IT seems that Coldplay frontman Chris Martin has chickened out of promises that the band's next album will err towards the "experimental".

Originally the band had claimed that they would "try anything" on the new album, even getting Brian Eno in on producing duties.

But with the poundsigns flashing, and record companies increasingly jumpy about their big names' abilty to keep the ship afloat, Martin has suddenly done a U-turn and said the new songs won't be much of a departure from their previous work.

Hear that? That's the sound of dozens of record execs letting out sighs of relief.