Chris Martin has suggested Coldplay's seventh album could be the band's last.
Although he did not rule out more material one day, he said their next release - A Head Full of Dreams - felt like "the completion of something".
And during an interview on Radio 1, he compared the album to the Harry Potter novels which saw the boy wizard bow out after seven adventures - although author JK Rowling has written spin-offs.
Frontman Martin said the group were now working on the album, a follow-up to Ghost Stories released in May.
The 37-year-old was appearing as a guest on presenter Zane Lowe's programme when he announced they were "right in the middle" of working on another collection of tracks.
"I feel a bit nervous to have said it because I didn't get permission," he admitted.
Martin, whose band made their debut in 2000 with Parachutes, went on: "It's our seventh thing and the way we look at it is like the last Harry Potter book or something. Not to say that there might not be another thing one day, but this is the completion of something."
"It was great to go from Ghost Stories to go right back in the studio. Now we're making things that sound different and it's just a very fun time to be in our band."
The chart star then appeared to backtrack a little about the demise of the band though, when he added that framing it that way helped the creative process.
"I have to think of it as the final thing we're doing otherwise we wouldn't put everything into it. Do you see what I mean? Then we will go on tour."
The band's single Magic topped Lowe's countdown of the "hottest records" of 2014, although the track in fourth position, Hozier's Take Me To Church was released last year.
The top ten tracks were:
1. Coldplay - Magic
2. The 1975 - Medicine
3. Eminem featuring Sia - Guts Over Fear
4. Hozier - Take Me To Church
5. Slipknot - The Negative One
6. Bring Me the Horizon - Drown
7. Ben Howard - I Forget Where We Were
8. Ed Sheeran - Sing
9. Royal Blood - Little Monster
10. Bastille - The Driver
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article