Music : Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends (Gatefold Digipack)

Rating: - Great Album
A great album that grows on you. At first you think it's just an album to that just washes over and that is easy to listen but one you really get into it goes onto another level. All the songs are great with my personal number 1 being lovers in Japan. If you even have a slight interest in Coldplay buy it, if not give it a listen and might change your mind. As a side note don't let people tell what is cool and what isn't all music is personal taste

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Rating: - Is commerical success inversely proportional to musical talent?
I must admit I never expected to like this. After 3 listens my expectations were confirmed. There's too much lyrical and musical bloat here, Martin's quest to become a voice of a generation has gradually diluted Coldplay's sound to MOR mush, a rapid decline from 2000's excellent 'Parachutes'.

"Life In Technicolour" is a fantastic instrumental to kick off the album showing enthusiasm and it looks promising, a glorious acoustic guitar driven ditty. "Cemeteries Of London" unfortunately reminds me that im listening to Chris Martin, "...Through the dark streets they go searching to seek God in their own way" he could be speaking for all fans of the band, looking to their messiah to show them the way, ew!

The album flounders from then on only coming to life with "Violet Hill" before petering out into mediocrity. I question why I listened to this more than once..........

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Rating: - Fresh and feel-good factor
Having collected the other Coldplay albums for the sake of the few songs I liked on them, this album was a more pleasant surprise because unlike the slightly more downbeat and sombre albums of the past, this album contains simple and good tunes for the most part that are vibrant in places, catchy and good. My favourites include Life in Technicolour ( a perfect example of Coldplay's new approach), Viva La Vida and Strawberry Swing.

Even if not everything they do gets you buzzing, I'd defintely say this is the pick of their career so far.

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Rating: - An Album to send shivers down ones spine.
This is a quick review of an amazing album that is supprisingly one of the best I have ever heard (being of 43 years of age and liking bands mostly from the eighties era). There are songs that stands the hairs up like Viva La Vida and 42 and others that are sublime in quality and production. Cheers to Coldplay for making an anthem to the summer of 2008!

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Rating: - Awful
oh dear. so much for the groundbreaking album! this is poor. brian eno cannot save the day. chris martin sounds like a poor man's thom yorke/bono. i think its time for a re think. million dollar marketing campaigns and i tunes gimmicks cant save this band. the lyrics are meaningless, there is no soul in this music. it is purely corporate. is this what making music is all about? avoid