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

Rating: - Another re-invention..............?
The challenge for all those who have made music through the ages is to develop their sound and in doing so re-invent themselves. For those who expected Coldplay to remain the band who wowed the critics and indie fans with Parachutes and not to develop will likely be disappointed with this latest offering.

With Viva La Vida Coldplay move further away from a single band and move into new territory with an album that is greater than the sum of its parts. They tried but failed to achieve this with X&Y but while a good album it is ultimately full of a few great singles which would work just as well in any order. With Viva La Vida the melodies, instrumentation and repeating musical themes develop from track to track while there is a feeling that they have experimented with new sounds and layering of tracks to create something distinctly different.

It isn't perfect but then what album (OK Computer maybe) is? The lyrics grate at times and even after a week of multiple plays I'm still left feeling that there is another step up that Coldplay need to take to achieve the greatness that some seem to give out to musicians after just one single.

Coldplay haven't tried to compete with anyone else but to develop their own sound, therefore taking a risk of alienating fans and losing out to newer bands. Ultimately they have released a very good album that shows that they are still one of the most talented British bands about.

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Rating: - average
After a 3 year wait i was looking forward to coldplays viva la vida..wish i hadnt of bothered now. This is the worse coldplay yet. Where once they were relevant and fresh making tracks like "yellow" and "in my life" they have become the corporate rock giant akin to u2 etc and have lost there sense of urgency,melody and coolness. Theres about 3 good tracks of here "Life intechnicolour" which is an instrumental "lovers in japan" ..excellnt track which should have been the first single and "viva la vida"...the rest is just bland filler. I really hope they kick themselves and shake things up coz things arent looking good for the future..poor.

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Rating: - comment on your recommendation
this item was recommended as 'customers who bought ... also bought ...', with reference to Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms.
I would dare suggest that no-one who bought the latter who was not actively psychotic would also pay real money for this item.
I include the star rating you require only because there is no zero option.

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Rating: - Some great tracks but the audio quality is shocking
This is probably Coldplay's most creative album to date and you can tell they've spent time thinking about each track. Lovers in Japan particularly stands out for me but the audio quality has cost it a star. I'm listening to it on Cyrus gear where most stuff sounds amazing but this sounds like it's being played in a drain or a bath tub! Therefore, all the nice creative touches are not able to be fully appreciated. A real shame but one for the car I'm afraid.

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Rating: - Like the songs, but production is really bad
I like the songs, but can't seem to enjoy them as I find the sound quality of the production really bad. The voices are quite far in the background, and sound quality wise Voilent Hill sounds better on Radio 1 in its radio edit version than on this CD which just shouldn't happen...

I think it is a really crap producer for this album and it sounds like it was done on an 128kbps mp3 player....Or an old compact cassette tape...Shame, real shame...