If Coldplay’s new album, “A Head Full of Dreams” (Parlophone/Atlantic), ends up being what singer Chris Martin is calling “the completion of something” and what fans are worrying may be the band’s final record, Martin and friends will go out on a high note. The album is now on subscription-only services such as Apple Music, Amazon Prime and Tidal (Coldplay frontman Chris Martin is one of Tidal’s many superstar backers), as well as MTV Trax and O2 Tracks.
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The band’s tried and tested stoicism resurfaces on Everglow, although pop textures now also feature, and if A Head Full of Dreams doesn’t match the quartet’s one unimpeachable triumph, 2008’s Viva la Vida…
“The band’s team aren’t anti-Spotify, they’re just not in love with “free” – you can probably expect it to drop on the service after a few weeks”, a source told music-industry site Music Business Worldwide. But the above albums were missing mostly because of Spotify’s insistence that ad-supported users have access to exactly the same music library as those paying for the Premium tier.
The guest list of collaborators includes Beyoncé, Noel Gallagher, Tove Lo and soul legend Merry Clayton; a sample of Barack Obama crooning Amazing Grace completes the starry line-up. More recently, Adele announced that her latest album, “25”, would not be available for streaming.
Their last album, 2014’s Ghost Stories, only became available on audio streaming services four months after it was released. “And I found it really ironic that the multibillion-dollar company reacted to criticism with humility, and the startup with no cash flow reacted to criticism like a corporate machine”.
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With now seven albums under their belt, Coldplay has a huge catalog of music to choose from for the halftime performance.
