coldplay: viva la vida

I'm the type of person who is always hopeful about Coldplay. Of course, that's because I'm an idiot, but lets go into more detail. They write pretty strong melodies, have in my opinion a very talented guitarist who (when he has a chance to breathe) can write some strong riffs, have a flair for the dramatic, and have the ability to expand their instrumentation (albeit mostly with piano).

The problems? 1) Not exactly measured doses of the aforementioned items. 2) They throw in the truly unforgivable sin of soft-rock, major chord, earnest sappiness. 3) Every time they choose to change up their sound, they do it by selecting one technique and beating it mercilessly to death.

So with that, Viva La Vida.

The Good: I've already mentioned their solid first single, Violet Hill. This is why they are frustrating - because they are clearly capable of getting it right. They showcase their guitarist, keep the emoting to a minimum, make it a little more dramatic with the stomp-like piano, and keep it out of major. They pull this off exactly one other time on this album, with Lost, another fantastic song where they accomplish all of these things. Finally, their iTunes song, Viva La Vida, despite violating many of these rules, is pretty good. I like the instrumentation, and it's a strong melody. Plus, the lyrics are a little strange, but at least they are interesting.

The Bad: Every other stupid song on this album. They beat the eastern influence to death with a bunch of stupid sitar-like guitar effects which start on their first track, Life in Technicolor. The rest of the tracks aren't even worth mentioning. They're just hallmark card sentiment, overproduced, generic major chord progression, eastern-twinged blathery garbage. And the annoying part is that the 3 decent songs are good enough that I'll probably pay attention to their next release as well.

So How Do I Restore My Faith In Music?: Wolf Parade has a new album, and I have yet to share my thoughts on Lil' Wayne.

Don't worry, I have thoughts beyond music (which has dominated my recent post). Uninformed political opinions and weirdo human interest links are sure to follow.