Coldplay dropped their latest album “Everyday Life” on November 22. It’s their eighth studio album and their first full album since “A Head Full of Dreams” four years ago. But it’s more than full. It’s actually a double album with 16 total tracks divided into two sections: “Sunrise” and “Sunset.” And that’s not the only way this is an unorthodox record for the band. So what do critics think of it?
As of this writing “Everyday Life” has a MetaCritic score of 73 based on 10 reviews counted so far: seven positive, three somewhat mixed, none outright negative. If that number holds, it’ll be their highest score since “A Rush of Blood to the Head” back in 2002. And it’s one point better than “Viva La Vida” (2008), which earned them a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year and won them Song of the Year for its title track.
Reviewers say the British band’s latest is full of their usual “heart-on-sleeve stuff,” pulled together by front man Chris Martin‘s “golden gift for melody.” But they’re also “more adventurous than they’re often given credit for,” taking on “heady themes” including racism, faith and gun control. It’s “unconventional,” a “confounding experiment,” “their least immediate or mainstream-friendly effort thus far.” It “veers into multiple genres” “with varying degrees of success.”
Coldplay have won seven Grammys over the course of their careers, but despite being consistently nominated for their work throughout the 2010s, they haven’t actually won an award from the recording academy since the aforementioned “Viva La Vida” brought them three trophies in 2009. Could this departure from their previous work reignite the academy’s enthusiasm for them in 2021? Check out some of the reviews below, and join the discussion on this and more with your fellow music fans here in our forums.
Neil McCormick (The Telegraph): ” It is, as ever, heart-on-sleeve stuff, with all of Coldplay’s musical diversions bound together by Martin’s golden gift for melody, almost simplistically direct lyrics and emotive crooning. But, oh my goodness, you’d have to be made of sterner stuff than I to resist.”
Charlotte Krol (NME): “Chris Martin and co. take on heady themes of love, war, racism, faith, gun control, friendship, climate change, police brutality and more. This inventive eighth album is proof that Coldplay are more adventurous than they’re often given credit for … Ultimately, ‘Everyday Life’ is something of a confounding experiment. On the one hand it’s full of eclectic sounds and ideas.”
Neil Z. Yeung (AllMusic): “‘Everyday Life’ exists in its own strange, unpolished world, which frontman Chris Martin described as ‘totally raw’ and pure. Their least immediate or mainstream-friendly effort thus far, the unconventional set veers into multiple genres and various directions, which requires listeners to surrender to the experience.”
Alexis Petridis (The Guardian): “The straightforwardly Coldplay-esque moments sound more straightforward and Coldplay-esque than ever … Far better are a couple of acoustic tracks with genuine emotional heft … The rest of the album is given over to experiments, with varying degrees of success.”
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