It is strange to review this Coldplay song after the Arcade Fire leak, it falls flat on its face and it’s not pretty to see. I mean Arcade Fire just reached some new epic levels, so effortlessly, and epic is precisely what Coldplay’s ‘Atlas’ intends to do, but never manages to accomplish.
First of all, ‘Atlas’ is part of the soundtrack for the new movie ‘Hunger Games: Catching Fire’, so it has to achieve some grandiosity, just look at the poster, Jennifer Lawrence’s character is at the top of a riff, she is ready to fly with her cloud-angel-fake-wings, and Chris Martin’s vocals desperately try to convince us this is the case. But this is so contained, so conventionally written, so lacking anything imaginative, nothing happens. It this is a sci-fiction adventure movie, it should bring more bravado but there’s simply nothing there, it’s just an okay song, agreeable to listen to if you can bear Martin’s voice, but how many of these do we need?
Atlas, wasn’t he this titan holding up the celestial sphere? ‘I’ll carry your world’ sings Martin at one point (and it may be the only obvious connection) but with a name like this, we have the right to expect something big, something that can move mountains, but instead it’s a slow and syrupy piano ballad with an attempt of climatic development which falls abruptly. Even the lyrics are totally uninspired, ‘Some far away/Some search for gold/Some dragon to slay/Heaven we hope is just up the road/Show me the way, lord because I am about to explode’,… flatter you can’t go, did he write this in 5 minutes or what? Compare to the new Arcade Fire and its lyrics intertwining love and Plato’s allegory of the cave – I mean, I may be the only one seeing this and I should stop insane comparisons.
‘We are so honored that Coldplay, one of the iconic rock bands of our generation, will perform the first song out on the new soundtrack,’ declared Lionsgate Head of Film Music Tracy McKnight…. And the film’s director, Francis Lawrence, had the same enthusiasm about Coldplay’s participation: ‘I have great respect and admiration for Coldplay, and we are thrilled with how well they have connected to the themes and ideas within the film…we can’t wait to share this music with audiences around the world.’
What a love fest… and what a bore, if the movie matches the song, I will pass too.