Coldplay is seeing a resurgence of one of its greatest classics, ‘Viva la Vida’, in the charts these days. Positioned at number 37 on the Spotify global chart, it is once again one of the most successful songs in the world 15 years after its release. Coldplay has a total of 6 hits among the most listened to in the world, all of them old: ‘Something Just Like This’ with The Chainsmokers at number 58, ‘Yellow’ at number 78, ‘A Sky Full of Stars’ at number 82 and ‘Sparks’ at number 126.
Where is that same Coldplay audience listening to ‘feelslikeimfallinginlove’, the first single from ‘Moon Music’, Coldplay’s new album, is one of the questions that this new era of Chris Martin’s band is raising. ‘Higher Power’ ended up being a huge success, but it doesn’t seem like ‘feelslikeimfallinginlove’ is going down the same path. It’s going fairly unnoticed.
Now, Coldplay are making a move by releasing the second single from ‘Moon Music’. In ‘We Pray’, Coldplay brings together Little Simz, Burna Boy, TINI and Elyanna on a single recording. The message between the lines seems to be that music is a universal language (Elyanna is Palestinian). The lyrics of ‘We Pray’ speak of helping each other, of overcoming obstacles. Coldplay is happy to “have a home and a few records to listen to.” Each of the guest artists brings their own style, their own colour, to ‘We Are the World’.
The result of ‘We Pray’ is a tacky production halfway between trap-pop and chamber music, in which more people than can be counted have participated, including Max Martin, whose contribution is not entirely clear, apart from his name; Shawn Carter, that is, Jay-Z, for some mysterious reason; and, if that were not enough, also the duo of Andrés Torres and Mauricio Rengifo, authors of ‘Despacito’ and recently collaborators of Aitana. And these are just some of the composers involved in the song.
This mix of names is disconcerting, but even stranger is this mixture of styles that, over a mix of trap and pop, places some cello staccatos almost as pronounced as those of ‘Viva la Vida’, and decides to say goodbye with a gospel choir, just to end on a high note. But the worst thing about ‘We Pray’ is not that it tries -or seems to- to be the new ‘Viva la Vida’ now that it is playing all over the world again. The worst thing is that it desperately tries to be an anthem. And anthems never sound forced.
