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

Rating: - Good but not great
I quite like Coldplay and I enjoyed this album. But it's quite obvious that the band did not try that hard with Viva la Vida. Chris Martin once described creating the album as 'just jamming' and that is an accurate description. Most songs are catchy but lack substance and often you expect the song to build but nothing happens then it ends.

I think Coldplay are getting lazy and it's going to cost them fans.

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Rating: - mature album-their best yet
There's something about this album that is hard to define. In any event, the overall effect is quite astonishing. It does take a few plays to appreciate the artistry involved here but I'd recommend persevering if the CD doesn't grab you instantly.
What I like about this album is the combination of good melodies, lush production and surprising changes of mood and pace.
In the past I've tended to group Coldplay with other artists who have produced occasional tracks that I've enjoyed (but without me becoming a big fan). This CD has changed that perception - album of 2008 so far I reckon!

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Rating: - Coldpay get better and better!
I thought X&Y would take some beating but I have to say, after listening to this album for months now, I still love it.

I thought Coldplay's first album Parachutes was dull, second a lot better and then X&Y was great. If like me, you don't rate their first album, then you will probably like this.

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Rating: - Coldplay Lite ... can there be such a ghastly thing?!
Very pleasant. But it feels like the songs don't settle down very much, and never really get into their stride. There's a lot of bits of fragments of song which re-occur which break things up, as if they thought, hmmmm let's make this record a bit more interesting, let's just keep cut and pasting bits of other songs in, which will make it sound dynamic and programmatic. It just makes it feel bitty and restless. I see, unaccountably, Brian Eno was involved, his influence is sadly not very evident. But it's all very jolly and pleasant in a lightweight yet portentous way - kind of the classic Coldplay formula but reduced, if such a thing could be possible. Inoffensive nonetheless.

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Rating: - Another brilliantly recorded yet very dull record.
This is a fantastic recording.
This is a dull record.
Nuff said.