A Head Full of Dreams
| A Head Full of Dreams | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||
| Studio album by Coldplay | |||||
| Released | 4 December 2015 | ||||
| Recorded | Summer 2014 – Autumn 2015 | ||||
| Studio |
|
||||
| Length | 45:45 | ||||
| Label | |||||
| Producer |
|
||||
| Coldplay chronology | |||||
|
|||||
| Coldplay studio album chronology | |||||
|
|||||
| Singles from A Head Full of Dreams | |||||
|
|||||
A Head Full of Dreams is the seventh studio album by British rock band Coldplay. It was released on 4 December 2015 by Parlophone and Atlantic Records.[1] It is the second album by the band in North America under Atlantic, after Coldplay were transferred from Capitol Records America in 2013.
For various songs on the album, Coldplay collaborated with Beyoncé, Noel Gallagher, Tove Lo, Khatia Buniatishvili and Merry Clayton. The album was produced by Rik Simpson and Stargate.[1][2] Coldplay have also revealed that the album features a sample of the U.S. President Barack Obama singing Amazing Grace at Clementa C. Pinckney’s funeral on the track “Kaleidoscope”.[3][4]
Contents
[hide]
Background[edit]
Coldplay began working on A Head Full of Dreams in the summer of 2014 while they were promoting their sixth album Ghost Stories. In an interview with Radio 2 DJ Jo Whileyin December 2014, bassist Guy Berryman and guitarist Jonny Buckland gave a hint as to the difference between A Head Full of Dreams and its predecessor – Buckland called it the “night to the day”, comparing the style of Ghost Stories to the expected uplifting theme of A Head Full of Dreams. Frontman Chris Martin hinted at the style of the album by saying that the band was trying to make something colourful and uplifting. He also stated that it would be something to “shuffle your feet” to.
On 26 September 2015, the band performed at the Global Citizen Festival 2015 in New York City, playing a six-song set, including a new song called “Amazing Day”.[5] The band’s producer Rik Simpson confirmed that the song would be on the new album.[6]
Production[edit]
The album has been produced by Rik Simpson (the band’s longterm collaborator) and Norwegian duo Stargate (Tor Hermansen and Mikkel Eriksen). Mixing duties were carried out predominately by Rik Simpson. Stargate executive produced the album. The album has a very electronic rock sound with neon soul vocal strategy from Chris Martin.
Promotion[edit]
Tour[edit]
Compared to the sparse tour dates of the Ghost Stories era, Coldplay are expected to announce a larger global tour, resembling rather the Mylo Xyloto Tour than the Ghost Stories Tour, to promote both A Head Full of Dreams and Ghost Stories. It is rumoured that the band will perform in locations such as India and South America[7] – more specifically, they are rumoured to tour Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia in the first half of 2016.[8] They have since confirmed that pre-production on the tour has started and that the official tour is planned to start next year.[7] In 20 November 2015, they announced the A Head Full of Dreams Tour, with shows inSouth America starting at 31 March 2016, Buenos Aires and a European leg is also announced for summer 2016. They will play in Peru for the first time, on April 5th, 2016.
Poster and cover[edit]
Around 30 October 2015, anonymous posters were pinned up on the London Underground showing a geometric pattern, known as the Flower of Life, along with a note “December 4”.[9][10][11][12][13] Coldplay fans claimed that the symbol resembled the design on a T-shirt worn by Coldplay frontman Chris Martin at the Global Citizen Festival in New York. On 2 November, Coldplay posted the same piece of artwork as an animated GIF on their Twitter account, seemingly confirming that it would be the album cover and 4 December was the album’s release date.[11] One day later, they published another animated image of which the former was a detailed view.[citation needed]
Live promotion[edit]
At the Global Citizen Festival in New York, they performed a six song setlist, which concluded with the live debut of their new song, “Amazing Day”. They also ended up playing it during the encore of TFI Friday, where they also gave the live debut of “Adventure of a Lifetime“. They concluded their TFI performance with “Amazing Day”, “Clocks” and “A Sky Full of Stars“. During their exclusive concert at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles, they performed 4 songs from the new album including previously played songs “Adventure of a Lifetime” and “Amazing Day” as well as the live debut of songs “A Head Full of Dreams” and “Up&Up.” On November 24th, Coldplay started releasing 10-15 second snippets of each song on the new album via Instagram in an hourly interval.[14]
Singles[edit]
The first single to promote the album, “Adventure of a Lifetime“, was released on 6 November 2015.[1][15]
Promotional singles[edit]
“Everglow” was released as the first and only promotional single from the album on November 26, 2015. The song was premiered by Zane Lowe on his radio show Beats 1.[16]
Critical reception[edit]
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [17] |
| Consequence of Sound | C[18] |
| The Guardian | [19] |
| The Independent | [20] |
| Pitchfork Media | 4.8/10[21] |
| Rolling Stone | [22] |
| Spin | 6/10[23] |
A Head Full of Dreams has received mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received a score of 57 out of 100, indicating “mixed or average” reviews from 11 critics.[24]
Track listing[edit]
All songs written and composed by Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion and Chris Martin. All songs arranged by Coldplay and Stargate.
| A Head Full of Dreams | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Producer(s) | Length |
| 1. | “A Head Full of Dreams” |
|
3:43 |
| 2. | “Birds” |
|
3:49 |
| 3. | “Hymn for the Weekend” |
|
4:18 |
| 4. | “Everglow“ |
|
4:42 |
| 5. | “Adventure of a Lifetime“ |
|
4:23 |
| 6. | “Fun” (featuring Tove Lo) |
|
4:27 |
| 7. | “Kaleidoscope” |
|
1:51 |
| 8. | “Army of One” (includes hidden track “X Marks the Spot” at 3:25) |
|
6:16 |
| 9. | “Amazing Day” |
|
4:31 |
| 10. | “Colour Spectrum” | Green | 1:00 |
| 11. | “Up&Up” |
|
6:45 |
|
Total length:
|
45:45 | ||
| [show]A Head Full of Dreams — Japanese edition (bonus track)[25] |
|---|
- Notes
- ^[a] signifies an additional producer
- “Kaleidoscope” contains elements of the poem “The Guesthouse” written by Jellaludin Rumi, and elements of “Amazing Grace” (written by John Newton and performed by Barack Obama).
Personnel[edit]
Credits are adapted from A Head Full of Dreams liner notes.[26]
Nico Berryman, Jonah Buckland, Violet Buckland, Blue Ivy Carter, Ava Champion, Juno Champion, Marianna Champion, Rex Champion, Aubrey Costall, Harvey Costall, Brian Eno, Elise Eriksen, Hege Fossum Eriksen, Selma Eriksen, Jacob Green, Sophia Green, Daniel Grollo, Finn Grollo, Kat Grollo, Mathilda Grollo, Max Harvey, Rofi Harvey, Idil Hermansen, Isak Hermansen, Alison Martin, Apple Martin & Moses Martin. |
|
Release history[edit]
| Region | Date | Format | Label | Catalog no. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Worldwide | 4 December 2015 | Parlophone | 0825646982646 | |
| LP | 0825646982158 |
References[edit]
- ^ Jump up to:a b c d Minsker, Evan; Monroe, Jazz (6 November 2015). “Coldplay Enlist Beyoncé, Noel Gallagher, More for New Album, Share “Adventure of a Lifetime””. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
- Jump up^ Brandle, Lars (6 November 2015). “Coldplay Announces New Album Featuring Beyonce & Tove Lo; Premieres New Song: Listen”. Billboard. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
- Jump up^ “Coldplay Album Features President Obama Singing “Amazing Grace””. Pitchfork.com. Pitchfork. 23 November 2015. Retrieved25 November 2015.
- Jump up^ “Barack Obama to feature on new Coldplay album”. thesun.co.uk. The Sun. 23 November 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
- Jump up^ Kreps, Daniel (27 September 2015). “Coldplay Debut New Song, Perform With Ariana Grande at Global Citizen”. Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
- Jump up^ “Coldplay confirm new music”. Sky News Australia. 3 November 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
- ^ Jump up to:a b “Coldplay Preparing To Kick Off New Tour”. Coldplaying.com. 3 November 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
- Jump up^ Del Real, A.; Vergara, C. (2 October 2015). “Eminem y Coldplay alistan sus visitas a Chile para la primera parte de 2016”. La Tercera (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 November 2015.
- Jump up^ “Is this Coldplay’s A Head Full of Dreams cover?”. Newsbeat. BBC. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
- Jump up^ Stutz, Colin (30 October 2015). “Is Coldplay Revealing Its Album Release Date With These Mysterious London Posters?”. Billboard. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
- ^ Jump up to:a b Jones, Damian (2 November 2015). “Coldplay appear to confirm mysterious advert is the artwork for their new album”. NME. Retrieved2 November 2015.
- Jump up^ Connick, Tom (30 October 2015). “Looks like Coldplay are about to announce a new album”. DIY. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
- Jump up^ “Is a New Coldplay Album Coming December 4th?”. Radio.com. 30 October 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
- Jump up^ “Coldplay Preview Every Song on New A Head Full of Dreams”.Pitchfork.com. Pitchfork. 24 November 2015. Retrieved 25 November2015.
- Jump up^ “#AOAL #AHFOD”. Coldplay. YouTube. 5 November 2015. Retrieved5 November 2015.
- Jump up^ “Coldplay Releases ‘Everglow’ featuring Gwyneth Paltrow”.Variety.com. Variety. 28 November 2015. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
- Jump up^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. “A Head Full of Dreams – Coldplay”.AllMusic. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
- Jump up^ Schaults, Janine (4 December 2015). “Coldplay – A Head Full of Dreams”. Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
- Jump up^ Petridis, Alexis (4 December 2015). “Coldplay: A Head Full of Dreams review – a failure to commit to pop”. The Guardian. Retrieved4 December 2015.
- Jump up^ Gill, Andy (4 December 2015). “Coldplay, A Head Full of Dreams: ‘Too much emotional laundry but it’s a step in the right direction’, album review”. The Independent. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
- Jump up^ Berman, Stuart. “Coldplay: A Head Full of Dreams”. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
- Jump up^ Dolan, Jon (4 December 2015). “A Head Full of Dreams”. Rolling Stone. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
- Jump up^ Unterberger, Andrew (4 December 2015). “Review: Coldplay Are All Too Eager to Exit Gracefully With ‘A Head Full of Dreams’”. Spin. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
- Jump up^ “Reviews for A Head Full of Dreams by Coldplay”. Metacritic. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
- Jump up^ “A Head Full of Dreams [Japan Bonus Track] COLDPLAY CD Album”.CDJapan. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
- Jump up^ A Head Full of Dream (booklet). Coldplay. Parlophone. 2015. 1053933969.
- Jump up^ Rossi, Davide (7 November 2015). “Kept this quite but everyone knows by now! Proud to be on two songs of the new @coldplay album”.Twitter. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
|
||
Coldplay – Amazing Day (new song) (lyric) testo + traduzione (lyrics)
Related posts:
The Spiritual Implication of Coldplay songs
_________ Coldplay – Midnight At the bottom of this post are links to other articles about the spiritual implications of some Coldplay songs. Midnight (Coldplay song) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia “Midnight” Song by Coldplay Recorded 2013 at The Bakery and The Beehive (London, England) Genre Ambient, experimental rock,electronic[1] Label Parlophone, Atlantic Writer Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion, Jon Hopkins, Chris Martin Producer […]
“Music Monday” The most popular posts in the last 30 days about the spiritual quest of Chris Martin of Coldplay that can be found on www.thedailyhatch.org
These are some of the most popular posts in the last 30 days about the spiritual quest of Chris Martin of Coldplay that can be found on http://www.thedailyhatch.org: Chris Martin of Coldplay unknowingly lives out his childhood Christian beliefs (Part 3 of notes from June 23, 2012 Dallas Coldplay Concert, Martin left Christianity because of […]
Steve Jobs, Death, Woody Allen, Ecclesiastes and the band Coldplay
_________________________ (If you want to check out other posts I have done about about Steve Jobs:Some say Steve Jobs was an atheist , Steve Jobs and Adoption , What is the eternal impact of Steve Jobs’ life? ,Steve Jobs versus President Obama: Who created more jobs? ,Steve Jobs’ view of death and what the Bible has to say about it ,8 things you might not know about […]
“Music Monday” Coldplay the documentary with pictures and videos (Part 7 )
Coldplay Live 2003 Backstage Chris Martin revealed in his interview with Howard Stern that he was rasied an evangelical Christian but he has left the church. I believe that many words that he puts in his songs today are generated from the deep seated Christian beliefs from his childhood that find their way out in […]
The Daily Hatch 