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Mar 09, 2020 By Christopher Roberts Coldplay

Coldplay released a new album, Everyday Life, last year via Parlophone/Atlantic. Now they have stopped by NPR Music to perform five songs as part of their Tiny Desk Concert series, including a cover of Prince’s “1999,” “Viva La Vida” (the title track to their 2008 album of the same name), and three Everyday Life songs (“Cry Cry Cry,” “Broken,” and “Champion of the World”). The band’s frontman Chris Martin and guitarist Jonny Buckland were joined by a nine-person choir. For the uninitiated, Tiny Desk Concerts are stripped down sets recorded at the desk of Bob Boilen, the host of NPR’s All Songs Considered. Watch the performance below.

Previously Coldplay shared Everyday Life‘s first two singles: “Orphans” and “Arabesque.” “Orphans” was catchy but a bit Coldplay-by-numbers, whereas “Arabesque” was much more interesting. It’s nearly six minutes long and has an Afrobeat vibe, which makes sense considering Fela Kuti and is band contribute horns to it (it also features Stromae). “Arabesque” made it to #1 on our Songs of the Week list, a rare appearance by Coldplay.

Coldplay also shared a video for “Orphans.” Mat Whitecross directed the video, which starts simply with frontman Chris Martin performing the song acoustically on some city steps but increasingly gets more elaborate, including some “Dancing on the Ceiling” moments.

Then shared an amusing fake press conference, with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein (formerly of Portlandia of course) playing all the journalists, to announce some live-streamed concerts in Jordan on the day the album is released. Following that they stopped by Saturday Night Live perform two songs: recent single “Orphans” (partly performed in the audience with dancers) and a brand new song, album title track “Everyday Life.” Then right after that performance the band shared the studio version of “Everyday Life.”

Then Coldplay shared two more new songs from Everyday Life: “Daddy” and “Champion of the World.” The latter has a co-writing credit from the late Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit and the former is accompanied by a video produced by Aardman Animations (Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep). “Champion of the World” is inspired by Hutchison’s “Los Angeles Be Kind,” from his Owl John solo project, which is why he gets credit.

Then on the album’s release day Coldplay performed two live-streamed concerts from Anman, Jordan. Then they shared a video for the album’s title track, “Everyday Life.”

Everyday Life‘s cover art is “based around a 1919 photo of guitarist Jonny Buckland’s great-grandfather’s band.” The album was announced via postcards sent to fans and has been touted as an experimental double album, with one side titled “Sunrise” and the other “Sunset.”

Last year British actress Jodie Whittaker, who plays the first female Doctor in the long-running British sci-fi show Doctor Who, also covered Coldplay‘s hit “Yellow” with members of the band. It was recorded for Got It Covered, a new British charity album that benefits Children in Need.

Coldplay released their previous album, their seventh, A Head Full of Dreams, back in December 2015 via Parlophone/Atlantic and released a follow-up EP, Kaleidoscope EP, in July 2017, also via Parlophone/Atlantic.

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