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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Surprise of the Year (2009 i.e.), 29 Nov 2009
I heard Coldplay the first time a decade or so ago when a local radio station played Yello, suggesting the band could be big. I immediately rushed out to buy the album, Parachutes, and was mildly disappointed. Although the album in itself is fine, Yello is a definite high mark on it. I was, therefore, a bit surprised when Coldplay had become big a few months later.
A couple of years elapsed and In My Room was released as the lead off single to their follow up album. Again, great track and the first half of the album was great. As an album as a whole I still felt something was missing in making it worthwhile, like some sort of Radiohead/US lite version (which they were actually commonly accused of being).
When I heard the Speed of Sound of their X&Y album I decided to give Coldplay a rest. It is a decent song but devoid of any progression in sound.
When Viva was released it was hyped as being a different Coldplay with Brian Eno steering them to new territories. Violet Hill, the lead off single, gave, however, few signs of any improvement. Although the title track and Lovers in Japan became hits and more importantly, songs that I did like, my interest based on past experience in listening to the album was limited.
A friend of mine owned the album and urged me to borrow it, stating it really was much better than Coldplay's previous records. Since his musical taste aligns often to mine, I decided to give it a decent try. From the very first notes until the ending, I was stunned during the first listen. It is as if the group have transformed into a different entity. Eno's influence is all over the record, with the aural landscape blending with simple melodies. There is barely a weak track on the record, except maybe the previously mentioned Violet Hill. Samples of great tracks can be found on YouTube of Strawberry Swing (fantastic video) and Lovers in Japan; both actually expressing the experimentation abundant on the album.
The main gripe is maybe the non inclusion of Life in Technicolor, which starts the album but while the version is superb, only instrumental, it would have been better also getting the long version with lyrics. That version is available on the mini album released a few months later, Prospect March, but apart from that one track little value is in that record.
Having listened constantly to this record this year (2009), I decided buying X&Y when I saw it on sale. It is, however, like their previous ones, OK (Fix You is great) but not anything to get excited about. Viva la Vida is the one Coldplay album to get, save the rest for their compilation some time later.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One word... Beautiful, 3 Aug 2009
Since 1999's Parachutes I can't honestly say I've ever enjoyed anything Coldplay produced since then. Overplayed on the radio, the country's fascination of celeb couple Chris Martin and Gwnyth Paltrow in every magazine, many fans of music have just ignored mainstream music for some time now and consider Coldplay to be generic radio-friendly pop.
Viva La Vida though, from my very first listen on music browser Spotify, I was taken away by the charm, the beautiful, soothing melancholy sound and wise song writing.
It begins with Life In Technicolour, an instrumental moog-y track which opens the album with electric keyboard yet culminates with various stringed instruments uniting in reverb.
Lost!, although sounding like Coldplay are talking about the series of the same name, sounds like it's being played by a church organ during a funeral. And with Chris Martin's lyrics hinting that in ceremony, one may lose his way before acknowledging death as part as human nature. It's a beautiful, loving track full of warmth which came in time for this reviewers death of a family member. 42 also continues with the obvious theme of death with lyrics such as "You didn't get to heaven but you made it close."
Lovers In Japan begins with a soul-wrenching dirge, shortly accompanied by piano and sombre vocals from Chris Martin about soldiers and battle. Whilst it's been said VLV is a concept album about the Spanish Civil war you can apply the philosophy of this album to life itself. The song is simple, classic stuff and very beautiful and fuses with Reign Of Love in the same track, a clever technique to get you to listen to the album the way Chris intended you to. VLV is to be listened to from start to finish.
Chinese Sleep Chant, in the fourth minute of the sixth track is reverb heavy, sounding very Joshua Tree. But nevertheless, beautiful foreboding track oozing with a melancholy and vast whine which takes the album into it's last third.
The singles Viva La Vida, and quickly following it, Violet Hill, are here and sound as a brief reminder that this band is still commercial, and wants to cater to the masses, with a flush of brilliance and progress into a newer, fresher sound. Unlike anything Coldplay released for radio play in the past. For me, a great thing, as is the video to accompany those songs.
Strawberry Swing is as sunny and bright as the actual title. Heavy in percussion, you can swear the guitar starts to sound like an orchestra by the end. And then... the album is closing with Death and All His Friends. This begins with no percussion and just a solo piano, until it breaks down and the closing lyrics step out; "No I don't want to battle from beginning to end, I don't want to cycle or recycle revenge. I don't want to follow death and all of his friends." The Escapist is a pastiche of the first track, a classic technique which closes the album.
This is an album about life and the things which we may not necessarily like but as humans will have to accept. It's nothing short of beautiful, heart-breaking and charming at the same time. Definitely not the sort of thing Coldplay have become famous for, but I would expect nothing less from such a fantastic album.
One of the things I absolutely do detest about VLV is in the Limited Edition version, Jay-Z raps through a bonus version of Lost. Don't buy that version!
I've almost compiled my top five albums of the 00's, as we draw to a close. And Coldplay may have just slipped into it.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Effortless brilliance, 23 July 2009
They make it seem easy. Not one bum note, never a dull moment, no better or worse than X&Y, Rush of Blood, Parachutes, just different, more accomplished, more confident, the sound of a band continuing to fulfill its promise without even breaking stride. Who knows what's next? Not 'more of the same', that's for sure.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
Rubbish
Unimaginative, uninspired, uninventive, unoriginal, uncreative, commonplace, mundane, ordinary, routine, humdrum, run-of-the-mill, by-the-numbers, hackneyed, trite, hoary...
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Published 3 months ago by Mr. M. Brown
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