Coldplay
Viva la Vida
Capitol Music Group
By Miriam Lamey
When one thinks of Coldplay, the term “aggressive” doesn’t immediately spring to mind. Especially with this band’s back catalogue, containing the poignant-but-chirpy “Yellow” and the gorgeous, dreary honesty portrayed by “Green Eyes.” Yet their fourth full-length, Viva la Vida, to be crudely blunt, has got some serious balls and through the album, the band proudly display their newfound (dare I say it?) swagger. Ok, the massive elephant in the room here is the teeny little fact that Brian Eno produced this album and is, to say the least, notorious for producing work that reeks of Eno, but what should one do when a major, world-touring band works with a world famous legend? Try to ignore this fact and just take the album for what it is -- a solid collection of more adventurous Coldplay material with a more upbeat vibe and instrumental experimentation.
At only ten tracks, Viva la Vida is the perfect serving-size of a gourmet dessert, coming off tantalizingly sweet and satisfying without being too rich or voluminous. The albums kicks off with “Life in Technicolor,” an almost entirely instrumental track that forcefully combines bongos, acoustic guitar rhythms and a simple clean riff. A thudding bass drum adds to the track’s forcefulness, elevating it to a higher peak of the only vocals – a echoey chorus of “oh, ohs.”
“Cemeteries of London” follows, and it presents an interesting sonic contrast by being the dark heaviness to “…Technicolor’s” almost ethereal airiness. And this sense curiously seems to weave through the album; Vida la Viva is an album of thinly-veiled, more than vaguely religious contrasts -- heaven and hell, light and dark, good and evil, life and death and love and hate. Has Chris Martin found God?
Yet the sonic representation of this sensation is, admittedly, pretty damn clever. “Cemeteries…” is the ghostly underworld to “Technicolor’s…” heavenly realm, playing with slapping drums, hauntingly eerie riffs and a harsh creepiness. But don’t get me wrong, Martin’s still as lovely a singer as ever, but tunes such as this, and the album’s title track, coax out a previously unseen edginess.
“42” wins the prize for Viva la Vida’s “what was that song” simply due to the fact that its opening seems to indicate the track just doesn’t fit. It presents Martin’s signature light, angelic vocals, piano and soulful, puppy-eyed vibe, but don’t write the track off to be a Martin-ripping-himself-off track. Much like the single “Violet Hill,” this piece sonically spins things about with a thudding, almost morbid, Radiohead-like instrumental breakdown, through which Martin’s voice fights for air at the close.
The instrumentals may reek of Eno, but Coldplay’s earnestness and creativity is certainly present. Similarly, “Violet Hill” hits the ears with a similar romantic, wistful vibe that actually conjures up thoughts of McCartney, but this piece is slashed with the first gritty, shocking riff, thudding drums and crashing symbols. It’s an angry, almost raw track and Martin successfully imbues the sweet lines “If you love me/won’t you let me know” with a harsh desperation.
Vida la Viva’s beauty comes not from Eno’s influence, but from Martin’s imagery and the band’s more aggressive instrumentals. The tracks display a wider range of emotion and experience, not found on earlier material. As in “we all know Martin’s in love with Gwyneth, enough already.” This latest effort is well-produced, yet retains a deeper, almost mysterious vibe and a touch of genuine human imperfection.
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