Single Review: Coldplay – ‘Adventure of a Lifetime’
2 min read
Globally renowned rockers Coldplay have released the first single off the highly anticipated seventh studio album A Head Full of Dreams. Following on from award-winning releases such as A Rush of Blood to the Head and Viva La Vida this album is hotly rumoured to be their last. Again. This ‘last’ release enlists some unlikely guests such as Beyoncé, Noel Gallagher and Tove Lo and in a recent statement renowned front man Chris Martin commented ‘I have to think of it as the final thing we’re doing otherwise we wouldn’t put everything into it.” Martin has also been quoted as saying the new album would be ‘something you can shuffle your feet to’.
The first single Adventure of a Lifetime certainly is a song you can move to being a glittering and lively pop tune that offers a glimmer in to an improbable direction for the band. Coldplay fans hoping the exit from the British superstars will feature more Clocks-reminiscent material are going to be disappointed; rather than heading out with a style that showcases their signature sound and the best of their talent this track is messy with fusion; Coldplay have gone disco. Post-Paltrow breakup lyrics crooned by Martin are sickeningly optimistic and are supported with a weird Afro-pop guitar line that links in with a swaggering rhythm section. This track shows the band jumping new hoops as they move away from the routine love-struck euphoric signature and in to new possibilities as they execute a new kind of rhythm that will leave most wondering whether to love or hate it.
There’s an air to Adventure of a Lifetime that the band have not before exploited and whilst some credit should be given to them for experimenting with versatility in their sound at this late stage of their career, perhaps some styles aren’t well suited for certain groups and are best left untouched.
Good review, not fan boy, not hater. The only thing I would add is that uncharacteristically, the playing is substandard. It was the first thing I noticed, sloppy playing and vocals.