Viva la Vida Review

Coldplay's fourth release has been billed as their experimental record, as well as their political record. And it is both, relatively speaking. Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends opens with an anthemic riff played not on guitar but on a Persian santur — a hammered dulcimer common to the traditional music of Iraq and Iran. The album's lead single, "Violet Hill," describes a scene in which "priests clutched onto Bibles/Hollowed out to fit their rifles." Half the album's tracks float images of war, while others evoke God, religion or death.
Read More...

No one's been more painfully aware of Coldplay's mellow ''Yellow'' aesthetic than the band itself: Frontman Chris Martin once joked to EW about ''driving a Bland Rover.'' It took a while to do something about it, but Viva La Vida, their fourth and best album, feels emboldened at almost every turn. Jonny Buckland's guitars howl insistently; Martin has discovered sub-falsetto vocal registers; and a stark, recurring string section lends an edge. But none of these developments dampen the group's essential melodiousness: Even with this MO, Coldplay can't help but do ''pretty'' proud.
Read More...

Viva la Vida, is another matter entirely. Eno pushes them, not necessarily to experiment but rather to focus and refine, to not leave their comfort zone but to find some tremulous discomfort within it. In his hands, this most staid of bands looks to shake things up, albeit politely, but such good manners are so inherent to Coldplay's DNA that they remain courteous even when they experiment.
Read More...

When Coldplay opened 2005’s X&Y with a sly riff on Richard Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra” (known to movie fans as the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey), the message was clear: The wimpy Brits behind “Yellow” had completed their studies at Bono’s School for Boys and would now be turning their attention to weightier fare. Chris Martin and his mates, the music told us, had become men.
Read More...