It has already been four years since they released A Head Full of Dreams so Coldplay should be ready to come out with a new album by now. And they are. In fact, the iconic British band is set to release its eighth studio album titled Everyday Life, worldwide today.
And how nice to find out that Coldplay is doing it the traditional way. First off, Everyday Life is a double album. That means two volumes or two discs that embody a total concept. You know how artists used to do it in the old days on 12-inch vinyl with a jacket that opens and gorgeous photos in a fantastic layout that reeks very expensive. In Coldplay’s case, the cover image is based on a 1919 photo of the band of guitarist Jonny Buckland’s great grandfather.
Well, Everyday Life is like that in its vinyl edition, two discs titled Sunrise and Sunset, a true must-have for Coldplay fans or anybody who misses those truly collectible album covers. Of course, given the fact that people are now very concerned with storage and space and convenience, Everyday Life is also available for streaming and downloading and also on the now endangered CD format.
And then, and this one really caught my attention, Coldplay is also releasing Everyday Life on cassette tapes. You know those small plastic shells that contain spools of magnetic tape that can record or playback recorded stuff like music. Those in need of better reference must watch the movie Guardians of the Galaxy again. A music cassette tape plays a major role in the picture. So for all of you who lamented the death of cassette tapes with the arrival of the compact disc, this is excellent news. Cassette tapes are back. Bring out that player. You can play Coldplay in it.
Well, given the fact that Coldplay is indeed one of the most important bands of our time, it is not at all surprising that they and their label would go to great lengths to make the release of Everyday Life a major event. Members Chris Martin, Jonny, Guy Berryman, Will Champion and Phil Harvey, have even personally messaged their fans about the arrival of the new album.
Everyday Life though is more than the latest by Coldplay. Truth to tell, I thought it would be a fun time listening to the first two singles released a few weeks ago, Orphans and Arabesque. The music for both songs is pure earworm that drones in your head. The pounding beat gets your heart dancing to the rhythm. It was fun. At first. And then it wasn’t anymore.
The Coldplay of old is back playing music that is unlike anyone else’s right now. But a verse or two later I had become all goosey and fearful and praying for solutions that may never come. That is until mankind remembers that we are all human beings regardless of color, race, faith or whatever it is that marks people as others, different in our eyes.
After the infectious “boom boom ka, buba de ka/ boom boom ka, buba de ka….” of Orphans, Coldplay proceeds to tell the story of Rosaleem of Damascus with eyes like the moon. She was caught in a missile monsoon and went up to heaven with bombs going boom ba-boom-boom. Coldplay has set its message about the war in Syria against one of its most beautiful melodies.
Although presented with a lighter touch and the intriguing use of a saxophone, a first time for Coldplay, Arabesque is no different in content. “I could be you, you could be me/ two raindrops in the same sea/ you could be me, I could be you/ two angles of the same view/ and we share the same blood, same fucking blood.” It ends with a solution. “Music is the weapon, music is the weapon of the future.” Let us all hope that it is, indeed.
Everyday Life is divided into Sunrise and Sunset. Sunrise includes Sunrise, Church, Trouble In Town, BrokEn, Daddy, WOTW/POTP, Arabesque and When I Need A Friend. Sunset has Guns, Orphans, Eko, Cry Cry Cry, Old Friends, Champion Of The World, Everyday Life and a cut identified in Arabic writing.