Coldplay - Viva La Vida or Death and All of His Friends (Review)
Album art for Viva La Vida or Death and All of His Friends
After spending some time thinking what topic the first real post of this blog would be, I decided that there could be no better way than to review the recently released album of one of the bands who can be held accountable for me falling in love with music in the first place. That was back in the days when Coldplay and Matchbox 20 divided the playtime on my stereo equally, and while my affair with anything Rob Thomas turned out to be nothing more than puppy love, my fondness of Chris Martin’s clever lyrics and catchy melodies has remained.
Coldplay is obviously one of the most popular bands in the world over the past years, and this obviously means that there were high expectations to this album before it was released. Understandably this also means that it can be hard for artists of this size to explore and expand their sound, as the pressure of expectations to deliver similar to what the fans have come to expect is immense.
With this in the back of our minds it is easy to see how more than a few die hard Coldplay fans might have frowned when lead singer Chris Martin announced that they wanted to go in a different direction with Viva La Vida or Death and All of His Friends than what they had done with their previous three albums, which while obviously different, shared much of the same sound.
Our first meeting with the album was when the band pulled a Radiohead and decided to give away the first single, entitled Violet Hill, for free through their website. While depressive lyrics about the frustrations of love and loss is hardly anything new from Coldplay, the band now sounded more angry than depressed largely because of more powerful instruments.
The next single, released no more than a couple of weeks before the album came out, was one of the two title tracks on the album, Viva La Vida. In this song, while it is certainly reminiscent of previous monster hits such as Clocks and Speed of Sound, Martin also explores new territory as he tells a tale starring himself as an ancient king who used to rule the world. His line about being ” a puppet on a lonely string “ could easily be interpreted as a statement of how, as he has expressed more clearly before, he feels he isn’t releasing the music he wants to share with the world, but rather what sells.
Chris(t) Martin in a familiar pose on stage
Two singles, two drastically different approaches which both in their own way work, but what about the rest of the album, does it live up to expectations, and is it as drastically different from what they’ve released in the past as the band had proclaimed? The answer is two-fold. While much of the sound on the rest of the album is similar to what we have become accustomed to, with songs like Lovers in Japan and Lost which are obvious instant favourites among existing Coldplay, as you listen to the album you can not shake that feeling that there’s something different about it.
The lyrics are different, almost spiritual at points, such as in the agonizingly beautiful but equally depressing 42 where Martin gets philosophical about life and death, and how he’s sure that because time is so short, there must be something more, and that those who are dead are actually living in his head. With the powerful ballad Yes however, they thread more familiar terrain, telling a tale of loneliness and hope, but at the same time including more mature themes such as sins and betrayal.
Viva La Vida or Death and All of His Friends gets 4 out of 6 waves.
The verdict? It works. This album has something for everyone, be it the loyal fans who have followed the band since their debut album, or those who feel it was about time that the band tried something new. It’s not a revolution by any means, simply a mix of old spice and new seeds. Personally I think that while it is more memorable than their previous release, X & Y, none of the songs on the album reach the peak level of Parachutes and A Rush of Blood to the Head. This might be due to nostalgia however, so please don’t hold me to that statement after I’ve tied some memories to the songs and heard them live for the first time in Oslo in September.
You can purchase Viva La Vida or Death and All of His Friends as a CD or Vinyl LP from Amazon.
