Where There Are Miracles At Work

Coldplay “A Head Full of Dreams”

Coldplay’s new album is so self-consciously joyful that it’s kinda creepy, because even if a guy like Chris Martin has plenty of reasons to be extremely happy, his insistence on telling you how happy he is over and over and over just comes across like overcompensation and/or self-delusion. Coldplay records often feel like performances of emotions, like the things you’d do to show people that, yes, you’re totally a human being and nothing is wrong with me, ha ha, no, look away. But this new one pushes that all to an extreme, and it’s fascinating to hear funky, upbeat, relentlessly optimistic music that perhaps unintentionally signals so much doubt and emptiness. “A Head Full of Dreams” draws on Martin’s career-long obsession with transcendental experiences but has this quasi-EDM throb to it that suits his music surprisingly well, maybe because that music is always angling for transcendence too. The vague sadness at the core of it makes the desire to be happy and feel good about the universe seem urgent, maybe even desperate. It sounds less like a musical comb-over for an aging band and more like someone who’s just fighting for his survival.

Buy it from Amazon.