Coldplay – feelslikeimfallinginlove Review

Though it may be perceived as cool to hate Coldplay, few bands can do what they did. Promising works like Parachutes and Viva la Vida should not be written off because of their contemporary insistence. They are good works which look like great works given the context of more recent releases from the Chris Martin-led band. Moon Music will cement the early years of a once-promising pop outfit as their best, and first single feelslikeimfallinginlove is as bitterly disappointing as expected for a band who’s previous, BTS-featuring album, relied on emojis as song titles. Nobody will feel connection to fun little faces on their phone, aside from the saluting emoji used in times of great, personal distress. Yet on they plod, four years behind the cultural curve. Much the same occurs on feelslikeimfallinginlove. 

As mild as it is tame, it marks a sincere disappointment for Coldplay. They are far removed from innovative potential now and expecting much more from them would be futile. Pop as a bandwagon for their style exists only as a reminder of what once was. Before the shallow emotions of Lewis Capaldi and Taylor Swift took the world by storm, swallowing everyone in this cacophony of basic experiences which rely on main character syndrome rather than personal reflection. It would be the same for Martin if he were a solo artist, but he is not. Coldplay instead has formed an impenetrable base of conclusive, by-the-numbers pop music which both fails to challenge the pop norm yet sounds nothing like the average experience. It is much worse. 

It certainly feels like falling. The low thud of expected pop varieties sprinkled underneath the plain tones of Martin. Bad feelings, the intensity of losing love paired with the gamble of gaining it. This is the lowly back-and-forth at his disposal. Where feelslikeimfallinginlove fails is in its repetitive sound. No different to the excessive forces of Coldplay over the last decade. Nothing to set it out from the rest. Coldplay works as all pop music does, with an indifferent speculation on committal. This is not the feeling of falling in love, but the replication of possibility. Where there can be room for growth and joy in this is lost on Coldplay, who instead use these blanks as room for complacency, rather than risk.  

Serviceable pop music takes hit after hit and Coldplay is no longer of help or use. The rumours of final albums and retiring from the studio efforts would now do nothing to stoke the fires of creative energies. A sort of big music sound which U2 would piece together for their albums of the last two decades. Indifferent sounds with the occasional chance to hear something well-moved or meaningful. No such luck for Coldplay, whose feelslikeimfallinginlove is a musically indifferent piece. No sonic force of wild variety, not a sense of interest in its instrumental purpose. Just there. More matter for the void of your commute. Three minutes and fifty-seven seconds of muting your surroundings with something as uninteresting as the trains you board. Coldplay used to matter. They were, like it or not, innovators and highly regarded.  

The impression now laid upon them is their fault. When a band is prouder of its plastic bottle vinyls than the music on it, then the purpose is lost. We can applaud the use of processed plastics. Moon Music is a lost cause if the music does not hold up. Coldplay lost the process of this a long while ago yet strived for, their mind on other things. Martin is still as confident a frontman as you can ask for, but they are lyrically limited. When the world around you is meant to stop moving at your request you lose the sense of rooted immediacy which comes from experience. Martin and Coldplay now peddle the likes of feelslikeimfallinginlove, gently scolding their listeners with dull love stories as they chastise us for throwing our bottles away in the wrong bin.