Coldplay’s New Max Martin-Produced Single ‘Higher Power’ Gets A Space Age Debut

Trust Coldplay to take it to the next level.
For their latest single — which is produced by Max Martin and leans decidedly pop — the band teamed up with French astronaut Thomas Pesquet aboard the International Space Station to officially premiere the track in space. After a quick chat with the French spaceman that can be watched here, the band got right into a specially-recorded performance of the track, complete with alien holograms who danced along to the stadium-ready bop, and possibly irritated Lady Gaga fans in the process. Not to worry Monsters, the Chromatica crossover is truly quite minimal, aside from some minor merch similarities.
Although the UK band has dabbled with pop sounds before — “Viva La Vida” anyone? — this song definitely feels like a shift toward that shimmering, polished sound, and the involvement of one of pop’s greatest super producers definitely sends that message as well. The band will be performing the song on American Idol this coming Sunday and at the upcoming Brit Awards next Tuesday. They’ll also be performing it during Glastonbury’s Live At Worthy Farm livestream on May 22. And what do all those performances mean? There’s probably going to be a new album coming soon. Check out their new pop direction above, and look out for more Coldplay news coming soon.