Coloratura

Album: Music Of The Spheres (2021)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Coloratura" is a musical term referring to the extravagant ornamentation of a vocal melody, especially in operatic singing of the 18th and 19th centuries. The word means "coloring" in Italian. Here, Coldplay describe a voyage into the cosmos towards a fictional nebula named Coloratura where "love comes pouring out and everyone's allowed."
  • This 10-minute multi-suite space epic is the closing track of Music Of The Spheres. The extravagant prog rocker name-checks the pioneering astronomer Galileo, the Pioneer space missions, and such celestial bodies as Helix, Oumuamua, Heliopaus, Neptune and Betelgeuse.
  • The song ties in with the album's interstellar theme, which Coldplay singer Chris Martin said came to life after he watched the Star Wars movies. He recalled watching the scene with the cantina band playing at the spaceport and was left wondering what musicians are like elsewhere in the universe.
  • At 10 minutes and 18 seconds, this is the longest song Coldplay have ever released.
  • Coldplay wrote the song with:

    Swedish hitmaker Max Martin.

    Paris Strother of the LA-based future-soul band We Are King.

    String arrangers Davide Rossi (who worked with Coldplay on Viva La Vida, Mylo Xyloto and A Head Full Of Dreams) and John Metcalfe of Durutti Column.
  • Max Martin produced the song with co-production from longtime Coldplay collaborators Rik Simpson and Bill Rahko.
  • Coldplay told Apple Music they wanted something "unashamedly long and complicated" as a counterbalance to some of the poppier tracks.

    The song actually started off with more of a conventional structure, then Chris Martin turned up with an arrangement incorporating different interludes and sections. The band and the producers then pieced it all together.

    Max Martin barely got involved on this track. Coldplay commented: "If he got hands on it, I think it would be chopped up into something a lot shorter, the chorus 10 seconds in."

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