Coldplay - Kaleidoscope EP

Kaleidoscope (EP) is the thirteenth EP by British rock band Coldplay, released in July 2017 by Parlophone Records.

A sister-piece to 2015’s A Head Full of Dreams this EP is a continuation of Chris Martin and co’s pop dominance. There’s a live-in-Japan version of “Something Just Like This”, the woofer-quaking one-off collaboration with The Chainsmokers that marked Coldplay’s utmost immersion into EDM.

Clearly on a mission to rule over all of popular music, “Miracles (Someone Special)” even finds their indie tentacles reaching into synthetic R&B, guest rapper Big Sean cooing a verse about staying in school over slick electro funk while Chris Martin delivers a characteristically inspirational lyric about finding the Mandela, Ali and Gandhi within yourself.
The rest of the EP is a glorious return to Coldplay’s mid-’00s explorative period. Opening track “All I Can Think About Is You” begins as a dusky, ambient Radiohead art-throb in which a muffled Martin mumbles about “chaos giving orders”, sounding as if he’s hiding underwater from the political nightmares of 2017. Then, three minutes in, familiar Clocks piano chords kick in and the tune becomes a celestial scream of adoration, love rising above Trumpageddon.

A L I E N S, a collaboration with Brian Eno, is even more outré, mingling Spanish guitar with space-age synths. These five tracks climax with “Hypnotised”, a solemn country swooner resembling John Lennon’s “Mother”, easily their best barnstorming ballad since “Fix You”.

It’s heartening evidence that Coldplay haven’t entirely been sucked into the machinery while trying to subvert pop music from within. Hopefully this is the return to the norm.

Check out the tracks: “Something Just Like This” and “Miracles (Someone Special)”. 

This limited edition 12” EP with a poster and digital download is pressed in Europe on light blue vinyl.