To mark NME’s exclusive interview with Coldplay’s Chris Martin, the singer also shared a playlist of what he’s currently listening to. Check them out below, along with Martin’s guide to songs from the likes of Fontaines DC, Peggy Gou, The Flaming Lips, Destiny’s Child and more.
Friday (October 4) will see the release of Coldplay’s 10th studio album ‘Moon Music’. As part of our wide-ranging interview with Glastonbury’s headliners, Martin also talked us through his own playlist of tracks he can’t get enough of at the moment, which you can stream below on Spotify and here on Apple Music.
“With the competitiveness and the professional jealousy, I feel very lucky because it turns so quickly into just being inspired by someone and then becoming a fan,” Martin told NME, before giving us the lowdown on his fan love for The Verve, REM. And Missy Elliott in his amazing choices. Check out the paths he chose and why here…
“It makes you forget (Etjehan)” – Peggy Jo
Chris Martin: “Peggy Goo is a genius, to me. Her grooves are great. Some people are still in the age of social media and everyone knows everything, while some people have a ‘cool’ about them. Nick Cave was great about him, and Jay-Z is great without Trouble, and I think Peggy Gou of course has the song “Nanana,” which was great, but I heard “If It Makes You Forget” a few years ago, and every time I do it I’m like, “How do you do that?” Talking about people who make you want to be at the top of the game, she is one of them.
Peggy Joe. Credit: Park Jung Ha
“Bittersweet Symphony” – Bio
“Any list of songs I love has to include this song because it’s still the most important song in my life. In a weird way, if you put all our songs together, they all say the same thing: ‘It’s a bittersweet symphony’ — with more emphasis on the sweet, but always… What do we realize, I was at that perfect age for that song. It was just an earthquake.
“When we were in our late teens in the mid-90s, the big five bands in Britain were The Verve, Oasis, Blur, Supergrass and Radiohead. Although I still love those five bands equally and for different reasons, if I had to take one song from… That period, it should be “Bittersweet Symphony.” It just beats “Airbag.” [Radiohead]”It’s too late” [Supergrass]”Song 2″ [Blur] Each “class is different” [Pulp]. The “bittersweet symphony” must always win.”
‘Independent Women, Labor Party. 1’ – Destiny’s Child
“That’s the blessing of being in our band, that you’re allowed to like all kinds of different things because you never have to worry about being cool! Now of course, liking Beyoncé is so cool. The first time we played Top Of The Pops, we We walk on stage looking like we are (we are the students who just got a little money).
“We didn’t look very good, but this group of gods came down the stairs. I hadn’t heard of them yet, but it was Destiny’s Child. We had just finished doing ‘Yellow’ or something, and ‘Independent Woman’ was about that time.” I was like, ‘Oh my God, there’s a whole other level beyond dirty bars and cool indie movies. To this day, Beyoncé is someone who’s always inspired me and I’m in awe of her. That was the first song that made me realize how good she was.’
“In the Small Hours” – Frank Sinatra
“There certainly comes a time in life when you realize, to quote Spinal Tap, that no one has loved and lost like Frank.” “In The Wee Small Hours” and “Only The Lonely” – those two records made in the 1950s and arranged by a guy called Nelson Riddle who also did a lot of Ella Fitzgerald’s recordings are compositions and they’re so brilliantly put together there’s a warmth and a sadness and a beauty in those albums that really strikes me now and I feel the same way about Chopin.
“Feels Good” – Nina Simone
“For me, it’s a true example of one of the main philosophies of our band: See what’s lost as an opportunity, and see what’s broken as a crack through which light comes in (that’s a Leonard Cohen line). Everything that happens to you is meant to happen to you and is for your good.” Her Story She was rejected from the classical conservatory because of her color, so she went and became Nina Simone. This is an incredible alchemy of trauma that I carry in the pantheon of great human beings.
“I first heard this song covered by Muse, every night when we opened for them back in 2000. I was like, ‘Oh, this band is really good and this Nina Simone song is amazing.’
“Night swimming” – rapid eye movement
“REM are in the first group of big inspirations. After James, plus Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’, Aha, and a band called Five Star, those were my first influences. Then came the first real wave of indie games and shoegaze – some of which I really liked But others I pretended to do to impress the older boys.
“My introduction to REM was ‘Losing My Religion’, but then ‘Nightswimming’ was the moment I really fell in love with that band. I realized you can be a great band without any talent if you have a talent for songs and really care about what you’re doing. It gave me REM movement this lesson, and the song “Nightswimming” still blows my mind every time I hear it.
“Starburster” – Fontaine DC
“will [Champion, Coldplay drummer] He actually told me about Fontaines at the beginning with the word “Big”. I listened to it and felt crazy jealous, which is the highest compliment. It was the same thing I felt when I first saw The Flaming Lips or when I heard Nicki Minaj’s verse on Kanye West’s “Monster.” “Oh my god, how do you get this good?” With the word “big” I thought: “This is unbelievable.” Then Boys In The Better Land did the same thing and my son actually got into Fontaines DC a few years ago. I thought “Skinty Fia” was a masterpiece and was dying to hear “Romance” and “Starburster”.
“It shows how a great band has become over a long period of time. It’s fearless, it’s forward-thinking, it’s got soul, the lyrics are unbelievable, the melodies are unbelievable, the production is unbelievable, it keeps every other band on their toes. You can Play it last in the group when no one knows it and it will hold up. It’s perfect. This deep inhale is the best antidote to singing too, it’s a long breath!
“Die Fledermaus: Introduction” – Johann Strauss II
“I saw this one day at The Hollywood Bowl. My friend is the conductor and he was leading it. It’s a waltz. Classical music was pop music at the time, and it really blew my mind that night. I went straight to the back of The Hollywood Bowl behind everyone and watching from the back I felt like I was impressed and in awe of how good the piece was. It was so full of life and colour.
“If this came out tomorrow, it would still be a hit coming its way. Even the barrier between ‘classical’ and ‘modern’ music is being erased now. Things are either great or they’re not. This is really, really great.”
“The spark that bled” – burning lips
“When I was 19 and Coldplay were forming, you can hear in our early work that the two main influences at the time were Jeff Buckley and Radiohead. Jeff because I could sing in the same range. Before that, I didn’t think we had a chance because I couldn’t sing Like Liam Gallagher, and we didn’t have the supergrass energy, and I couldn’t get noticed like Jarvis Cocker with Sheffield, I’m in trouble, forget about trip-hop and hip-hop, that sounded so far away; Radiohead at the time were from the same socio-economic part of the country and they were great, they made me feel like it was possible to be in a band.
Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips will perform in 2023. Photograph: Rick Kern/Getty Images
“For a while you could hear their influence, but then in 1999 we played Reading Festival at the bottom of the bill in the new band tent. At the top of the bill were The Flaming Lips, who I read about in the NME and Melody Maker, because they were all Interested in “The Soft Bulletin” and saying it’s the best album ever I had to check them out.
“The Spark That Bled” was the first time I heard these songs when I saw them live, and it completely changed my world. It made me realize, “Oh, what our band should be is just ourselves.” As the Internet has grown and we have traveled more widely, we have found too many influences to mention. At the heart of any artist must be the freedom and courage to be yourself – no matter what anyone says.
“As a human being too; as long as you’re not trying to hurt anyone, the greatest thing you can be is yourself. Wayne Quinn was the first person I saw in the flesh who was truly himself. You changed my life.”
“Work” – Missy Elliott
“I remember that video was amazing. I was probably watching that in the studio, thinking ‘Where did that come from?’” We hadn’t been to America yet or anything like that, and that was another thing that felt like a million miles away but now I didn’t… It’s another perfect song.”
Coldplay will release ‘Moon Music’ on October 4 via Parlophone, before touring in summer 2025. Visit here for tickets and more information.
Check out NME’s exclusive interview with Martin here.
