July 7, 2023

Music Friday: Coldplay Sings, ‘Under This Pressure, We Are Diamonds Taking Shape’

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you awesome songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin compares finding love and feeling alive again with the formation of diamonds deep within the Earth in a song called “Adventure of a Lifetime.”

Martin sings, “Everything you want’s a dream away / Under this pressure, under this weight / We are diamonds taking shape / We are diamonds taking shape.”

“Adventure of a Lifetime” is the lead single from Coldplay’s A Head Full of Dreams album, which was released in November of 2015. The album signaled uplifting change of tone for Martin, whose previous work was downbeat and broody following his 2014 breakup with actress Gwyneth Paltrow. They had been married for 10 years.

Writing for pop music website Idolator.com, Bianca Gracie and Robbie Daw called the colorful and energetic “Adventure of a Lifetime” the “best Coldplay single in seven years” and described the song as “incredibly vibrant in an almost childlike, blissful way that gives such an energetic rush.”

In an interview with SiriusXM radio, Martin explained that the song was inspired by a classic Guns N’ Roses’ rock riff.

“I’d been begging Jonny, our guitarist, for years to make a riff that I like as much as ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ by Guns N’ Roses,” said Martin. “Then he showed me that one, and I was like, ‘That’s it.’ So those elements all came together, and we just wanted to kind of embrace our love of joyful music and sort of let it free.”

“Adventure of a Lifetime” peaked at #1 on the U.S. Billboard Alternative Songs chart and #13 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. It was also an international hit, charting in 31 countries. The album earned the #2 position on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and a nomination for British Album of the Year. Coldplay performed “Adventure of a Lifetime” at the 2016 Super Bowl halftime show.

Formed by Martin in 1996, Coldplay has sold more than 100 million records worldwide and has earned numerous awards, including seven Grammys from 34 nominations.

Please check out the video of Coldplay’s live performance of “Adventure of a Lifetime.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Adventure of a Lifetime”
Written by Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion, Mikkel S. Eriksen, Tor Erik Hermansen and Chris Martin. Performed by Coldplay.

Turn your magic on
Umi she’d say
Everything you want’s a dream away
And we are legends every day
That’s what she told me

Now I feel my heart beatin’
I feel my heart underneath my skin
Oh yeah, I feel my heart beatin’
‘Cause you make me feel
Like I’m alive again

Alive again
Oh, you make me feel
Like I’m alive again

Said I can’t go on,
Not in this way
I’m a dream that died by light of day
Gonna hold up half the sky and say
Only I own me

And I feel my heart beatin’
I feel my heart underneath my skin
Oh, I can feel my heart beatin’
‘Cause you make me feel
Like I’m alive again

Alive again
Oh, you make me feel
Like I’m alive again

Turn your magic on,
Umi she’d say
Everything you want’s a dream away
Under this pressure, under this weight
We are diamonds taking shape
We are diamonds taking shape

If we’ve only got this life
This adventure, oh, then I
And if we’ve only got this life
You get me through

If we’ve only got this life
In this adventure, oh, then I
Want to share it with you
With you
With you
Yeah I do
Woohoo
Woohoo
Woohoo