Taken from their upcoming album Ghost Stories Coldplay return to their earlier form of slow, ponderous ballads and ‘Magic’ is possibly the slowest amongst them. Fans of the band will lap this up and there is much to enjoy: the instrumentation and Martin’s vocals are crisp and involving and move smoothly as the song progresses, but it lacks that oomph that we expect from modern Coldplay; it’s certainly no ‘Viva La Vida’ or ‘Paradise’, lacking the immediate catchiness that those records had.
Yes, it’s a vast improvement on ‘Atlas’ as it does at least have some hooks that you can grab on based around the chorus, but it lacks the, well, magic, we’d hope for.
(6.5/10)
Buy: Magic
