What Is "Hymn For The Weekend" About?

Drop what you're doing because Beyoncé has a new Coldplay song out. No, do not adjust your screen, you did read that sentence right. Beyoncé is featured on Coldplay's new song "Hymn For The Weekend," and it's going to be your favorite Coldplay song ever as a result. But, even without the added bonus of Beyoncé, the song is still completely amazing. It sounds exactly what you'd expect something called "Hymn For The Weekend" to be called, with a side of the kind of haunting love songs that Coldplay is famous for. However, considering such a unique title, I imagine there might be a lot of people out there who are wondering what "Hymn For The Weekend" is about. Well, allow me to enlighten you friends.

According to Chris Martin himself when asked about the origins of the song, "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*cking 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." So "Hymn For The Weekend" is about having an angelic person in your life to raise you up high to the sky, with a side of drugs, alcohol, and having a good time at a party. Or... something.

While Martin's explanation makes sense, I think that the song evolved even from those simple origins, because there's a lot of different symbolism woven into the lyrics. For example, one line states that this angelic person has Martin "feeling drunk and high" and another that "[he feels] you coursing through my blood," which don't seem like hugely positive things so much as they seem like Martin being a little lovedrunk here. I know that's technically meant to be a positive thing in love songs, but life being a drink and love being a drug just don't seem like positive things to be feeling in a love song, is all I'm saying.

So, yes, "Hymn For The Weekend" is about an angelic person in your life, but it's also about partying with this person, about how their love can make you feel high when you're low, and about how life is, well, alcoholic — can make you feel good for a while, but, as a depressant, can leave you crashing and feeling "lower, lower, low." It's a bittersweet song when looked at through that lens, but it remains pretty beautiful in that haunting way that only Coldplay songs can be.

Listen to the song again below.

Image: Giphy