Coldplay
Viva la Vida or Death & All His Friends

Brad's struggle against listening to Coldplay continues...

For Round 1, go here.

Let's just say for the sake of a good argument that Parachutes never existed. Let's just say they stormed in with A Rush of Blood to the Head and the press largely dismissed them as U2 copycats and we never heard from them again. Coldplay, if you haven't been keeping up with the press, is a thorn in the side of many reviewers and bloggers alike, and we're all caught up in this big existential crisis over whether or not Coldplay is, in fact, a good band. We saw on Parachutes that they are a good band (albeit one eager to take over stadiums and commercials), but ever since then they've made a career out of inducing comas and writing ballads, in that order. But now the question is posed: are Coldplay a good band, or are they just great thieves?

The worst part of all is that when you say you like the new Coldplay record you almost have to be apologetic about it. It's not an insult but it's true. You sit down and you say, "Well, I'm gonna be honest here. It's good. Matter of fact, I'm going to throw an adjective in front of that and say it's shockingly good. But it's definitely isn't great, because to admit that would almost be like sucker-punching my manhood." These are the guys who wrote "The Scientist" and then doubled down and rewrote "Clocks" as "Speed of Sound." Even though I struggle very hard to say that Coldplay are still relevant (when you steal from Kraftwerk and My Bloody Valentine, you're in trouble), I have to admit that when I'm not doing manly things like grunting, having bro-downs, and lifting trucks I've listened to this thing more often than anything else in my collection the past two weeks. That INCLUDES the new Girl Talk, which is godly.

I have to move into the bad bits first and say that Chris Martin still can't write lyrics when he tries to go deep. I admit, when he waxes on about life & death he strikes a chord befitting the music and melodies that surrounds him but when he moves away from generalization he falters tremendously. "Cemeteries of London" is about as ominous as The Care Bears Movie (sorry, all the good graveyard analogies were taken) despite the music backing it up. The first proper song on the record is a miracle of Brian Eno's career-resurrecting production, a vessel of guitars floating on a sea of handclaps and shimmering keyboards. "Lost?" follows and the pattern continues, this time the backdrop being replaced with a ten story tall cathedral organ and, again, handclaps. Actually, forget it...this pattern continues throughout the whole of the record. "Lost?" is stunningly excellent, a phrase I'd never associate with a Coldplay album in 2008.

Now, here's the good bits...

It's been said before but having Brian Eno behind the boards, despite being a "no shit" decision, truly adds a whole lot of merit to the record. He gives the actual band room to breathe, and the result is arguably Coldplay's most rewarding material since Parachutes. With Eno in tow, their influences have almost tripled. There's Middle Eastern strings on "Yes!", traces of Afrobeat, folk and Eno's own brand of ambient popping in and out of "Strawberry Swing", and uh...My Bloody Valentine on "Chinese Sleep Chant", the hidden track on the back half of the aforementioned (and excellent "Yes!").

There are two tracks on the record with two songs tucked into one. "Lovers in Japan" breezes by pleasantly enough, but "Reign of Love", with it's piano and faint guitars hovering delicately (this should be a yuck moment, but trust me, it's gorgeous) is the real winner there. "Yes!", and subsequently "Chinese Sleep Chant" is the only 100% success story on here. On "Yes!", Martin sings a few octaves lower than he usually does and combined with the music it's one of the best Coldplay songs around. On "Chinese Sleep Chant" his vocals are so buried under the guitars that he becomes another instrument. It's blatantly a nod to MBV, but if you're going to steal, steal from Kevin Shields. Note to Coldplay: do this more often. It's surprising and it works.

There is a flipside to the sudden increase of influences. Instead of taking them and and incorporating them into the actual band, they just say "let's do that" and run away with it. Guitarist Johnny Buckland obviously is a fan of Edge from U2 and he takes every available opportunity to invoke The Joshua Tree. Admittedly, most of the time, it works and you almost dismiss the blatant thievery going on, especially on stuff like "Lost?" and "Violet Hill." So I ask now the question I asked earlier: are Coldplay a good band, or just great thieves?

Well, they're both. They're caught in a Catch 22 and a unique one at that. They long to be splashed across the cover of every rock magazine and fill the biggest stadiums, but they still want that indie record store credibility. In other words, Viva la Vida is a reaction to being in the worst possible situation. They're striving to be appreciated by both the casual listener and the hardcore, which unless you're some other British bands that start with "beat" and "radio", is impossible. Especially when people know your band either as "that band did "Clocks", right?" or from a fucking IPOD commercial.

To be honest, after the dead on arrival and sucknificent X&Y (shut up about "Talk" and "Fix You", you apes, there are NO good songs on that record) I thought I had finally run out of reasons to listen to Coldplay. I was content with leaving them as a musical blip on the radar of past bands-who-I-loved-once and moving along. Then here came Brian Eno and the cycle of confusion about this goddamn band renewed itself. I was hoping that the record sucked so I wouldn't have to wax on and on about it, but here we are. It doesn't suck. It's shockingly good. There, it's a good pop record from a band who needs to harnass their influences and strive for consistency. And I humbly suggest you take a listen to it. I have a feeling that this one just might grow on me. When I don't skip any songs, that's a good sign.

And that causes more head exploding confusion than you can possibly imagine.

Brad