“Higher Power” by Coldplay

"Higher Power" was the first taste of Music of the Spheres, Coldplay's ninth studio album, arriving in May 2021 with Max Martin producing alongside Oscar Holter and Bill Rahko, and it goes all in on glossy, weightless pop. The whole band wrote it with Federico Vindver and Denise Carite. Keyboards come from every direction (Chris Martin, Max Martin, Holter, Vindver), Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland and Will Champion handle bass, guitar and drums, and a choir of Carite, Neka Hamilton, Dorian Holley and Stevie Mackey stands behind Chris Martin's vocal. Apple Martin and Rahko add extra voices; Serban Ghenea mixed.

Critics mostly warmed to it, and at the 64th Grammys it was up for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. PPL put it fifth among the year's most-played songs on UK radio and TV, the best showing by any band on that chart.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.