Coldplay have suddenly and unexpectedly released a brand new single, 'Midnight,' and accompanying music video which launched on YouTube today. The first signs of an announcement came when the British band wrote the cryptic tweet "Something new at 0:00 in Ulaanbaatar #midnight PH," seemingly referring to the capital city of Mongolia.

Coldplay
Coldplay Have Pulled A Beyoncé, Releasing New Single 'Midnight' Unexpectedly.

It didn't take fans long to work out how to research time zones to learn when to check Twitter again for more news from the band. Sure enough, a couple of hours afterwards, the band tweeted: "Here is the video for our new song, Midnight. http://youtu.be/BQeMxWjpr-Y " and lo! the people were given 'Midnight,' Coldplay's new single.

Or at least we think it's Coldplay: gone are the crashing pianos, guitar and soaring vocals of the Brit rockers' more famous ballads, replaced with a pared back, minimalist electronic song with an unnerving infra-red effect video by the director Mary Wigmore.

Listen To Coldplay's New Single, 'Midnight':

Lead singer Chris Martin's distinctive tone is still there but he sings softly and plaintively with a vocoder distortion effect, evoking the indie artist Bon Iver. At over five minutes long, the song is an intriguing choice for a follow-up to 2011's Mylo Xyloto and takes its time to build from tinkling keyboards to pulsing, climactic synths.

Coldplay Chris Martin Jonny Buckland
The British Band Ditch Their Piano Chords & Guitars For A Minimalist Electronic Track.

The video shows the band playing around, posing and dancing in a forest whilst the wildness of trees and foxes surround them. Presumably shot with some kind of heat-detecting camera, the clip is coloured in black and white, lending a dreamlike winterscape effect.

Almost trance-like in nature, the song sees the four-piece embark on a different sound, recalling artists such as Caribou and The Knife with the fragile synthwork. It has been a long time since the rockers, who formed during their university days, have been considered at the fore of contemporary British music but their sixth album - if that's what 'Midnight' is a prelude to - could reverse that.

Coldplay Performing Live Glastonbury
'Midnight' Could Be The First Single From Coldplay's Sixth Album.

As the mystical song tails of and the synths fade away, we're actually left with goosebumps; could Coldplay have returned to form? The song received its radio debut on BBC Radio 6 and hardly felt out of place alongside the station's eclectic indie playlist. It's impossible to tell whether 'Midnight' will be a one-off single or whether it will be part of a larger cache of similarly minimalist tunes but we're looking forward to more.