(Parlophone)
Their 10th album has epic songs that make you feel like you’ve climbed Everest – but they’re undermined by corny lyrics and ​ambient-orchestral waffle

Amid worsening weather and worsening war, pop music can seem pointless at times – and more necessary than ever at others. Coldplay induce both of these feelings, sometimes within the space of a single song, with their spectacularly sentimental 10th studio album Moon Music.

Over some Chilled Piano to Study To motifs, Chris Martin opens the album wanting to be more optimistic, to “find the flight in every feather … I’m trying to trust in the heavens above / And I’m trying to trust in a world full of love”. The album then wills that world into existence, filled as it is with affirmations of humanity’s potential, celebrations of non-denominational spirituality, and an almost scrupulous avoidance of politics – an end-of-history utopia where cultural difference is championed but also homogenised into total harmony.