Coldplay Finds New Life With "Death" (20080612)

From WikiColdplay

Turn Your Ears Off!

Jokes about Coldplay are thrown around in circles of music almost as much as Bush jokes are used in, well, everyday life. From a scathing NY Times review of their last album, 2005's X&Y, to pop culture pouncing on them with a "gay" knock in the mostly unfunny 40 Year Old Virgin, anything they do from this point on already has a tag of scrutiny attached to it before notes are even heard. Although their new effort Viva la Vida Or Death And All His Friends isn't a drastic departure in the sonic sense from their previous work, it's the snapshot of a band in the process of both self realization and growth beyond whatever pigeonholed fodder the masses have to throw at them.

Knowing full well the approach and end result of X&Y was worn out and predictable for even them, the band sought the aid of kingpin producer Brian Eno (U2, Talking Heads). The idea was to break away from the "trilogy" of albums that the band had rode out since the release of their major label debut Parachutes. What we get is a sound that teeters on the edge of progressive rock with that same arena friendly swagger that got Coldplay in the position to get in front of a guy like Eno in the first place. The funny thing about this is the complexity usually found trudging under the shiny surface of their piano driven ballad rock is worn on the sleeve of Vida. It's still very much Coldplay and the end result isn't all that different. The road to get there, on the other hand is what makes this the most interesting effort to date.

The album opens with an instrumental. That alone for Coldplay fans, or haters, is a departure and should get some eyebrows slightly raised. "Life In Technicolor" sweeps in under a shimmering electronica intro which almost immediately stutters to a percussive middle eastern build up. From there the song blows up with the band coming in typical epic fashion with brief vocal call outs before breaking down into the next track. From there the album flows and flows. What was the biggest problem with X&Y? The tracklisting. Following up tense numbers with soggy ballads took something away from the album while Vida sticks to a gradual rise and fall that makes sense. It's a subtle difference and some songs alone might seem a bit flat over time on their own but contextually within the album it brings a continuity that's right on the money. That's not to say the songs won't hold up, in fact because of the new found love of percussion and studio trickery (thank you Mr. Eno) it's not like listening to a throw-away track from their previous work. There's enough to make them interesting. The clap happy ghost story "Cemeteries Of London" and stomping "Lost!" glide along nicely and it's not till "42" do you really get that they tried to step outside of themselves. Tried too hard? Maybe a little but the effort is worth a listen and even endearing at times. The Beatles meets Radiohead intro of the numbered wonder lulls you into that piano ballad trance but with an eerie foreshadowing to the driven angular guitar raunchiness of the next section (again, very Radiohead) before bursting into what sounds like a b-side from A Rush Of Blood To The Head (it's not really a b-side, don't go searching for it). From there you have the airy piano fire of "Lovers In Japan/Reign Of Love" (the second part sounding like a late night Joshua Tree era U2 lullaby jam session), and the deep register vocals of the sultry middle eastern inspired "Yes". It's the single "Violet Hill", an echoed rocking thump that crumbles to a snow buried piano lament and the two title tracks that round out the end in fine epic style. "Viva la Vida", an epic string revolution (and still one of the best songs on the album) will no doubt have arenas chanting and fist pumping across the globe thanks to that iTunes commercial while "Death And All His Friends", another soft piano ditty sugar coated with Martin's "lets' get married" vocals, errupts in a driving Fleetwood Mac breakdown before reverting back to the band's comfortable, but powerful, vocal choir similar to "Fix You". The icing on the cake is in the "hidden" songs between tracks, though the only way you could hide them is if you had a track changing trigger finger and couldn't wait for the 1 second of silence before the next song. One such track, "The Escapist" bookends the album with that same electronica trance from the opening number with Martin channeling McCartney in true "The End" fashion before it decays into silence. If that isn't enough there's already alternate versions of a couple songs, b-sides and rumors of more unreleased material from the sessions sure to surface at some point.

Overall, a sizable step forward for Coldplay but not in the "hey look we totally changed our sound!" way it was rumored to be. The core that held the band together over three mostly successful albums is still very much the heart of the new material. It's the band's attention to detail and flow (under Eno's watchful eye) that really breathes fresh air into the band, showcasing a gradual (and slightly more adventurous) crescendo. It might not be enough to fight off the haters and with the success this album will surely see they'll have to endure a different breed of jokes but there's something about a band questioning it's own musical mortality and tackling it with unapologetic force that makes them less "gay", right? I think so.

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