Coldplay Mourn a Dying Relationship in New Song ‘Oceans’
Coldplay continue to tease their forthcoming record Ghost Stories, due next month, revealing its nine tracks slowly. The latest is the easygoing, downtempo “Oceans,” which the group recently played in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge. Drummer Will Champion begins the song with bell-like drum pads, as frontman Chris Martin strums an acoustic guitar and sings about a relationship falling apart. Guitarist and keyboardist Jonny Buckland adds some ephemeral accents throughout the song, augmenting the track with echoey guitars and keyboard pads.
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On Wednesday, the band also announced the release of Coldplay: Ghost Stories, an hourlong special set to air on NBC on Sunday, May 18th that will blend live footage with “360-degree imagery.” The special will be directed by “Coldplay Live 2012” filmmaker Paul Dugdale and will be, as a press release notes, “an immersive blend of light and video, dramatic staging and an intimate world-premiere performance.” The show was filmed in March, when the band played the album in its entirety at an L.A. soundstage that same month for an audience of 800.
The group first previewed the LP, which comes out May 16th, in February with the release of the stark, minimal chill-out track “Midnight,” which dance-music legend Giorgio Moroder recently gave a modern-disco facelift. The next month, they put out the whimsical love song “Magic” and a suitably whimsical video to match, in which Martin plays both the hero and the villain vying for the affection of a magician named Cecille, played by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon‘s Zhang Ziyi. Coldplay gave some of Ghost Stories’ songs their live debut in March at the iTunes Festival at South by Southwest.
So far, the group has announced two U.S. tour dates to support the album, both of which will take place in relatively small venues in New York and Los Angeles. The latter show will take place on the album’s release date.
Coldplay: Ghost Stories – TV Special Trailer