You have to be really sure of your concerts to be able to release a fifth live album after only 18 years career time. But stage performances are such a speciality for Coldplay that Chris Martin's group can allow themselves to release this Live In Buenos Aires album rather an eighth studio album, which is being eagerly awaited their fans... Recorded during the A Head Full of Dreams World Tour, this album captures (with amazing sound quality) the powerful 15th of November (2017) show in the Argentinean capital. As per usual, the four Brits play with the constant participation of a totally devoted crowd. U2 often put on these types of shows, Coldplay being their most obvious successors. From the stadium hymn (Viva La Vida) to the early classics (Yellow, Clocks), Coldplay put on a real electric fiesta. © Clotilde Maréchal/Qobuz

A little less than two years after the release of A Head Full of Dreams, Coldplay have brought out these five tracks, presented as an interlude - a kind of companion EP for their last studio album. Chris Martin's band are clearly at a crossroads. Having grown into a kind of millennial U2, Coldplay are hopping between their original DNA, the evolution of the sounds of their times, and a strong propensity for turning out crowd-pleasers. And all this without, clearly, losing their soul. That is surely what drove them to work again with the great Brian Eno (who produced Mylo Xyloto in 2011 and Viva la Vida in 2008) on the song A L I E N S, which is the central piece of Kaleidoscope. On this track, the English band are returning to their roots. The basis of a very contemporary pop music which is at once adventurous and firmly based in a musical consensus. This is a pop which is wrapped up in magical and intriguing sounds that are clearly came from Eno. On All I Can Think About is You, which opens hostilities brilliantly, Coldplay are at their most charming, their most intriguing even, in the form of this hypnotic ballad. As for Miracles (Someone Special), they provide us with a new and perfect mix of pop and R&B, with the help of Atlanta rapper Big Sean. In short, Coldplay are mastering every new genre that they venture out into... A Head Full of Dreams was a particularly snappy, exultant record, colourful and celebratory. "It's our seventh thing,", Chris Martin told the BBC, "and the way we look at it, it's like the last Harry Potter book or something like that. Not to say that there might not be another thing one day, but this is the completion of something." The Kaleidoscope EP shows us the Coldplay of tomorrow while they keep one eye fixed on the past... © CM/Qobuz

Memories: Do Not Open, the debut full-length from EDM-lite duo the Chainsmokers, is a calculated dose of millennial escapism that peddles the same sounds as their far more engaging EP work. Following Bouquet and Collage -- home to their megahits "Closer" and "Don't Let Me Down" -- Memories serves as evidence that the Chainsmokers might be better equipped for shorter releases. Even with the help of producer DJ Swivel and guests like Emily Warren, Phoebe Ryan, Florida Georgia Line, and Imagine Dragons' Dan Reynolds, Memories is just not that memorable. Over 12 songs that mostly sound the same with little to differentiate one from another, Andrew Taggart and Alex Pall shill a live-fast-die-young attitude that quickly grows tiresome (if listeners reach penultimate track "Young," where Taggart sings about wrecking a girl's car, almost fighting her father, and sneaking out to bars, the patience will likely have already run out). However, fans are probably not seeking depth and gravitas in a Chainsmokers album. Rather, they can rely on the duo for fleeting feelings of joy and bliss, no matter how overly simplified. The Chainsmokers' typical chords and drops are all present, carrying waves of naïve and sophomoric lyrics that stretch for profundity, like on "Bloodstream" -- one of the many electro ballads on Memories -- where Taggart sings, "I'm fucked up/I'm faded/I'm so complicated." It not only comes off as obnoxious, but the production itself is so similar to "Roses" (and "Closer") that listeners might be hit with an annoying sense of déja vù. There's plenty more MOR EDM to be had on Memories ("My Type," "Honest," and "Don't Say" for starters), but in terms of songs that actually stand out, there are just a few. Singles like "Paris" and the Coldplay duet "Something Just Like This" are undeniably catchy, especially the latter, which is a double-whammy of Coldplay's pure ineffable joy-rock and the Chainsmokers' patented drops. Two other standouts benefit from guest vocalists. On the Sam Martin co-write "It Won't Kill Ya," French singer Louane delivers a soulful and dramatic sequel to Daya's turn on "Don't Let Me Down," while R&B singer Jhené Aiko elevates "Wake Up Alone." This certainly is not one of the worst albums ever recorded; indeed, it has its moments of merit that hit the proper spots and deliver the intended dose of dopamine. However, as a cohesive statement worthy of an album's length of the listener's attention, Memories is lacking. With a pair of strong EPs behind them, the Chainsmokers need further practice before they can prove themselves to be an album act. Only a few songs have the necessary half-life that extends beyond the tracks that follow. On "Wake Up Alone," Aiko asks, "Will you still care in the morning/When the magic's gone?" Until there's more evidence to the contrary, the answer is unfortunately "no."© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo

Released in 1975, Come and Get Yourself Some boasts one of Leon Haywood's biggest hits: the sexy, alluring "I Want'a Do Something Freaky to You," which L.A. gangsta rappers Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg sampled on their 1993 smash "Nuthin' but a G Thang." A teen-age hip-hopper of 1993 might not have known the name Leon Haywood -- who is someone the hip-hopper's Baby Boomer parents were more likely to be familiar with -- but he/she no doubt knew Haywood's unforgettable melody from the Dre/Snoop single. Back in 1975, "Freaky" made Come and Get Yourself Some one of Haywood's best selling albums. "Freaky" and the title track were the album's biggest hits, although the rest of the material is also well worth hearing. Smooth, laid-back northern soul items like "Consider the Source" and "This Feeling's Rated Extra" appealed to Haywood's diehard fans, many of whom he had won over with his 1967 hit "It's Got to Be Mellow." But a tougher, less sleek approach prevails on "Who You Been Giving It up To," which recalls the Isley Brothers' "It's Your Thing."© Alex Henderson /TiVo

Natacha Atlas' Something Dangerous is a bit slicker than her last, lightening up the beats and sexy intensity of Ayeshteni for more radio-friendly pop electronics, occasional vocal harmonies reminiscent of Destiny's Child, and lots of guests. Not that you could tell from the first cut, the gorgeous "Adam's Lullaby," on which she's backed by a gently playing Prague Symphony Orchestra string section. After this peaceful opener, the pace picks up with the dancehall-style "Eye of the Duck," featuring fellow Transglobal Underground member Tuup. Then the title cut gets a little funky while Atlas trades off vocal duties with the rapping Princess Julianna. A little later, Atlas takes on "Man's World." While her voice is lovely for it, the cover doesn't quite recapture the magic of her last album's success with Jacques Brel's "Ne Me Quitte Pas" and Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell on You." The collaboration with Sinéad O'Connor, "Simple Heart," is a high point, and the album really hits its stride in the songs that follow, with especially good interaction between Atlas and Niara Scarlett on "Who's My Baby," before mellowing out into closing ambient cuts.© Joslyn Layne /TiVo

A little less than two years after the release of A Head Full of Dreams, Coldplay have brought out these five tracks, presented as an interlude - a kind of companion EP for their last studio album. Chris Martin's band are clearly at a crossroads. Having grown into a kind of millennial U2, Coldplay are hopping between their original DNA, the evolution of the sounds of their times, and a strong propensity for turning out crowd-pleasers. And all this without, clearly, losing their soul. That is surely what drove them to work again with the great Brian Eno (who produced Mylo Xyloto in 2011 and Viva la Vida in 2008) on the song A L I E N S, which is the central piece of Kaleidoscope. On this track, the English band are returning to their roots. The basis of a very contemporary pop music which is at once adventurous and firmly based in a musical consensus. This is a pop which is wrapped up in magical and intriguing sounds that are clearly came from Eno. On All I Can Think About is You, which opens hostilities brilliantly, Coldplay are at their most charming, their most intriguing even, in the form of this hypnotic ballad. As for Miracles (Someone Special), they provide us with a new and perfect mix of pop and R&B, with the help of Atlanta rapper Big Sean. In short, Coldplay are mastering every new genre that they venture out into... A Head Full of Dreams was a particularly snappy, exultant record, colourful and celebratory. "It's our seventh thing,", Chris Martin told the BBC, "and the way we look at it, it's like the last Harry Potter book or something like that. Not to say that there might not be another thing one day, but this is the completion of something." The Kaleidoscope EP shows us the Coldplay of tomorrow while they keep one eye fixed on the past... © CM/Qobuz