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Coldplay - Viva La Vida
| Spin |
| When Coldplay opened 2005’s X&Y with a sly riff on Richard Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra” (known to movie fans as the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey), the message was clear: The wimpy Brits behind “Yellow” had completed their studies at Bono’s School for Boys and would now be turning their attention to weightier fare. Chris Martin and his mates, the music told us, had become men....full text |
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| Avclub |
| 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 2005 album X&Y, now would be a good time for Coldplay to rise to that challenge. But does the band have a Kid A in it? A better question: Would we really want a Kid A from Coldplay? The band does soaring, soundscape-y pop well, after all....full text |
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| Allmusic |
| 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. Hiring Brian Eno to produce the bulk of their fourth album, Viva la Vida, is another matter entirely. Eno pushes them, not necessarily to experiment but rather to focus and refine, to not leave their comfort zone but to find some tremulous discomfort within it. In his hands, this most staid of bands looks to shake things up, albeit politely, but such good manners are so inherent to Coldplay's DNA that they remain courteous even when they experiment. With his big-budget production, Eno has a knack for amplifying an artist's personality, as he allows bands to be just as risky as they want to be -- which is quite a lot in the case of U2 and James and even Paul Simon, but not quite so much with Coldplay....full text |
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| Billboard |
| They've got the commercial clout, but now they want the cred. On their fourth album, the members of Coldplay refract their gazillion-selling pop/rock through a more nuanced lens, drafting producers Brian Eno and Markus Dravs to help them craft more diverse, experimental music. Radiohead they ain't; "42" sounds like three different songs awkwardly stitched together in ProTools, and often the layers of production seem to come at the expense of memorable melodies. Two of the best songs are instrumentals: opener "Life in Technicolor" is a propulsive heart-melter that deftly straddles the acoustic/electro divide, and the effects-drenched "Chinese Sleep Chant" finds Coldplay discovering its inner My Bloody Valentine....full text |
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