When Chris Martin sat down with BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe for his first interview since his split from Gwyneth Paltrow, we expected him to possibly touch on their "conscious uncoupling" (which he did, vaguely.) But what we didn't expect was for him to totally gush over One Direction.

"I think One Direction are the biggest band in the world. Their songs are great. I'm saying One Direction are brilliant and I'm not kidding," Martin told Lowe (quotes via E! News.) "You know why? Because their songs are really good and I don't think that any of them are going to go solo. I think they appreciate their chemistry from watching their movie."

But it isn't just 1D as a whole that has the Coldplay frontman showing off his fangirl side. Like every Directioner, he has a favorite.

"[Harry Styles] has come to a couple of our shows. I think I probably said the same thing about chemistry. I can't remember — I was too enamored with his haircut," Martin revealed. "I was like this: 'I was pretty sure I was a straight guy before.' I was having a hot flush."

That hair -- it'll get ya.

But in addition to talking 1D, Martin also touched on his split from Paltrow and how it affected Coldplay's upcoming album, 'Ghost Stories.'

"So you can be with someone very wonderful, but because of your own issues you cannot let that be celebrated in the right way. What changed for me was I don't want to go through life being scared of it, being scared of love, being scared of rejection, being scared of failure," Martin explained. "...Up to a certain point in my life I wasn't completely vulnerable and it caused some problems. If you don't let love really in then you can't really give it back."

"So what 'Ghost Stories' means to me is like you've got to open yourself up to love and if you really do, of course it will be painful at times, but then it will be great at some point," he concluded.

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