Cry Cry Cry

"Cry Cry Cry"
General information
Artist	Coldplay
Released	22 November 2019
Genre	Doo-wop
Length	2:47
Labels
Songwriter(s)	Guy Berryman Jonny Buckland Will Champion Chris Martin Jacob Collier Bertrand Berns Jerry Ragovoy
Producer(s)	Rik Simpson Daniel Green Bill Rahko
Album	Everyday Life
Everyday Life track listing
"Èkó"
"Cry Cry Cry"
"Old Friends"

"Cry Cry Cry" is a song by Coldplay from their eighth studio album, Everyday Life. It is the fourth track on the second side of the album, Sunset. The official music video for the song was released worldwide on 14 February 2020.

Background

"Cry Cry Cry" was inspired by the American doo-wop group The Penguin's 1954 song "Earth Angel", which was later included in the 1985 American science fiction film Back to the Future, stated by Coldplay as an inspiring film for them. In addition, the song also came from Chris Martin listening to the 1963 song "Cry Baby" by Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters, which he said that a bit of it stayed with him and "Cry Cry Cry" came around the song; because of that, the band decided to share the writing credits with Bert Berns and Jerry Ragovoy, the original songwriters of "Cry Baby".

Composition

"Cry Cry Cry" was described as a doo-wop song, a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated during the 1940s and gained popularity in the 1950s.

The song features a female high-pitched voice, which Chris said it is called "Angelina" (posteriorly "Angel Moon"), a made-up singing alien character that is a “new voice in the band”. In an interview for Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 2, Chris said that was “more to come from that story in a bit of time”, and on 97.9X WBSX's Uninterrupted Disruption track by track, he revealed she was also featured on another song that had not yet been released at the time; such song was later revealed to be "Biutyful", from Coldplay's ninth studio album Music of the Spheres. In an interview for Entercom, Chris said the vocal effect was inspired by Frank Ocean's 2016 song, "Nikes"; he also confirmed it is him doing the voice, a fact previously unconfirmed in the BBC interview about which band member had done it.

English singer Jacob Collier who worked on other tracks on the album, such as "Church" and "Everyday Life", also provided backing vocals on it.

Reimagined version

On 21 February 2020, an alternative acoustic version of the song called "Cry Cry Cry (Reimagined)" was released on the EP Coldplay: Reimagined, along with two other Reimagined versions, "Broken" and "Champion of the World".

Lyrics

[Intro: "Angelina"]
Cry, cry, cry, baby
Cry, cry, cry

[Verse 1: Chris Martin & "Angelina"]
In a book about the world
Called The Luminous Things
There are trees and flowers glowing
While Jizo Bodhisattva sings

[Chorus: Chris Martin & "Angelina"]
When you cry, cry, cry, baby
When you cry, cry, cry
When you cry, cry, cry, baby
I'll be by your side

[Bridge: Chris Martin & Jacob Collier]
(Dum-dum-dum) Don't want us to hurt each other (Dum-dum-dum)
Or cause each other pain (Dum-dum-dum, dum-dum-dum)
(Dum-dum-dum) Don't want to fear what we don't know (Dum-dum-dum)
(Dum-dum-dum, dum-dum-dum)
(Dum-dum-dum) We're in this together, baby (Dum-dum-dum)
We're as singing is to rain (Dum-dum-dum, dum-dum-dum)
So I'll never, ever, ever let you go (Dum-dum-dum)

[Chorus: Chris Martin Jacob Collier & "Angelina"]
When you cry, cry, cry, baby
When you cry, cry, cry
When you cry, cry, cry, baby
I'll be by your side
Oh, yeah, yeah
Oh, yeah, yeah

[Outro: Chris Martin & "Angelina"]
For your miracles outnumber
All the stars out in the sky

Music video

A music video for the song was released on 14 February 2020 and was directed by Cory Bailey and co-directed by actress Dakota Johnson, Chris' current girlfriend, with choreography by Celia Rowlson-Hall. It was filmed in London's Rivoli Ballroom and depicts a young couple who partake in ballroom dancing through the beginning stages of their relationship to their elderly years, dancing all along the way.

Coldplay - Cry Cry Cry (Official Video)

Lyric video

Coldplay - Cry Cry Cry (Lyric Video)

Official audio

Cry Cry Cry

Critical reception

NME was postive about the song, saying, “This loungey rhythm and blues number [...] is one of the few religious-tinged tracks that has actually has something musically interesting about it. At first, Martin's pitch-shifted chipmunk wails, partnered with his own raw vocals, appear gratuitous. Somehow, they morph into a catchy doo-wop accompaniment that becomes an endearing listen.”

In a ranking of the band's entire discography, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the release of Parachutes, NME wrote: “[...] a flirty doo-wop ballad here sung by Martin with some help from neo-jazz artist Jacob Collier. Letting a skittering piano lead the way, it's a track tailor-made for a little sway across an old-school ballroom, watching your parents or grandparents slow dance without a care in the world. It's straightforwardly cute, refreshingly guitar-less and almost entirely angst-free. Lovely.”

Trivia

• "Cry Cry Cry" mentions Jizo Bodhisattva, an enlightened being revered primarily in east Asian Buddhism.

• The first few seconds of the song were first revealed in the Live in Jordan press conference skit.