Today's Pick

Coldplay have just revealed a new, high-concept music video for their more radio-friendly new single "Magic," the light-alt lead single taken from British alternative rock band's upcoming sixth studio album "Ghost Stories," which will be released on May 19th on Parlophone Records. After watching the emotional video, it definitely has us thinking it could be about frontman Chris Martin's failed marriage with Gwyneth Paltrow. In the video, he plays a magician, who tries to save a female magician from an abusive relationship as he sings about their relationship being "broken" and it's so heartbreaking!
The alternative rock song with influences of synth rock and post-Britpop, is an intimate low-key meditation on love sung by Martin over minimalist, bass heavy instrumentation. A beat consisting of a muffled snare and dusty guitar picks is repeated throughout most of the song. As the song progresses, an organ is later added to the instrumentation which is eventually swapped out for a stomp-clap beat and again for a synth beat. Following the song's second chorus, these beats are gradually combined together while Martin sings in falsetto. The song's anticlimactic portion then decreases intensity until it has eventually resumed to simply a snare and guitar picks.
"Magic" isn't a quick card trick to draw you in like some of Coldplay's previous hits, but rather a long-form spectacle that slowly allures you with its intricacies and delicate craftsmanship. The unassuming alternative single is paired with a black-and-white video with an old-timey introduction and cue cards for dialogue; the plot is also a throwback, with a hero, a damsel in distress and a mustachioed villain standing in the way of true love.
Mimicking a turn-of-the-century silent film with its full-screen subtitled video was directed by Grammy Award winning veteran Jonas Åkerlund, and stars Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi as "a beautiful young magicienne" named Cecile, and Martin plays both hero and villain as her "mustachioed husband" Claude and her lovelorn assistant Christophe in a love triangle. The stylized clip shows Martin providing a safe alternative to her abusive and misogynistic husband in turn fitting the love song with a love story. The story ends with a suitably "magical" finale.