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

Rating: - arcade players
viva la vida or death and all his friends, well like other reviewers have stated if you have reviewed this album after a couple of listens and marked it down as bad then in my opinion you havent really given it chance. chris martin once stated he was a big fan of arcade fire well i honestly think coldplay have gone slightly down that route on this album from the start the slow building of life in technicolor, the haunting cemetries of london, i love lost and 42 then follows the track of the album for me in lovers in japan/Reign Of Love yes is a strong track as is vida la vida i do think that violet hill is actually the weakest but by no means a poor track, all in all a quality listen but a masterpeice it isn't but a different direction from coldplay which is the sign of a good band

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Rating: - no words of how fab it is
when i listen to this new coldplay album it makes my hairs stand on end i love it.the sound alone gos though me.

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Rating: - life in the old dogs yet
Dont hold back in buying but don't expect to love it on the first play, it's a'grower' Several plays in you will have your favourites but none of it is rubbish. Some of the instrumental links seem a bit pointless, wheras some are good, the seamless end to start is clever if you have it on looped play. Best track? I think 'yes'

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Rating: - slight departure but same success
It's very difficult in a celebrity-obsessed culture to review a new Coldplay album based solely on the music. Whether it's the good causes or the famous wife, too many other things can get in the way. I wish some professional reviewers would try to remember this. So let's try to focus on the record itself...

I was a big fan of X&Y, the last Coldplay album, despite being indifferent to its predecessors, and I still find Chris Martin's voice an acquired taste. So how does Viva La Vida measure up?

It certainly requires a number of listens to get into. There is nothing as immediate as "Speed of Sound", and many of the tracks wrongfoot the listener halfway through. Coldplay themselves describe their sound as "heavy soft rock" and their Wikipedia entry suggests they are an "alternative rock band", but Viva La Vida reminds me more of late period Pink Floyd than anything. It seems clearly intended to be heard as a whole, rather than just a collection of unconnected songs, with its extended instrumental passages, two-part songs and time signature changes.

The album definitely has its weaker moments, and comes across as low-key in comparison with X&Y. I would have given three and a half stars if I could! However, Viva La Vida does extend Coldplay's sound, showing the confidence of a band at the peak of its powers and refusing to rest on its laurels. For that alone they should be congratulated; for any lover of intelligent, melodic rock it is a must.

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Rating: - 'V' for Victorious
Been a long time fan of Coldplay, their albums often seemed to add up to much more than the sum of all the parts, you would usually find that the commercial success they got from the individual singles wasn't much - what I mean is they hadn't ever reached a number 1 single in the UK however their albums always sold loads and were the sort of albums you could find yourself playing years later at Bar-B-Ques. So when I saw that the songs released from this album unusually had done particularly well in the charts (I think Viva la Vida hit No 1) my initial thought was that maybe the band had gone a little mainstream and decided to get some pop chart success?

Either way, I bought the album and listened eagerly to what Chris Martin claimed would "Be the album people remember them by"

At first glance I was a little taken back by the ten-tracks that were on offer, I mean it had been three years since X&Y, I expected a few more, but on listening a few of the title tracks there are infact a couple of extra songs, classed as `hidden' bolted onto the end of tracks 5, 6 & 10 following 20 seconds of silence - why they done this I don't know.

So in keeping with it taking them their standard 3 years per album to make, I whacked it on in the car on the way to work and sadly was quite under-whelmed. The first track was a throwaway instrumental and most of the lyrics I was hearing throughout the songs were simple to say the least. I listened to it again on the way back from work and had pretty much written it off as a disappointment. Gutted.

I once saw Gwyneth in an interview say that Chris is one of the most talented poets of our generation...I think she must be looking at those lyrics through a pair of Versace rose coloured glasses based on some of this stuff I was hearing - not much depth, but on the other hand you got to give it to him, they're catchy, which is pretty much the highlight for me in most of the songs - they have great intro's, interestingly different instruments beating out a foot tapping rhythm and generally all consisting of a melodic ooohhh laaa la laayy or a la la la layee and such, but Martins voice is so well suited to this you wouldn't want anything else.

Following my initial disappointment as I mentioned, a funny thing happened...I started hearing the songs a few more times on the radio and saw that live performance they did outside the BBC studios and that album grew on me faster than a cold sore in winter. Now all I have to say about it following this are positive things, from the ace `Lost' onto the overplayed Violet Hill this really is a well produced effort - probably because it came from Brian Eno but none the less it's great.

I hear that there were a few songs left over from this album that they're going to stick in the next one - probably due in another three years time which I think is a bit of a shame because it is a little short like I say, but other than that expect to hear these ballads ringing in episodes of the OC and major Hollywood rom-coms for years to come - that's the calibre of what's in this gatefold digi-pack. Go enjoyeee ye la la la la layee...

Given there are 10 listed tracks on this one, going back to my sum of all parts balony; I would give it 11 out 10.