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

Rating: - Excellent album
I'm not a big fan of the singles (though they are good) but the album is excellent. Brian Eno's consistently brilliant touch is evident and the band explore new sonic ground with some nice low basslines and Chris Martin demonstrates his vocal range still further. Buy it and enjoy it.

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Rating: - I love this CD!
I've always liked Coldplay and previously bought Parachutes and A rush of blood to the head. However I didn't rush out to the buy this one as I wasn't overly impressed by the single Violet Hill but Viva La Vida does not disappoint. I feel with this album they have grown and evolved, it is creative, full of feeling and depth, gentler than A rush of blood to the head. I love so many tracks especially 42, Reign of Love, Lovers in Japan, and Death and his friends. There is only one track that I skip - Yes. It's the type of album that gives you goosebumps. People assume that Coldplay are dull and pretentious but IMO they are talented and provide something different from the rest. Give it a try and I'm sure you'll grow to love it!

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Rating: - Hoots man!
Since their successful and widely popular debut 'Parachutes', Coldplay have been accused of playing it safe; sticking to the same routine and allowing themselves to stagnate in a well of mediocrity. This latest effort, then, could be regarded as a step into the unknown - a risk aimed at breaking into the world of rock immortality. The sleeve certainly makes it look this way. Gone is the standard font and minimalist cover art, and in with the romantic, renaissance war scene, with the album title scrawled nihilistically on the front in white chalk (doesn't the guy lying dead in the bottom right look like Chris Martin?).

So no one can accuse Coldplay of sticking to the agenda here. Unfortunately, the direction they've stepped in has left them waist-deep in manure, frantically clawing at the reeds and perhaps wishing they'd stayed on the safe footpath of 'Parachutes' et al instead of leaping wildly into the undergrowth in search of musical evolution.

Ok so it's not that bad. There are some really nice noises coming out from time to time - for instance the intro/outro loop and the latter half of 'Death and All His Friends'. Sadly, the majority of the album sounds like an anthology of Scottish line-dancing anthems. Some of the beats are unforgivably cheesy and cloying, making the listener's spine concertina in loathing and vitriol. I'm looking specifically at 'Lost!', 'Strawberry Swing' and 'Lovers in Japan' here. There's an impossible tension between the rare but enticing synth tones of 'Life in Technicolour' and the morbidly cringe-worthy stomp of 'Strawberry Swing' and 'Lost!' that makes you wonder if Chris Martin is trying to make a Proclaimers tribute album or an alternative score for the 'Lord of The Rings' movies. Intelligent, sickeningly beautiful guitar melodies from the 'Parachutes' era have been replaced over time with over-produced, pedestrian instrumental hooks that leave you wanting to bite off your own face in frustration and disappointment.

And then there're the lyrics. My word. I can remember being at primary school and being told to write a four line poem that rhymed. A simple exercise, that left me feeling satisfied at my own puerile creativity. I can imagine a similar aura of smug surrounding Chris Martin, after penning the gem:

'You might be a big fish in a little pond
Doesn't mean you've won
Cos along may come a bigger one'

It's the kind of thing you might shout at a bully from the safety of your dad's car when he's driving you home from school. It's disgraceful, and unfortunately it shows (if we weren't sure already) that Coldplay and Chris Martin have run out of ideas. Moving in a new direction is fine, but it doesn't mean you can just release a collection of substandard B-sides and call it innovation. If you're unable to stray from a formula, stick to the knitting - at least you'll never be accused of selling out.

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Rating: - Empty and vile
The absence of everything spontaneous, beautiful and courageous in music. Cod poetry mired down by turgid dirgery with all the wit and sophistication of a rotten cat dropping.

Some posh boy warbles unconvincingly over U2's sub-Bsides and expects the world to be saved while I boak heartily into a straw boater.

Music for people with no love for music and no clue about life.

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Rating: - Their best yet
I haven't always liked Coldplay. Parachutes I could take or leave (and generally left). 'Rush of Blood' was good in parts but only really 'The Scientist' and 'Warning Sign' have lasted for me. 'X and Y' attended to their main fault - a lack of variety in building a melody - and also gave us sound washes, instumental development and nearly sixty minutes of sound.
Viva La Vida (a much shorter work) has attended to most of their remaining weaknesses and come up with their first classic pop/rock album that can be enjoyed as a whole. The lyrics are less pretentious - the title track even manages to be witty - and the songs are tidier and organised; they all tell their own particular story in music and lyrics. Critically the instrumentation has real variety with the percussion particularly good. Meanwhile Chris Martin's vocals have matured allowing most melody lines to range well over one octave.
The conceit of 'Fix You' ie two competing musical ideas on one particular track is arguably done to death but there is really not a single weak contribution here.