Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends (Coldplay, 2008)

[fizz]

Coldplay is a good band, I really loved their first 2 albums, where they first experimented with their sound and created something new - soft rock that could be mellow or edgy when it needed to be. Their last studio effort (X&Y) was very inferior in comparison, especially more so because so many other bands (like Athlete for e.g.) started to not just sound like them, but also sound better in comparison. It looks though like the band just might have something up their sleeves. I guess its old news by now, but they released their new single Violet Hill last week as a free download on their site, and if first impressions are anything to go by, its a great tune! When I first heard it, i was not too pleased, but dear God, it has grown on me with Martin's echoey sound and some haunting lyrics. This thread is in anticipation of their album, the strangely, almost deliberate sounding Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends, not only because the first single is so good, but because they've teamed up with one of my all time favourite musicians, the inimitable Brian Eno!.

Let the countdown to June 17th begin...

[X.]

Fuck me: Brian Eno? That's very clever of them. Coldplay fell into the same trap as U2 -- generating shitty pop tunes for money, fame and supposed glory. I didn't even know about this new album, but will wait for the album, now that Brian Eno is involved. Great update.

[fizz]

Apart from his own nifty ambient work, Eno gave U2 their early sound as well. And yes, if this album is in the same league as X&Y then Coldplay will indeed become the new U2 (and thats not necessarily a good thing).

[fizz]

After the much maligned, and rightly so, X&Y, Coldplay's latest album is a fresh, innovative bag of feel good, pop-rock. Feel good? Chris Martin's gloomy, hushed puppy-dog voice has never been one to evoke a sense of anything other than palpable gloom, but here, under the guidance of uber genius Brian Eno, they are able to create something entirely new - Ambient rock if you will.

For a band as successful as these guys have been there are many admirers (myself included) but an equal number of deriders. They've been called unoriginal and many have accused them of dumbing their work to cater to a wider audience. Admittedly, with their last album being a labored, bloated affair without any spark, they seemed to be making cyclic music. But Death and all his friends goes a long way towards fixing all that - the album starts off with an ambient mood piece, that shifts to strong guitar riffs, with Indian tabla's in the background and only Martin's Ooh's and Aah's. This is Life in Technicolor - their first instrumental and its a great way to open the album. There are many other tracks that grow and grow on you - Violet Hill I've already singled out before, but there is also the fiery Lost and the extremely catchy  title track. At times you think the Edge from U2 might be lending support, but thats just the influence of maestro Eno, who helped produce one of the greatest albums of the 80's - Joshua Tree. Here he allows Martin and company to break new ground - Strawberry Swing sounds folksy, Yes has an Arabic twist. This is world music but not without the introspective notes of Eno allowed to interrupt and lend these songs texture. There are at least 3 songs that have long extended ambient muzak backgrounds opening or closing them.

If anything, this is their first album that is literally, an album - with a shift toward creating a conscious thematic undertone (in this case death, or the fear of it). The signature tune is perhaps 42 - an unusual song with starts with the crooning "Those who are dead, are not dead, they're just living in my head" and then literally taking a U-turn that breaks into a completely different sound and lyrics ending with the words "You thought you might be a ghost, you didn't make it to heaven, but you made it close". Martin once called this the song everyone should hear before they died (or maybe he was just being coy - what with the albums title and all). But its nonetheless Fantastic! The lyrics may not be their strongest point - they sing about Roman cavalries and death and life and everything in between with pompous chivalry and even if its just bullocks, I couldn't care less because it sounds so very good!

Rating: 4.5/5

P.S. Portions of the album were apparently recorded/sung at a Spanish cathedral and the ethereal sound really shows.

[fizz]

The album is on a constant loop in my car. Heard it 6 times in 2 days and it still sounds fresh.

[X.]

You give me hope, Fizz. Will be listening to this very soon.