‘Adventure Of A Lifetime’ by Coldplay (Single)

Colour play with Coldplay. Pic: Julia Kennedy

With a notable shift in direction from their last album, English pop-rockers could be returning to what they do best

Last week, rumours of a Coldplay return came to a head when a mysterious flower design – first seen on a T-shirt worn by frontman Chris Martin, and more recently on a London tube poster – gave way to some real music clips for the first time. On Thursday, the release became official when the band dropped their first single from highly anticipated seventh album A Head Full Of Dreams.

The track is upbeat, with an impressively funky rhythm section and a little added sparkle courtesy of some auxiliary percussion and a noodly lead guitar line. Ultimately it’s a pop song, and an intricate analysis of harmony and structure will reveal nothing but a pleasing level of cohesiveness, and a robust understanding of what makes audiences tick.

If the band’s last big hit, A Sky Full of Stars, took its pop inspiration from Avicii, Adventure Of A Lifetime looks to Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams. A clear cousin of 2013 smash Get Lucky, the new Coldplay track certainly is catchy, though the chorus isn’t quite in the same league.

The band’s last LP, Ghost Stories, feels like a world away. The darkness of that album still haunts the memory, though it was sometimes achingly beautiful. Indeed, alarm bells were ringing when Coldplay stuck a new ballad in their set for Global Citizen, NYC. Amazing Day was slow and a bit sad, but thankfully there’s none of that here.

Time will tell which of the two new tracks better represents the album as a whole – let’s hope it’s Adventure Of A Lifetime.

Verdict: Catchy, funky, well-produced – this bodes well

Patrick Reardon-Morgan

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