Coldplay’s ‘A Head Full Of Dreams’ Features Vocals From Gwyneth Paltrow & Blue Ivy Carter

Carl Williott | November 19, 2015 9:17 am

Coldplay‘s new album A Head Full Of Dreams drops December 4, and the more we learn about it, the stranger it sounds. Noel Gallagher, Beyoncé, disco, Stargate, CGI apes…and now in a new interview Chris Martin reveals that his ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow contributes vocals to the album, as does Bey and Jay Z‘s daughter Blue Ivy Carter. (By my count, this is Blue Ivy’s third credit, which is a hell of a start to her career.)

Paltrow appears on the track “Everglow,” meanwhile another song features vocals from the frontman’s current girlfriend, Annabelle Wallis. Plus, Paltrow and Martin’s two children join a dozen other friends and relatives in a “choir” that appears on several songs.

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“Everyone who got asked to sing on our album has an important part in our lives,” Martin explained. “This is The Wall Street Journal, so I don’t want to get too hippie, but what I’m trying to learn in my life is the value of every human. Inclusiveness is the key thing, and it all comes from that ‘Guest House’ poem. The ‘choir’ started with my two kids coming in after school and recording. We recorded Blue Ivy Carter in New York when her mom Beyoncé was in the studio. It comes from learning about Greek tragedy, where the chorus chimes in at times. To me, when we use that sound, it’s to affirm what I’m saying. ‘We agree with you, Chris. Keep singing.’”

Here’s the thing: A pan-familial Greek kumbaya chorus may not be the most jarring aspect of the album. That would go to the source of inspiration for Bey collab “Hymn For The Weekend.”

“The original kernel was that I was listening to Flo Rida or something, and I thought, it’s such a shame that Coldplay could never have one of those late-night club songs, like ‘Turn Down for What,'” he told the WSJ. “What would we call it if we had one? I thought I’d like to have a song called ‘Drinks on Me’ where you sit on the side of a club and buy everyone drinks because you’re so f—ing cool. I was chuckling about that, when this melody came—’drinks on me, drinks on me’—then the rest of the song came out. I presented it to the rest of the band and they said, ‘We love this song, but there’s no way you can sing ‘drinks on me.’’ So that changed into ‘drink from me’ and the idea of having an angelic person in your life. Then that turned into asking Beyoncé to sing on it.”

Read the full Q&A over at The Wall Street Journal.