Will Coldplay’s “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall” Become A Summer Smash?

Coldplay’s new single “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall” was released worldwide today (except in the UK, where it will arrive tomorrow at midnight). “We’re about to play a bunch of summer festivals so it’s as good a time as any to put out a new song,” drummer Will Champion wrote on the UK band’s website Tuesday. Listen below! The upbeat slice of pop-rock kicks off with bright synth chords based on the melody of the rhythmic 1976 tune “I Go To Rio” by Peter Allen, the Australian entertainer who inspired the musical The Boy From Oz and was once married to Liza Minnelli.

Chris Martin sprinkles the song with ready-made anthemic lyrics like “don’t wanna see another generation drop, I’d rather be a comma than a full stop” and “so you can hurt me back, but still I raise the flag.”

Upon first listen, giddy toe-tapper “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall” sounds like it would be right at home on Coldplay’s Grammy-winning 2008 album Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends. That is in no way a bad thing, but typically we all tend to set the high standard of some sort of sound progression for bands of this stature.

That said, at the end of the day, “Teardrop” is hardly a disappointment. It’s got a sing-along quality that should keep both the quartet’s legion of fans and the world’s programmers of radio feeling satisfied ahead of Coldplay’s fifth album.

What do you think of Coldplay’s new single? Does it have potential to be a summer smash like “Viva La Vida” was three years ago?