Coldplay frontman Chris Martin says group's 12th album will be its last

Chris Martin admits "quality control is so high right now" knowing that Coldplay's 12th album will be its last.

The chart-topping rock band will release its 10th studio album Moon Music on Friday (Oct 4), and the 47-year-old frontman explained that the group decided to stop making records beyond its 12th to keep its legacy intact.

Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music, he said: “We are only going to do 12 proper albums and that’s real. Yeah. I promise.

“Because less is more. And for some of our critics, even less would be even more! It’s really important that we have that limit.

“There’s only seven Harry ­Potters. There’s only 12 and a half Beatles albums. There’s about the same for Bob Marley, so all of our heroes.

“Also having that limit means the quality control is so high right now, and for a song to make it, it’s almost impossible, which is great. And so where we could be coasting, we’re trying to improve.”

He went on: “There’s something about the Coldplay thing. That’s just what...I don’t know where the songs come from. I don’t know where the ideas come from, but that’s just been coming to me for about four or five years now.

“Like, ‘You have to finish like this,’ and I trust that just like I trust the songs. So if we do something together after that creatively beyond touring, then it’ll be something different, or a side thing, or a compilation of things we hadn’t finished.”

The Yellow hitmaker admits he wouldn't want himself and his bandmates – Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion – to spend the rest of their lives making Coldplay records.

He added: “Also, to make an album great as a band, it’s such a lot of wrang­ling with people and I want to give the ­others some of their life for ­themselves.

“I don’t want to, when we’re 60, be like, ‘Will, we need you. Come on! We can do better than this!’”