Coldplay have revealed the tracklist for their forthcoming 10th album MOON MUSiC (out October 4th), and it’s a mix of weird capitalizations, emojis, and titles that could mean everything or nothing at all.
Take a look at the tracklist below and you’ll find bizarre gems like “iAAM” (which is short for “I Am a Mountain,” because of course it is), “JUPiTER,” and “🌈.” There are also song titles that feel completely in line with Coldplay’s altruistic, neon-soaked second wave (which started with 2011’s Mylo Xyloto and continued through their platitude-heavy 2021 album Music of the Spheres), like “ONE WORLD,” “AETERNA,” and title track “MOON MUSiC.”
The letter ‘i’ is noticeably in lowercase for each title, while every other letter is capitalized. Why, exactly? Perhaps it’s a suggestion that we make ourselves smaller in order to support the larger communities we find ourselves in. Or it’s just because it looks very modern, and Beyoncé just did the double ‘i’ thing on Cowboy Carter (itself a commentary on the marginalization of Black Americans in the South, but still).
While there’s a bit to glean from the tracklist, we still don’t quite know what Moon Music — excuse me, MOON MUSiC — is going to sound like, beyond the indestructible sheen that you get with Max Martin behind the boards.
Only one single has been revealed so far — “feelslikeimfallinginlove,” which they debuted during the ongoing European leg of their “Music of the Spheres Tour.” That song isn’t bad, per se — electronic producer Jon Hopkins, of all people, co-wrote the track. But it definitely sounds lab designed to billow out of stadium speakers and dominate grocery store playlists for the next six-to-eight years (see: Coldplay and The Chainsmokers’ utterly reprehensible collaboration “Something Just Like This”).
Coldplay are set to release the album’s second single, “WE PRAY,” on Friday, August 23rd — that single features the stacked, multi-cultural cast of Little Simz, Burna Boy, Elyanna, and TINI, and they debuted it during their headlining Glastonbury set back in June.
The rest of MOON MUSiC is still a mystery, but based on the tracklist, it looks like yet another exercise in fostering global unity, feeling your feelings, and how love will conquer all. After all, they did the emoji thing on the last album, and that turned out to be exactly what we expected.
Luckily, if the tracklist is making you feel dismal about the state of the future — of music, of Coldplay, of culture, of the world — the band is extending their commitment to sustainability with MOON MUSiC. Each physical LP of the album is created from 100% recycled plastic bottles; meanwhile, they’ve planted nine million trees for their recent “Music of the Spheres Tour” and reduced their overall CO2 emissions by 59% from their last global trek in 2016/2017. We can knock Coldplay for a silly tracklist, sure, but at least they’re using their platform to try and make the world a more livable place.
MOON MUSiC Tracklist:
01. MOON MUSiC
02. feelslikeimfallinginlove
03. WE PRAY ft Little Simz, Burna Boy, Elyanna & TINI
04. JUPiTER
05. GOOD FEELiNGS ft Ayra Starr
06. 🌈
07. iAAM
08. AETERNA
09. ALL MY LOVE
10. ONE WORLD
MOON MUSiC Artwork: