Coldplay to Create New Album

While Coldplay's music remains at the top of the charts, nothing new has come from the popular band in nearly two years. The popular British band skyrocketed to the top of the American and British charts with their strong instrumental backgrounds and powerful vocals from lead singer Chris Martin. Coldplay has toured around the globe, not just the expected United States touring. In fact, Coldplay is nearing the conclusion of a Latin American tour, during which Martin celebrated his 30th birthday in Mexico¹.

During the time between the announcement of the record making and the release of their last record, "X&Y", the band has been touring as well as campaigning for free trade causes. In fact, the lead singer Chris Martin has been an outspoken advocate for free trade in Africa as part of Oxfam's "Make Trade Fair" program. Under the auspices of that program, he has visited Africa on several occasions to document and popularize the detrimental effect of Western economic dispositions towards the African continent, such as the dumping of Western surplus harvests on underdeveloped countries. According to an Oxfam/Make Trade Fair production, Martin hopes to utilize his celebrity status and the media to funnel information about the struggling, impoverished conditions of African farmers to the otherwise uninformed public back home. According to the AP, Oxfam distributes leaflets and information about fair trade causes at every Coldplay concert, reaffirming Chris Martin's commitment to the cause.

Despite the relative quiet of the whole of the band, Chris Martin announced that the band was eagerly working on a revolutionary new song that he humorously called "genius"¹. Indeed, the band is hoping that the surge in popularity associated with a hit single will propel the impending CD to the top of the music charts upon release. The band is wagering so much on the apparently fantastic song that they have been making nearly sensationalist claims about it.

"In order for us to get excited about a new album, we have to have one song that we feel like everybody has to hear ... before we die, otherwise we'll be terribly depressed," Martin said. "So luckily with this new record we're going to make, we have that one song."¹

If Coldplay's tactics prove effective combined with the band's stellar history and fan base, the planned CD will receive tremendous acclaim, attention, and revenue. Depending on its success, the album could outsell its wildly popular predecessor, "X&Y", which sold over 2 million copies since its 2005 release¹.

Julie Watson, "Britain's Coldplay Working on New Album". Associated Press. URL:
(http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2007/03/04/598253-britains-coldplay-working-on-new-album)