Tuesday Tunes: Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Coldplay puts me to sleep. Not to be a hater but everytime I listen to a Coldplay album, you can rest assure I will take a nap shortly after. However, I do listen to their hits (”Yellow,” “The Scientist”) in tiny doses. I even knew “Fix You” would become an overplayed hit as soon as I listened to the album and rightfully so.
Enter Coldplay’s newest album, Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends, that dropped today. (For those of you who don’t know español, that roughly translates into “Live the life” or “Long live life,” thank you Wikipedia!) As a visual person, of course I have to point out that the album cover is radically different than their previous albums - less conservative, using a French artist’s depiction of their July Revolution.
Perhaps Coldplay intended to use their album cover to suggest that their sound has changed a little bit. Although you cannot escape the buttery smoothness of Chris Martin’s voice, Coldplay picks up the pace in their new effort. Throughout the album, there is often a driving beat that keeps me tapping my foot rather than nodding off. Viva La Vida is produced by Brian Eno, who produced quite a few U2 albums, so you get that same shiny, anthemic feel which I imagine will transpose beautifully at their large stadium crowd concerts.
Coldplay pulls a “Green Day American Idiot two songs in one” for three of their tracks. These songs pull in at around seven minutes so I admit those songs are usually skipped on my playlist. However, I have managed to listen to half of the album at least ten times which is considerably a lot since I am far from being an avid Coldplay fan.
The title track and best example of the “driving beat” I mentioned previously is my favorite tune from this album. In case you live in a cave (or a TiVO cave), you might have missed this iTunes commercial that blends ear candy with eye candy.
Top three tracks to check out: Besides “Viva La Vida,” check out their first single “Violet Hill.” For a taste of their two-fer tracks, spend 6 minutes and 51 seconds with “Lovers In Japan / Reign of Love.”
By Ashley Ingram, June 25, 2008 @ 3:27 pm
I LOVE this cd!