“Magic” by Coldplay

"Magic" was the lead single from Ghost Stories, Coldplay's sixth album, out on March 3, 2014, and it's a low-lit, patient song hung on a bass riff: that riff, the first piece of the song, came from Guy Berryman during the band's sessions in February 2013. They recorded it in North London at The Bakery and The Beehive, the studios they had built to make Viva la Vida and Mylo Xyloto, and all four members share the writing credit.

Chris Martin sings and plays piano and acoustic guitar, Jonny Buckland adds guitar and Will Champion handles drums and percussion. The band produced it with Paul Epworth, who also chips in extra keyboards, plus Daniel Green and Rik Simpson, and Mark "Spike" Stent mixed. The single's sleeve is an etching by the Czech artist Mila Fürstová: a white dove on a field of blue.

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