Coldplay- Viva La Vida Or Death & All His Friends

With the arrival of Viva La Vida Or Death & All His Friends, Coldplay has revealed to its listeners, essentially, nothing new. They've retained the same shimmery sounds present on X&Y, kept a lot of their acoustic bases from Parachutes, and surprise, Chris Martin's voice sounds exactly the same. Depending on where you stand, this can be good or bad. Bad because Coldplay might as well release a compilation CD & call it A Rush Of Parachutes To X&Y & All His Friends for their next album & be done with it. Good because, well, Coldplay as is, is very likable. Just as long as you're not looking for a constantly evolving band (see Sigur Ros) or the new Indie "it" band of next year (see Vampire Weekend). The most experimental Coldplay gets on Viva, is on the track "Yes" & I can't say I'm a fan. A weird key & Chris Martin's low dipping vocals & awkward mix & match of Middle Eastern sounding violins & acoustic guitar; no thanks. I'd rather stick to "Viva La Vida" because of it's accessibility. Not because I'm not open to change, but because it just doesn't suit the material they've been putting out for years. "Lovers In Japan/Reign of Love" is easily the best song on the album, followed closely followed by "Death & All His Friends." Maybe it's the fact that both songs offer a two part breakdown. Maybe Coldplay should follow this format for future success. Which in their case, doesn't necessarily equate to change. Personally, I say good for Coldplay. Look what happened to The Strokes. The hype for their debut, Is This It, was ridiculous. In a good way. They put out Room On Fire, a safe album without much change. But still good. Then the critics got to them or whatever it was, & bam, Julian's voice filter was gone, the homey, genuine guitar riffing was gone & we got First Impressions of Earth. Which no one really liked. But I digress. Moral of the story is, sometimes a band can't be like Sigur Ros or Vampire Weekend. Coldplay is aware of this fact, & it's good to know they aren't pretending to be something they aren't. Viva contains no surprises & that's precisely why, believe it or not,  it doesn't suck. Unless you work at Pitchfork or Urban Outfitters, there's nothing wrong with liking pure alternative pop. & who better to turn to than Coldplay?

I know I said I'd write a review like a month ago. But better late than never, right? Right. If you're so inclined to lend me your thoughts & time for a minute, lemme know what you think of this. 

Alsooo, I'd like just like to say that MGMT, that's what's up. Fourth CD down on the left-menu. Check it! Besides, their website is like the shiz.