Coldplay Viva La Vida Review
New Album Dubbed Death and All Its Friends & Produced by Brian Eno
Jun 19, 2008
Coldplay release their much anticipated 4th studio album Viva La Vida or Death and All Its Friends. The band, formed during their days at University College of London, broke onto the international scene in 2000 with their debut album Parachutes and the worldwide smash “Yellow”. Instantly compared to the likes of Radiohead and Oasis, Coldplay, lead by Chris Martin on vocals and piano, Jon Buckland (guitar), Will Champion (drums) and Guy Berryman (bass), have exploded into one of the biggest rock bands in the world.
Their music, typically characterised by a careful blend of introspective Brit-Pop and arena-filling rock anthems, has conquered charts all over the world, including the US market, typically finicky when it comes to British rock.
After success with such piano driven ballads as “Clocks” from 2002’s A Rush of Blood to the Head and its doppelganger “Speed of Sound” from 2005’s X &Y, Coldplay enlisted legendary producer Brian Eno to flesh out their 4th, more experimental studio album, Viva la Vida, composed in its entirety by the team of Berryman, Buckland, Champion, Martin.
Viva La Vida or Death and All Its Friends
Whereas Eno helped U2 achieve a revolutionary new sound on Actung Baby, on Viva La Vida the producer simply helped Coldplay experiment and expand upon the band’s own sound.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Martin relayed how Eno told him the songs were too long. “And you're too repetitive,” said Eno of Coldplay “and you use the same tricks too much, and big things aren't necessarily good things, and you use the same sounds too much, and your lyrics are not good enough."
It comes, therefore as no surprise that when Eno took over the reigns as co-producer of the majority of the album, along with Markus Dravs who has worked with Bjork and The Arcade Fire, he made some changes.
Gone are the overbearing piano solos of albums past. In their place comes richer, more textured layers of synths and organs, hints of electronica mixed with guitars that purr rather than roar. While Viva La Vida is dubbed as Coldplay’s experimental album, the bulk of the music on the album doesn’t stray far from the formula the quartet has etched out for themselves. And that’s a good thing, allowing the band to explore new territory without alienating the leagues of fans that have propelled them to cosmic proportions.
Violet Hill
While there are no immediate singles to pick from, the 2 tracks already culled from the album, the inspirational title track and the rockier “Violet Hill” showcase the mood for the album. More instruments, more strings, more rhythm than previously heard on their albums.
“Viva la Vida”, already a number 1 smash in America, lead by a danceable beat and flushing strings that build to a “anything is possible” chorus will go down as one of the best songs of the year and should feature prominently in the band’s concert playlist for years to come.
“Life in Technicolor”, a track that originally had lyrics according to an interview Berryman did with MTV, opens the album with infused theatrics that present a whole new side of the band. However, bittersweet ballads remain the band’s fortay and come in the form of the pensive “Lost!”, “Strawberry Swing” and the moody, yet fervent “Yes”.
Stand out tracks include the passion-soaked “Lovers in Japan”, a beautiful up-tempo piano-driven track that makes running away to Japan sound sexy and urgent, backed immediately with “Reign of Love” a short poetic valentine set to a rolling tack piano that showcases the best use of this instrument on a Coldplay song to date.
To say that this album is experimental is a stretch, but it is a great expansion of Coldplay’s sound.
Fans should delight in the neat, highly focused package and new listeners will find much to appreciate on Viva La Vida. Coldplay have made one of the best albums of the year.
Coldplay are currently on tour in support of Viva La Vida and have just released Prospekt's March EP.
 |
 |
