Chris Martin says Coldplay’s 12th album will be their last

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Chris Martin has some bad news for Coldplay fans: the band will only be releasing two more “proper” albums — and the reason comes down to quality control.
Martin, 47, made the revelation during an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, 51, a portion of which first dropped Monday on People.
Coldplay, which is made up of Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman, Will Champion, Phil Harvey and Martin, will release their tenth album, “Moon Music,” on Oct. 4
5 Zane Lowe and Chris Martin YouTube / Coldplay
“We are only going to do 12 proper albums, and that’s real,” Martin told Lowe, who didn’t like the idea, saying he wants Coldplay to put out “50 albums.”
“You don’t, because less is more,” the “Fix You” singer pushed back. “And for some of our critics, even less would be even more.”
“It’s really important that we have that limit,” he added.
He pointed to the “Harry Potter” books (of which there are only 7) and the musical output of artists he admires.
5 Zane Lowe and Chris Martin The Zane Lowe Show / Apple Music
“There’s only 12 and a half Beatles albums. There’s about the same Bob Marley, so all of our heroes,” he said. “And also having that limit means that the quality control is so high right now, and for a song to make it, it’s almost impossible, which is great.”
Marin explained that the band is focused on “trying to improve” rather than “coasting.” And though Coldplay might not be churning out new music after their twelfth album, that doesn’t mean Martin will stop creating fresh tunes.
“That will always continue in some way, but there’s something about the Coldplay thing,” he shared. “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.”
5 Chris Martin of Coldplay performs at Optus Stadium on November 18, 2023 in Perth, Australia. WireImage
5 Jonny Buckland, Chris Martin and Guy Berryman of Coldplay perform as the band headline the Pyramid stage during day four of Glastonbury Festival 2024 on June 29, 2024 in Glastonbury, England. WireImage
Speaking to what might come after album No. 12, he said, “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.”
Beyond the quality control concerns of making a “great” album, Martin pointed out the logistical problems that present themselves as time passes.
“It’s such a lot of wrangling of people,” he explained, “and I want to give the others some of their life for themselves.”
5 Chris Martin of Coldplay performs onstage at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Festival on September 21, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Getty Images for iHeartRadio
“I don’t want to be, when we’re 60, be like, ‘Will, we need you. Come on! We can do better than this!’”
Despite the band’s self-stamped expiration date, Martin said that the band has more joy “than ever.”
The reasons? “[B]ecause of getting older, because of COVID, because of everything going on in the world, because of how lucky we know we are, because of the places we get to go, because of the optimism that it gives us to see all different kinds of people gathering together, because of songs that arrive from nowhere, because we go at a slower pace.”
He added, “All these things mean that we love it.”