Coldplay - Viva La Vida (Or Death And All His Friends) Album Review (2008)

After the massive album X&Y thrust Coldplay to the top of everyone’s ‘the worlds greatest bands’ list, it is hard to know what to expect from a new album. Like Radiohead after The Bends then OK Computer, and REM after Out Of Time and Automatic For The People, a band will inevitably crash after a musical high. The rise of Coldplay starts with A Rush Of Blood To The Head, a great album of well crafted songs, lyrics and musical talent. X&Y essentially does the same but in a vast sea of production - every space filled with something…different - fantastic one minute and inept the next. With the release of Viva La Vida (or Death And All His Friends), naturally expectations are high and the musical world holds its breath waiting for a rise or a fall.

Viva La Vida opens with the stirring instrumental ‘Life In Technicolor’ - a brave choice to start an album and, at just over two minutes, ironically, one of the best songs. The band’s characteristic blend of guitar, piano and drums pound out the ridiculously short piece. The only vocal contribution is a very cheesy and brief but entirely effective chorus of ‘ah, oh, oh’. It sounds like Chris Martin and Co. have been listening to the Mogwai back catalogue for inspiration on how to start the album. Five minutes longer and it would have been a fantastic closer.

From this great, teaser of an opening, ‘Cemeteries Of London’ is the first ‘proper’ song. Vocally lead, Martin is in pseudo-gothic mood. Like much of X&Y, for every great moment there is a another of baffling mediocrity. Some wonderful guitar work from Jonny Buckland is coupled with persistent annoying handclaps. There is an uplifting ‘la la la’ chorus and horribly trite lyrics about ‘talking to God’. Once a band who learned how to ‘finish’ songs, now they just add a quiet bit of piano on the end instead of finishing twenty seconds earlier.

‘Lost!’ starts with a great church organ sound but is again plagued by the dreaded handclaps. What is wrong with Will Champion’s drumming? It is stylist and inventive and should be left alone. The pace of the song is agonisingly slow, as Martin delivers more life reaffirming lyrics: ‘Every river that I tried to cross. Every door I ever tried was locked. And I’m just waiting til the shine wears off’. He then goes on to say ’You might be a big fish in a little pond. Doesn’t mean you’ve won coz along may come a bigger one’. This nursery rhyme style does nothing to help the song which never lifts from the relentless plod. Even when Martin changes the mood with ’Every gun you ever held went off. I’m just waiting til the firing starts’, instead of adding depth it feels out of place and awkward. On the plus side, the music is incredibly good - that mix of piano and guitar the band deliver so well.

‘42’ is an odd song. There are three distinct sections so it feels much longer, like a four minute distillation of a twelve minute prog-rock track. In the first section, the Lennon-esque piano is joined by Martin’s Lennon-esque vocals. The soul searching continues as he declares that ‘time is so short and I’m sure there must be something more’. We then get a brief wordless interlude before the song changes completely. Some more great guitars from Buckland threaten to turn Coldplay into Radiohead and provide a moment of genius but then section three starts and Martin crashes in with a curiously jolly vocal, repeating ‘You thought you might be a ghost. You didn’t get to heaven but you made it close’ before finishing quickly as the song began. Ultimately a complete mess.

The next two songs on Viva La Vida should be four separate songs. Why they are paired up, only the band will know. ’Lovers In Japan/Reign Of Love’ has another brilliantly soaring opening of piano which perversely is pushed right into the background to make way for Martin and a layer of guitars. Again the lyrics are questionable: ’They are turning my head out; to see what I'm all about’ is typical Martin musing but ‘Soldiers, you've got to soldier on’ is bordering on offensive. Great instrumentation is never matched by the vocal arrangement which lacks coordination and melody. There is a distinct lack of a tune. At four minutes ‘Reign Of Love’ starts (Martin pretentiously counts the band back in) with equally effective piano that is ruined by incessant background noise. It is like they have a need to fill every space and every gap of silence, with something, anything. As long as it’s filled. The song is like a reworking of ‘Kingdom Come’ but nowhere near as good. The lyrics are sparse but effective even if Martin does tell us at one point ‘My knees go praying’.

‘Yes’ is nearly a complete disaster. The band attempt to capture some darkness but more great music is spoiled by Martin’s attempt at a baritone. He is one of the only current lead singers who can do falsetto really well, and his voice has improved massively since Parachutes, but here it is all wrong. There is a great eastern feel created by scratchy violin. Martin finally gets back into his proper tone with the best part of the song: ‘So up they picked me by the big toe. I was held from the rooftop then they let me go. There's only screaming; let the windows down, as I come to the ground’. It is a rare moment of brilliance. Again, four minutes in and a new song starts. And it is genuinely good. This is ‘Chinese Sleep Chant’ and sounds so far from Coldplay that it could be an indie band from 1987. The lyrics are practically non-existent which gives less to complain about and the music just glides and soars as Martin adds an extra instrument: his voice - as it should be this time.Unlike X&Y, the title track on Viva La Vida is actually very good. Martin chronicles the ‘fall from grace’ of a nation within all the pomp and ceremony. It is a wonderfully written pop song, with structure and direction. Martin never sounds better than when he is singing: ‘I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing. Roman Cavalry choirs are singing. Be my mirror, my sword and shield. My missionaries in a foreign field’ over a choir of backing vocals. Yes it is overblown and overproduced but it works, yet echoing the current demeanour of a band running out of ideas.

But ‘Violet Hill’ continues the high standard, in spite of the stupid ’snow, white snow’ lyric right at the start. What other colour could it be? This sets the standard unfortunately as we go from ‘…the banks became cathedrals’ to ’and the fox became God’ and ‘Bury me in armour when I'm dead and hit the ground’ to ’my nerves are poles that unfroze’ (?). It is baffling song writing, inconsistent and at times dreadfully shallow. The line ‘Priests clutched onto bibles, hollowed out to fit their rifles. And the cross was held aloft’ is an attempt at religious controversy but it just falls on it’s face. Lyrics aside, the song is brilliantly conceived. In essence this is a personal song and this is highlighted in the only decent ending - all Martin and a simple piano. ‘If you love me, won’t you let me know?’. He could be asking his audience, in fear of the answer he will get back.

As the album draws to a close, ‘Strawberry Swing’ is interesting song - largely dispensing the big production. Martin is accompanied by a gorgeous guitar arrangement in the album’s only spine-tingling moment, as he sings: ’Now the sky could be blue. I don't mind. Without you it's a waste of time’. Brilliant.

The album closes with ’Death And All His Friends’ (the subtitle track, if there is such a thing). After the last few tracks, and a weak first half, we expect, no demand, a great closing track. The song starts delicately enough with Martin crooning enigmatically but then when Buckland adds a guitar loop, the production takes over and Coldplay turn into Status Quo. The drums crash dramatically, there is a guitar solo, then Martin (and band?) comes back before things dissolve. Only to return with a couple of minutes of space-aged ambience. Martin sings ‘And in the end we lie awake, and we dream of making our escape’. It sounds like a man struggling to come to terms with his predicament: he is trapped within his own band. It is an intriguing ending but ultimately vacuous.

The big problem with Viva La Vida is the complete lack of substance. Just because you add a CD cover featuring the French Revolution and dress in period costume in the iPod video, it doesn’t mean that somehow the songs transform into something poetic and meaningful. Moreover there is a hug lack of big songs. X&Y may be overblown overproduced nonsense but at least it had a few decent tunes. You spend the first half of the album waiting for a ‘White Sands’ or a ‘Fix You’ - that big ‘knockout’ moment of musical excellence. It just doesn’t happen. Only the last few songs really deliver in style.

But Coldplay are incredibly good, especially Jonny Buckland. There is no doubt that the band are a talented group but there is very little on Viva La Vida to do this talent justice. The band have claimed that they have dispensed with dense production and become less restrained. But they don’t seem to know when to stop tinkering and just left the songs speak for themselves. Maybe the addition of Brian Eno has failed miserably. Unlike previous albums, there is less to work with but more could have been achieved by adding less. After the rise of ‘A Rush Of Blood To The Head’ and the slide of ‘X&Y’, this is the inevitable, disappointing fall.

-- CS