Children, Youth and Families Blog: Moon Music

Published: Wednesday October 16, 2024

Senior Connector Barrie Voyce reflects on the new Coldplay album “Moon Music”Connect

Straight off the bat I have to confess, I like Coldplay. Their music has always resonated with me, from the moment I first heard “Yellow” and had to pull my car over to the side of the road in emotional reverence.

The band’s tenth album, Moon Music, which dropped at the beginning of October, had a similar impact upon me. I sat and listened whilst working from home, and at several moments had to restart the current track to listen more intently.

In an interview with NME magazine, Chris Martin describes the album as the story of waking up in the morning and feeling terrible about yourself, terrible about the world – depressed, isolated, separate, alone, and not able to be yourself.

“Through the album, it’s a journey to feeling the complete opposite at the end of the day.”

In essence the album is a process of Re-membering, literally putting oneself back together through reflection on current and past experiences and relationships, and interactions with the world around you. It is a deeply spiritual experience with deeply spiritual themes.

The opening, title track asks the question “Is anyone out there? I’m close to the end… I just need a friend”. This concludes in ONE WORLD that “in the end, it’s just love”.

Martin is the son of a Vicar, and whilst he has never professed an overtly Christian faith, like many of his (my) generation, he explores belief, spirituality and wellbeing throughout his music and in conversation. The track WE PRAY draws on the Iranian Protest movement “Baraye” but calls out “We pray with every breath / Though I’m in the valley of the shadow of death / And so we pray for someone to come and show me the way”.

Coldplay’s popularity is much wider than my Generation X. My 19 year old daughter’s bucket list is topped with “See Coldplay Live” – whilst their broad appeal can sometimes be critiqued as being banal, their ability to weave together cultural ideas from more than one generation is at the heart of their universality.

Moon Music achieves this most obviously through the image of the rainbow. Rainbows appear throughout the various tracks: “JUPiTER” explores the struggles of a LGBTQI woman coming to terms with her gender and sexuality, whilst the largely instrumental track named simply as the rainbow emoji concludes with a recording of Maya Angelou reading a 19th Century slave song:

“When it looked like the sun wasn’t gonna shine anymore
God put a rainbow in the clouds
God put a rainbow in the clouds”

So why am I spending so much time exploring this album here? All too often we can err towards a “church and secular” divide, tacitly buying into the old saying that “the devil gets all the good tunes” and wanting to encourage young people to listen to wholesome, Christian music – be that traditional or modern.

Moon Music’s first week sales and downloads is the highest this year both here and in the USA. Coldplay continue to be the biggest band on the planet, with appeal across generations and cultures. You will go a long way to find a young person who hasn’t listened to at least some of it, and within the tracks, not even below the surface but boldly on display, is a richness of faith-fuelled, Christian-influenced, God-inspired lyrics and music which gives us space to explore with young people the questions and meanings that the band are giving us.

A group of people of all different ages sharing a meal together

One thought on “Children, Youth and Families Blog: Moon Music

  1. Dear Barrie
    Thank you for this, Moon Music has been sitting on the dining room table since October 4th, waiting for the right moment to listen. I and my wife, Rev Jane, both love and are captivated (if that’s the right word!) by COLDPLAY’s music. We were lucky enough to see them in Dublin in August this year, no words can describe what you have just experienced. I have been waiting 20 years to see them live, ever since I heard Viva La Vida at Lee Abbey, totally smitten. Your daughter must keep plugging away to get tickets.
    You are so right about their music and lyrics, brings hope into this very troubled world of ours.
    THANK YOU
    Blessings
    PJ

    Paul Jones-Williams
    Churchwarden!
    PS – Age is just a number…one of our congregation, who celebrated his 80th birthday this year, was quite envious of our trip, he too loves their music !!

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