"Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends" by Coldplay: EARLY REVIEW

Album Review: "Viva La Vida or Death and all His Friends" - Coldplay
10/10

As I sit here staring at a blank document, I wonder a couple of things. I'm wondering how I'm going to study for my history exam tomorrow, I'm wondering if I have enough money to get more than one dollar menu cheeseburger from McDonald's, and I'm wondering if people are going to realize exactly how huge "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends" by Coldplay is going to be.

It has been three years since we've heard from the London boys, and in that time they've gone through quite a few changes. Decked out with French Revolution imagery and splashed with oil paint, the new album lands on our doorsteps in a year without any remarkable albums - and I'm more than happy to say Coldplay have outdone themselves with this one. But before I go any further...

"Mainstream music sucks, Coldplay is for sissies, and we're a bunch of pretentious bastards. [Insert more trite jibberish here]."

There. Now I've written the Pitchfork review for the album too.

Brian Eno's influence on the album is evident from the first few seconds of the first track, "Life In Technicolor". The track opens up with some ambient loops before opening up into a grand, sweeping instrumental. Even from the lyric-less first track, the album foreshadows itself as being something to remember. The relatively short opening track quickly fades into the classic-yet-now-haunting combination of Chris Martin and the piano. Martin croons "The night over London hangs" as the boys burst into a U2-esque fit-for-an-arena anthem with "Cemeteries of London". In an almost ironic twist, the dark and gloomy track is overlayed with handclaps and chants. The song lingers for a moment after the end as Martin throws out a couple measures of more haunting piano.

The album takes a complete mood swing with "Lost!", a track driven by reggae beats and almost tribal-sounding drum beats. The song flirts with an almost cliché overtone the whole time, but still remains original. Martin sings "I just got lost/Every river that you tried to cross/Every door you ever tried was locked". Jonny Buckland's guitar work takes center stage for Coldplay's version of a guitar solo. Perhaps the biggest change on the album so far is Coldplay's shift from being the Chris Martin Show to being a full band. "42" is definitely the album centerpiece. It's a three part epic, beginning with Nightmare Before Christmas-sounding piano and vocals, changing to an industrial-sounding breakdown with screeching guitar and an overpowering bassline, then ends with everything coming together as Martin proclaims "You thought you might be a ghost/You didn't get to Heaven but you made it close". It's impossible not to see the similarities to Radiohead with this song... but I urge you not to think of it like that. The song comes around full circle as the last verse closes with just Martin and the creepy piano again, along with some trippy lyrics "Those who are dead are not dead/They're just living in my head".

After a song that intense, Coldplay let their Win Butler-show with "Lovers In Japan", a song that borrows heavily from Arcade Fire's "Funeral". Perhaps most evident here is Martin's improved songwriting ability as he yells "They are turning my head out/To see what I'm all about", sounding almost like Coldplay's subtle stab at the government. "Lovers In Japan" definitively ends and the second song on the track, "Reign Of Love", promptly begins with Martin's peaceful, rippling piano. This is the one song on the album where Coldplay return to their "Parachutes" roots, as if just to say "Yeah, we've still got that, too". Damn right they do.

"Yes" is just past the halfway mark on the album. Martin's low register vocals and the Eastern sounding instruments set the stage for Coldplay's very mature take on sex, a subject completely non-existant on Coldplay's albums until now. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that Martin was a virgin until age 22? Even still, it's at this point you realize the album seems to be Coldplay trying to be everything to everyone and passing with flying colors. Not only could they never decide on the official title of the album, they apparently couldn't decide which musical genre to go with. The hidden track "Chinese Sleep Chant" is perhaps the only flaw on the album. Martin mumbles incoherently under overpowering guitars that doesn't fail so much as it falls off in comparison with the rest of the album.

"Viva La Vida" is perhaps the one song everybody has heard by now thanks to a certain iTunes advertisement and Apple's penchant for flooding the major TV stations with their commercials. The song is certainly a titan, even after hearing it for weeks before the album's official release. Here, the band employs the use of bells, nifty little synthesizers, and a large string section to tell the tale of a dethroned, greedy King, who now has to "sleep alone" and "sweep the streets [he] used to own". "Viva La Vida" is perhaps the most focused track on the album, and also is the strongest use of Martin's religious imagery found almost everywhere on the album. The first single from the album "Violet Hill" is next on the list, and honestly after hearing the rest of the album it's kind of a low point. It's safe to say "Violet Hill" is the song most unlike the rest of the songs, with Martin writing somewhat cliché lyrics and the boys in the band half-assing it with their parts. Fortunately for Coldplay, even when they half-ass it, it sounds amazing.

"Strawberry Swing" is where Will Champion, drummer, steps forward and shows just how much he's improved. The African-sounding drums provide the backbone to Jonny's sweeping, even "swinging" (lolpun) guitar in the background. Martin paints the picture of summer, singing about a perfect day spent staring at the sky, be it grey or blue. Lyrics aside, the rest of the band arguably outshines Martin for the first time in the history of the band, finally fulfilling the long time request of most Coldplay fans: "Be a band, not three guys and a guy who's married to Gwenyth Paltrow". The album ends on a high note with "Death and All His Friends" as Martin serenades the ear with a beautiful piano ballad. The song breaks down after a bit, borrowing a tiny smidge from the band's opener from "A Rush of Blood to the Head", "Politik". The song wraps up as Martin joins in with a male choir screaming out "I don't want to battle from beginning to end/I don't want a cycle of recycled revenge/I don't wanna follow death and all of his friends". In a symbolic manner the song talks about not wanting to die, and the hidden track "The Escapist" comes in to describe finally "making our escape". The last hidden track takes the sample loop from the beginning of "Life in Technicolor", closing the album on the same note on which it started.

If you want to spring for the iTunes version of the album, you'll get acoustic versions of "Lost!" and "Lovers In Japan" that will knock your socks off as well. Not only is this my pick for the best album of this year so far, it's my pick for the best album I've heard since "Funeral" by Arcade Fire. After the "X&Y" debacle, it's finally acceptable to be a Coldplay fan again. I think the 40-Year-Old Virgin joke is old now, isn't it? In any case, if you're not a Coldplay fan yet, you need to either become one fast or move to a different planet, because they're about to take over in ways we can't even imagine. People have been speculating about who the next global phenom will be to follow in the footsteps of the greats like U2, Rolling Stones, or Zeppelin. Coldplay have answered that burning question for us with "Viva La Vida and Death and All His Friends". From the ingenious use of religious imagery to the incredible range of musical styles, this is one for the album. U2 can finally pass off their "Biggest Band in the World" torch. All hail Coldplay.

ALBUM RATING: 10

SONG RATINGS:
LIFE IN TECHNICOLOR: 10
CEMETERIES OF LONDON: 10
LOST!: 9
42: 10
LOVERS IN JAPAN: 10
REIGN OF LOVE: 10
YES: 10
CHINESE SLEEP CHANT: 8
VIVA LA VIDA: 10
VIOLET HILL: 8
STRAWBERRY SWING: 10
DEATH AND ALL HIS FRIENDS: 10
THE ESCAPIST: 9