Everyday Life (Coldplay album)


Everyday Life is the eighth studio album by British rock band Coldplay. It was released on 22 November 2019 by Parlophone in the United Kingdom and Atlantic Records in the United States. It is a double album, with the first half titled Sunrise and the other Sunset. The release coincided with Coldplay: Everyday Life - Live in Jordan, in which performances of each half of the album were live streamed from Amman, Jordan, at sunrise and sunset, respectively.
The album was recorded from 2018 to mid 2019, with some songs coming from the Viva la Vida recording sessions in 2007–2008. Many returning producers and collaborators joined the band's efforts including "The Dream Team", Davide Rossi, and Emily Lazar. Speculation about the album's existence persisted since their previous record, A Head Full of Dreams, as rumours circulated that Coldplay would disband. This is the band's second studio album not to be supported by a major tour, the other being Ghost Stories.
The album received positive reviews from music critics. Most praised its experimental alt rock direction and the shift to politically charged lyrics. Everyday Life was praised for its varied song styles in contrast to their old roots of their previous albums Parachutes to Viva la Vida. Some were less enthusiastic about the execution of the experimental style, citing the album's lack of a thematic consistency. Commercially, Everyday Life earned the band their eighth number-one album on the UK Albums Chart and their seventh top-ten album on the Billboard 200 in the US. It was supported by four singles: "Orphans" / "Arabesque" in October 2019, "Everyday Life" in November, and "Champion of the World" in February 2020.

Promotion

On 13 October 2019, black-and-white posters featuring the band teasing the album, and the date "22 November 1919" appeared in various cities around the world, including São Paulo, Berlin, Hong Kong and Sydney. On 19 October, a video teaser featuring the same theme was also released. Two days later, several fans began receiving typewritten notes from the band in the mail.
On 23 October, the track listing was announced by the band in the advertising sections of several newspapers around the world. This included the North Wales Daily Post, where guitarist Jonny Buckland "once had a holiday job". The 19 November edition of the New Zealand newspaper Otago Daily Times featured advertisements containing lyrics to the tracks from the album.

Surround sound

The album was recorded using Dolby Atmos technology.

Live performances

During an online press conference on 1 November, Coldplay announced they would perform Everyday Life in two shows in Amman, Jordan on 22 November, the release date of the album. The first show showcased the band performing the first half of the album Sunrise at 4:00 a.m. GMT, and the second show featured the performance of Sunset at 2:00 p.m. GMT. The shows, which were livestreamed on YouTube, marked the band's first ever performances in the country. Both shows were promoted and advertised as YouTube Originals. The two shows were performed without an audience, but the following night the band performed their first public show at the Citadel in Jordan's capital city Amman. On 18 November, the band announced a one-off show at the London Natural History Museum on 25 November, with proceeds from the show to be donated to an environmental charity. However, the band announced that they would not play a world tour to promote the album until they had addressed concerns regarding travel and the environmental impact of the shows.

Singles

"Orphans" and "Arabesque" were released as the album's lead singles on 24 October 2019 on the Annie Mac show on BBC Radio 1. The next day, the music video for Orphans came out. Arabesque does not have one. "Everyday Life" was released as the third single on 3 November 2019. The music video was released on December 9, 2019. On 20 November 2019 a music video for "Daddy" and a lyric video for "Champion of the World" were released; the latter was also released as a single on 25 February 2020. The "Cry Cry Cry" music video, which was co-directed by Chris' girlfriend Dakota Johnson, was released on 14 February 2020. The "Trouble in Town" music video was released on 12 March 2020.

Critical reception

Everyday Life received generally positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 73 out of 100 based on 26 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", becoming the band's second highest-scored album on the website, behind A Rush of Blood to the Head. Writing for The Daily Telegraph, Neil McCormick acclaimed the experimentation of the album, stating that Everyday Life "feels organic, analogue and playful as Coldplay dip into different musical genres," and further highlighted Martin's "golden gift for melody, almost simplistically direct lyrics and emotive crooning." Chris DeVille of Stereogum considered that the album's experimentation and use of multiple genres worked "more often than not," and commended the band's "more nuanced" exploration of social issues, concluding that it was a "truly great album." In her review for NME, Charlotte Krol claimed that the record "is proof that Coldplay are more adventurous than they're often given credit for," despite some of its songs being "sometimes more exciting in theory than in practice."
Other reviewers were less enthusiastic about the album's experimentation. Although The Guardians Alexis Petridis considered it a "laudable intention," he found the album "wildly uneven" and was critical of the "lyrical vagueness" of various songs dealing with "sociopolitical matters," but complimented "a couple of acoustic tracks with genuine emotional heft." In the same vein, Adam White of The Independent described the album as a "valiant, if flawed, attempt to break from tradition" and a "fascinating, occasionally brilliant curio," but considered that the band were "still very much figuring out how to respond to a world that has become meaner, dirtier and crueller," nevertheless considering the effort admirable. Ludovic Hunter-Tilney of the Financial Times found the album "platitudinising," but considered Martin's songwriting "more focused than usual;" he additionally noted the album's "quirky production" and balancing of "contradictory urges to play it safe and take a risk."

Commercial performance

Everyday Life debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, becoming Coldplay's eighth UK number-one album. The album was the third-fastest selling album of 2019 in the UK, behind No.6 Collaborations Project and Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent. It also debuted at number seven on the US Billboard 200 with 48,000 album-equivalent units, including 36,000 pure album sales, their lowest peak position with an album since Parachutes in 2000.

Track listing

Notes
Sample credits
Credits adapted from the "Orphans / Arabesque" liner notes.

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history