Coldplay - Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends

 

When you’re at your lowest ebb, nothing feels better than to purge - bleed a little, drain the pain so to speak (pardon the amateur elegy). Some of us are luckier than others, we have outlets to turn the negative into the positive or at least make substitutes for what we hanker after. Sitting in front of a piano and bleeding all over the keys helps (just clean up the mess later).

Chris Martin, of course, has turned despair into an artform and unlike, say, Amy Winehouse, he’s refused to allow his art to turn on him and bite the hand that feeds... He’s never struck me as the self-destructive, ‘tortured soul’ type – rather, a man who tunes into melancholy (his own? others’?) and, instead of wallowing in it, dispenses with it once expressed, and moves on...to deal with the next ghost.

And there are plenty of ghosts on Viva La Vida…, an album so awash with atmospherics that in the rare moments when all we can hear is simplicity, it’s a blessed relief. Death plays the piano beautifully and, quite frankly, should’ve taken the man responsible for the over-production of tracks such as Lovers In Japan, Lost and Death And All His Friends to task.

So, there may be an eerie, gothic intent to Viva La Vida, particularly on Cemeteries Of London and 42 (At night they would go walking till the break of day…), but Coldplay’s talent for melancholia can stand on its own eight feet – see A Rush Of Blood… – and doesn’t need producer Brian Eno’s experimental high jinx, which have done nothing but submerge what could have been so much less is more.

Viva La Vida will be a stadium giant, with synthesized ambience booming from tier to tier as resoundingly as a U2 epic, but is this really what Coldplay want? As Lost seems, indeed, lost amongst some strange, syncopated jungle beats and overindulgent organ, you have to wonder if they took to heart such derisive snorts as boring minimalist bastards when opting for Eno’s penchant for the bombastic.

After all, they knew he was not only responsible for producing U2’s Unforgettable Fire but also Talking Heads’ Fear Of Music (which says it all!). So, surely, when Jonny Buckland’s guitar came out even more reverb-laden than usual (particularly on the epic Yes! and, again, Lost), they must’ve known what they were in for. Indeed, that would’ve been the moment to change producers. But they didn’t, and we have to make up our minds as to why that was. Intentionally, to propel Coldplay out of the ‘box of stiffs’ the media put them in, or out of courtesy, being the gentlemen they are?! I guess the next album will be proof of the pudding. The additional acoustic Lost and Lovers In Japan could already suggest that Coldplay are looking over their shoulders…but time will tell.

Don’t get me wrong, Viva La Vida will grow wings the more you listen to it, it’s just that you’ll have to wade through buckets of overdubs to find its charm. And charm there is, aplenty – not least of all on Yes!, which sees Martin – to his credit, ever the student – adopting a lower vocal range. The entire song is a fascinating musical journey in which guest musician Davide Rossi attacks an electric gypsy fiddle with wild, Bolshevik fervour amidst a chugging mainframe which includes dabs of The Beatles’ I Am The Walrus and You Never Give Me Your Money…before Eno’s massive synth attack returns for the second movement (the incomprehensible Chinese Sleep Chant).

The first single, Violet Hill (a road in St Johns Wood), too, is fabulously quaint, from its Floyd-esque intro through the chugging blues riff to its final, whimsical ‘If you love me, won’t you let me go…’ But too much of Viva La Vida is smothered by Eno’s pompous veneer. And, frankly, when you wanna bleed, you wanna bleed. Fuck cleaning up afterwards.

7/10 

PIPPA LANG

Viva La Vida is out on Parlophone on 12th June 2008

Get Viva la Vida from Play.com or iTunes

Add your comment

< Prev		Next >