Coldplay will deliver 10th studio album Moon Music later this week, and even if you've been checked out on the British outfit's happenings for some time now, singer Chris Martin would once again like to remind you that there isn't much runway left for the acclaimed band.
Sticking by his claim that Coldplay would stop making music in 2025, Martin shared with Zane Lowe that the band only have two full-lengths left to deliver following Moon Music, which arrives October 4 via Atlantic Records.
"We are only going to do 12 proper albums and that's real. Yeah, I promise," Martin told the Apple Music 1 host. "Because less is more and for some of our critics, even less would be even more! It's really important that we have that limit."
Martin explained, "There's only seven Harry Potters. There's only 12 and a half Beatles albums, there's about the same for Bob Marley, so all our heroes. Also, having that limit means the quality control is so high right now and for a song to make it, it's almost impossible, which is great. And so where we could be coasting, we're trying to improve."
The vocalist added that Coldplay "will always continue in some way, but there's something about the Coldplay thing. That's just what… I don't know where the songs come from. I don't know where the ideas come from, but that's just been coming to me for about four or five years now. Like, 'You have to finish like this,' and I trust that just like I trust the songs. So if we do something together after that creatively beyond touring, then it'll be something different, or it'll be a side thing, or it'll be a compilation of things we hadn't finished.
"And also to make an album great as a band, it's such a lot of wrangling of people and I want to give the others some of their life for themselves," he continued. "I don't want to be, when we're 60, be like, 'Will, we need you. Come on! We can do better than this!'"
Does this sound a touch familiar to you? It should, as Martin has been making claims about Coldplay's retirement (and occasionally invoking Harry Potter to do so) for over a decade now.
A day after the release of Moon Music, Coldplay will perform on Saturday Night Live. This year, their long-running, billions-grossing trek behind 2021 album Music of the Spheres was named the biggest rock tour of all time, while the band also beat their eco-friendly touring emissions goals.