The band known for large-scale, colorful productions of performances literally made themselves huge in the video for “Up and Up,” the newest single from their 2015 release, A Head Full Of Dreams.
Directed by Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia, the video mixes the mundane with the magical. The lines between water and land are blurred as a sea turtle swims through a subway tunnel and an eagle soars underwater. Size is relative, too: a little girl plays with the Golden Gate Bridge spanning a puddle of water and a soccer match occurs on a kitchen sponge. And then there’s Coldplay. The band members are comparable to mountains, or even continents.
The lyrics plead and hope for a better world with Chris Martin, backed by a seemingly enormous choir, singing, “[We’re] going to get it, get it together, and go up and up and up.” The video uses this to speak to current issues, like war. Heymann and Muggia are both directors in a very artistic sense. In 2013, Heymann did an interactive video for Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” that went viral within 24 hours of its release.
Though Coldplay have made similar claims following previous album releases, A Head Full of Dreams has been rumored to be the band’s last album. Frontman Martin told BBC’s Zane Lowe: “I meant what I said to you a couple of years ago. I feel like this is a closing chapter of something. I stand by that, I’m afraid.”
If the claim turns out to be true, the band certainly isn’t taking a quiet final bow. A Head Full of Dreams brought them a single and music video collaboration with Beyonce, their enthusiastic Super Bowl 50 performance and the headlining spot at Glastonbury 2016. They also recently became the official “most streamed” band on Spotify.
“Up and Up” is the third single from A Head Full of Dreams, which is Coldplay’s seventh studio album. Watch it above to experience its full trippiness.