Welcome to the Alternative Echo mid-week news report, where we bring you all the important stuff you missed in the past week while you were out livin’ your life.

Here’s what we’ve learned in the last seven days:

Coldplay announce next album, Music of the Spheres, with teaser trailer

British band Coldplay will be releasing their ninth studio album on October 15, 2021. The teaser video includes snippets of each song from the record, which seems to span a variety of genres. So if you were unhappy with the ultra pop-infused “Higher Power,” there may still be hope for something less synth-based.

With the video, the band announced that a new song called “Coloratura” will be coming out on Friday, and their next single will be unveiled sometime in September. The tracklist for the album shows that some song titles are just emojis (which doesn’t make any sense to me and feels very “how do you do, fellow kids,” BUT this is not an opinion piece, so I’ll shut up now).

WILLOW releases pop-punk album Lately I Feel Everything

If the last you’ve heard of Willow Smith was the 2010 hit “Whip My Hair,” you may be in for a bit of a surprise when you listen to her latest record, Lately I Feel Everything. The album is littered with pop-punk and nu-metal, and features collaborations with industry legends Travis Barker and Avril Lavigne.

“This isn’t new for me,” Willow told Entertainment Weekly. “I have been doing this for a very long time. I just think maybe people didn’t pay attention to that side of my music-making, but that’s always been an inspiration for me. I’ve always loved rock, and I’ve always had rock inspiration on every single one of my albums.”

Lorde is ‘Stoned at the Nail Salon’ with latest single

Lorde dropped the second single from her upcoming album Solar Power (out August 30) with a visualizer video.

The singer reflects on life in this somber tune. “This song is sort of a rumination on getting older, settling into domesticity, and questioning if you’ve made the right decisions,” she said in a statement.

Lorde once again teamed up with Jack Antonoff for this release, which also features backing vocals from Phoebe Bridgers and Clairo.

ONE OK ROCK reaches streaming milestone

Japanese band ONE OK ROCK achieved an impressive milestone by surpassing one billion streams on Spotify.

The group recently worked with Ed Sheeran for their single “Renegades” and has since also released “Broken Heart of Gold.”

They will be performing a livestream concert called “Day to Night Acoustic Sessions” on July 31. You will need to purchase a ticket if you’re interested in catching the show.

Thank you @spotifyjp @spotify for celebrating our 1 Billion streams with such a special trophy!
Our gratitude goes out to everyone who checked us out and hope you enjoy our music.
Thank you @FueledByRamen for the support!#oneokrockhttps://t.co/aktGIQIpvT pic.twitter.com/RaUZ5o3sJP

— ONE OK ROCK_official (@ONEOKROCK_japan) July 19, 2021

Boston Manor are hitting the road with Neck Deep

Boston Manor will be opening for Neck Deep as part of their 2021 US tour. The British rock band will also be joined by Zero 936, Heart Attack Man, and Oxymorrons. You can purchase tickets by heading to Neck Deep’s website.

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In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve been posting every single day for the month of July, so if you’ve missed out on anything, be sure to hit our home page and choose your favorite thumbnail.

We also covered other news this week, like the upcoming Killers album, so feel free to catch up on that, too.

We’ll see you next week for another news report. Until then, be safe and stay inside if you’ve got asthma. Wildfires are no joke.

Featured image taken from Coldplay – Higher Power (Official Video) via Coldplay