soundtrack. The album-closing “One World” (Side B, Track 5) — a lush collaboration with Brian Eno and many others, as alluded to earlier — is a grandiose, orchestral-oriented ambient piece that somehow brings Moon Music to a song-cycle-like conclusion. It makes the album feel a bit more significant, as Martin delivers the final lines, “In the end / It’s just love.”

As far as the pressing quality of Moon Music goes, I am pleased to report that it is actually quite excellent. The LP is well-centered and remarkably quiet — something that is not always the case when it comes to traditional translucent color vinyl, so that alchemy achieved with the new EcoRecord formulation is compelling. Another pleasant surprise is that the music doesn’t take on any of that telltale crispy-harsh sonority that sometimes comes with color vinyl pressings (again, especially on standard translucent variants). I suspect sympathetic disc mastering played some role in this. (Meanwhile, Mettler tells me his own translucent pink Moon Music LP — which came with a signed print! — was also dead-quiet and well-centered.)

At some point, I hope we’ll get an opportunity to hear a reissue of notable analog-era recordings pressed in this new ecologically appealing formulation. This way, we’ll be able to get a better sense of whether there are any sorts of artifacts impacting the music from the EcoRecord pressing process.

As to whether you feel the need to buy Coldplay’s Moon Music, that is a very personal choice. If you are a fan of the band, you will probably want this LP (if you haven’t bought a copy already). If you are somebody looking for an album of appealing new upbeat modern pop, this might be just the ticket. And if you are just curious about hearing the inherent qualities of this new EcoRecord disc formulation firsthand, you might want to grab one sooner than later before they sell out.

Taken in its own right, Moon Music is a perfectly nice album that sounds pretty good overall. We give the Music a 7.5, which I think is solid for a record that doesn’t boast any immediately hook-laden tracks akin to their earlier hits. We’ll give the Sound an 8 overall as, again, it sounds pretty decent, as modern productions go.

Moon Music is certainly a welcome addition to the 2024 pop music landscape, and an album that will play well alongside current releases by the likes of Chappell Roan. At the end of the day, the best compliment I can offer here is that Moon Music is strong enough to make me want to explore Coldplay’s back catalog more closely — and I think that is a very, very good thing indeed.

Mark Smotroff is an avid vinyl collector who has also worked in marketing communications for decades. He has reviewed music for AudiophileReview.com, among others, and you can see more of his impressive C.V. at LinkedIn.

COLDPLAY
MOON MUSIC
140g 1LP (Parlophone)

Side A
1. Moon Music
2. feelslikeimfallinginlove
3. We Pray
4. Jupiter
5. Good Feelings

Side B
1. (no title shown, but represented by a rainbow-style emoji instead)
2. iAAM
3. Aeterna
4. All My Love
5. One World