Songfacts®:

• "Trouble in Town" is a plea for racial harmony in which Coldplay tackles racial politics in America.
  
  Trouble in town
  Because they hung my Brother Brown
  Because their system just keep you down
  There's trouble, there's trouble in town
  
  On August 9, 2014, a white police officer shot dead an unarmed 18-year-old black youth, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri. The tragedy sparked numerous protests in the States and brought global attention to police brutality against minorities in America.
• During the chorus, vocalist Chris Martin references non-white people in America being constantly harassed by the police because of racial profiling. Yet statistically, they are more likely to receive longer prison sentences.
  
  And I get no shelter
  And I get no peace
  And I never get released
• The interlude is a harrowing, real audio snippet from 2013 of Philadelphia policeman Philip Nace pulling over two black men, one of whom recorded the incident on his cell phone.
• The song concludes with a rendition of "Jikelele" sung by the children of the African Children's Feeding Scheme (ACFS), Soweto, Johannesburg.
• Directed by Irish filmmaker Aoife McArdle, the song's music video is inspired by George Orwell's novella Animal Farm. The clip takes place in a world populated with anthropomorphic animals, including pig politicians and snow leopard police officers.
• Proceeds from "Trouble In Town" are being split between two organizations: the Innocence Project, which works to overturn wrongful convictions in the US, and ACFS, a charity for vulnerable children in South Africa. Some children involved in the latter sang on the song.