Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends
In a case of well-honed troubleshooting after the startlingly bland X&Y, Coldplay's fourth LP is a diluted version of U2's Achtung Baby or Radiohead's Kid A, the "experimental" mid-career maneuvers of their peers. Brian Eno produces.
Asked by MTV's Gideon Yago a few years ago about the many bands that had ridden elements of the Radiohead sound, Thom Yorke all but dared his followers to try for a Kid A, the album that tipped the balance between Radiohead's pop and experimental sides squarely toward the latter. After the dull placeholding of the…
A brave attempt at something new with an undeniable intelligence and quality that reveals itself a little more with each subsequent listen.
Check out our album review of Artist's Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends on Rolling Stone.com.
When Coldplay sampled Kraftwerk on their third album, X&Y, it was a signifier for the British band, telegraphing their classicist good taste while signaling how they prefer the eternally hip to the truly adventurous; it was stylish window dressing for soft arena rock.
A fantastically unexpected and spontaneous comeback...If singer Chris Martin is to believed, then, in 2006, the world came very close to losing Coldplay.
The album’s supposed revolutionary approach to Coldplay’s trademark sadrock has been greatly exaggerated.
You know your band is in trouble when your lead singer admits that his lyrics are terrible.