Coldplay have without doubt produced some of the most euphoric and uplifting songs, those which raise the hairs on your arm to those which bring a tear to your eyes. On listening to their first three albums, however, it soon becomes clear that if you take away the tracks which were released onto the global audience as singles, and study what is left, the material is distinctly average, and three or four great tracks don't make for a five star album.
On Viva La Vida, however, they have addressed this issue, not only do we have the uplifting crescendo singles we instantly recognise, but the tracks inbetween are also worthy of note and recognition. A mature album that takes one step forward from the others in its experimental ways, and is all the better for it. A crisp production really takes you into the heart of the Coldplay sound, unlike X&Y, where the sound production lost the euphoria that should have been felt when listening to 'Fix You' for example, and, as such, led to the albums detriment.
So, probably the first Coldplay album that you can tolerate from start to finish, without having to skip two tracks or more, (well one isn't that bad).