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Coldplay

Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends

Written by: TL on 25/06/2008 16:35:30

I\'ve said it before, back when I reviewed Linkin Park, and I\'ll say it again. When a band seems to have become so mainstream and popular that no-one actually expects them to be good anymore, I always secretly hope for them to release an epic album that proves the trend-police wrong and puts the critics up against the walls.

However, the only thing the new Coldplay album proves is that millions of people and number one spots on charts on both sides of the Atlantic can in fact be terribly fuckin\' wrong. Have you ever listened to one of the countless metal bands who only know how to be heavy, and can\'t figure out how to variate their expression to become interesting? Coldplay is like that, except the opposite. The band is so soft, I don\'t think they\'d be able to find an edge in a knife-factory. Considering that the album is titled \"Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends\" and has an artwork further giving you thoughts of revolution, insultingly little has changed in this band\'s universe.

The first single \"Violet Hill\" is immediately the stand out track on the album, that despite a promising beginning and a nice groove, settles for little more than whiny pop-mediocrity in the chorus. Apart from that, there\'s the title track \"Viva La Vida\", and I actually doubt if the reason that I\'m noticing it isn\'t because of the accusations of plagiarism the song has been a victim of. I won\'t be the judge of whether or not the similarity is suspicious, but while we\'re in the conspiracy corner, is it just me or does \"Cemeteries Of London\" not smell a liiiittle tiny bit like the good old \"House Of The Rising Sun\"? Copycatting or not, I think I like both that and the Creaky Boards song better than Coldplay\'s parallels.

Listening to the album now, I don\'t think I\'ve been this bored since high school. It\'s not that \"Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends\" is a total fuckin\' atrocity, it\'s just so safe and mind numbingly soft it makes me pissed off to see the band market themselves like revolutionaries. Coldplay sounds like a band whose van has run out of creativity several miles down the road, and off the top of my head I can easily mention bands like Band Of Horses and Your Vegas, who do similar music while producing infinitely better songs. In fact I think the most positive think I have to say about this record is that it reminds me how good the latter band\'s \"That\'s The Way The War Is Won\" is, so I urge you, go check that out instead of this. Otherwise, why not just go back and give one of your Radiohead records another spin? Or if you\'re in the mood for simpler things, then how about Oasis? On \"Lost!\", Christ Martin might sing \"Just because I\'m losing/doesn\'t mean I\'m lost/doesn\'t mean I\'ll stop\", but if him and his band don\'t take their heads out their behinds soon and start doing something besides crying on record, I wish to the higher powers that they would.

Download: Violet Hills, Viva La Vida, Cemeteries Of London,
For The Fans Of: Band Of Horses, Your Vegas, Oasis
Listen: myspace.com/coldplay

Release Date 17.06.2008
Capitol Records