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A Head Full of Dreams

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Untitled

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]

Background

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 Whiley in 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

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.

Promotion

Tour

Main article: A Head Full of Dreams Tour

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 in South 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

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

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

The first single to promote the album, "Adventure of a Lifetime", was released on 6 November 2015.[1][15]

Promotional singles

"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

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Consequence of SoundC[17]
Evening Standard[18]
The Guardian[19]
The Independent[20]
The Telegraph[21]
The Upcoming[22]

Upon its release, A Head Full of Dreams received mixed to positive reviews from music critics. On Metacritic, the album has received a score of 53/100 based on 11 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [23]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion and Chris Martin. All songs arranged by Coldplay and Stargate

A Head Full of Dreams
No.TitleProducer(s)Length
1."A Head Full of Dreams"
3:43
2."Birds"
  • Simpson
  • Stargate
3:49
3."Hymn for the Weekend"
  • Simpson
  • Stargate
  • Digital Divide[a]
4:18
4."Everglow"
  • Simpson
  • Stargate
4:42
5."Adventure of a Lifetime"
  • Simpson
  • Stargate
4:23
6."Fun" (featuring Tove Lo)
  • Simpson
  • Stargate
4:27
7."Kaleidoscope"
  • Simpson
  • Stargate
1:51
8."Army of One" (includes a hidden track "X Marks the Spot" at 3:25)
  • Simpson
  • Stargate
  • Daniel Green ("X Marks the Spot")
6:16
9."Amazing Day"
  • Simpson
  • Stargate
4:31
10."Colour Spectrum"Green1:00
11."Up&Up"
  • Simpson
  • Stargate
6:45
Total length:45:45
A Head Full of Dreams — Japanese edition (bonus track)[24]
No.TitleProducer(s)Length
12."Miracles"
  • Stargate
  • Green
  • Simpson
3:55
Total length:49:40
Notes
  • ^[a] signifies an additional producer
  • "Kaleidoscope" contains elements of "Amazing Grace", written by John Newton and The Guesthouse and performed by Barack Obama

Personnel

Credits are adapted from A Head Full of Dreams liner notes.[25]

Release history

Region Date Format Label Catalog no.
Worldwide 4 December 2015 Digital download, CD Parlophone 0825646982646
LP 0825646982158

References

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ Brandle, Lars (6 November 2015). "Coldplay Announces New Album Featuring Beyonce & Tove Lo; Premieres New Song: Listen". Billboard. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  3. ^ "Coldplay Album Features President Obama Singing "Amazing Grace"". Pitchfork.com. Pitchfork. 23 November 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  4. ^ "Barack Obama to feature on new Coldplay album". thesun.co.uk. The Sun. 23 November 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  5. ^ Kreps, Daniel (27 September 2015). "Coldplay Debut New Song, Perform With Ariana Grande at Global Citizen". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
  6. ^ "Coldplay confirm new music". Sky News Australia. 3 November 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  7. ^ a b "Coldplay Preparing To Kick Off New Tour". Coldplaying.com. 3 November 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ "Is this Coldplay's A Head Full of Dreams cover?". Newsbeat. BBC. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
  10. ^ Stutz, Colin (30 October 2015). "Is Coldplay Revealing Its Album Release Date With These Mysterious London Posters?". Billboard. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
  11. ^ a b Jones, Damian (2 November 2015). "Coldplay appear to confirm mysterious advert is the artwork for their new album". NME. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
  12. ^ Connick, Tom (30 October 2015). "Looks like Coldplay are about to announce a new album". DIY. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
  13. ^ "Is a New Coldplay Album Coming December 4th?". Radio.com. 30 October 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
  14. ^ "Coldplay Preview Every Song on New A Head Full of Dreams". Pitchfork.com. Pitchfork. 24 November 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  15. ^ "#AOAL #AHFOD". Coldplay. YouTube. 5 November 2015. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  16. ^ "Coldplay Releases 'Everglow' featuring Gwyneth Paltrow". Variety.com. Variety. 28 November 2015. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
  17. ^ Schaults, Janine. "Coldplay – A Head Full of Dreams". Consequence of Sound. Consequence of Sound. {{cite web}}: Text "accessdate 4 December 2015" ignored (help)
  18. ^ Paine, Andre. [hhttp://www.standard.co.uk/stayingin/music/coldplay-a-head-full-of-dreams-album-review-uplifting-preppy-pop-with-a-pristine-finish-a3129771.html "Coldplay A Head Full of Dreams review Album Review Uplifting Preppy Pop With A Pristine Finish"]. Evening Standard. Evening Standard. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  19. ^ Petridix, Alexis. "Coldplay: A Head Full of Dreams review – a failure to commit to pop". The Guardian. The Guardian. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  20. ^ Gill, Andy. "Coldplay – A Head Full of Dreams Too Much Emotional Laundry But It Is a Step in the Right Direction". The Independent. The Independent. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  21. ^ Brown, Helen. "Coldplay, A Head Full of Dreams, album review: Coldplay get their groove back with Beyoncé". The Telegraph. The Telegraph. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  22. ^ L'Astorina, Filippo. "Coldplay – A Head Full of Dreams - Album review". The Upcoming. The Upcoming. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  23. ^ "A Head Full of Dreams by Coldplay". Metacritic. Metacritic. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  24. ^ "A Head Full of Dreams [Japan Bonus Track] COLDPLAY CD Album". CDJapan. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  25. ^ A Head Full of Dream (booklet). Coldplay. Parlophone. 2015. 1053933969.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  26. ^ 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.
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