VIVA LA VIDA OR DEATH AND ALL HIS FRIENDS

*(I`m writing a review of Coldplay`s new one and these are my notes for the piece. I thought if I post the notes a bit of a fire will be lit underneath me and I`ll get the thing done! Let me know what you think of the record, & the controversial cover. I`ve been see-sawing on it a bit for your information.)

Until I get this new piece finished & hopefully published on NewsBlaze (about a week away), please continue to support my last piece, Raising Sand! It has entered the top 200 for July yet. Don`t want it to completely die out!


Coldplay-bic-flickering arena rock cast in a brand spanking new cellophane wrapper (bag) package (light). I ain`t saying this is candy-coated arena rock, but if I put that idea in your head, what can I do about it. Dumpster-diving the cut-out bins for last wonders. Coldplay-babeola magnets. I am using the measuring rods of rock. I`m aiming for a million reads on my new piece on Coldplay, but maybe I`m aiming a little high.Rock & Roll writing can still generate a lot more interest than can writing on movies. Maybe Coldplay is the current Archies, the current Bubblegum rock of this generation.
The cover is the famous painting of Eugene Delacroix, Lady Liberty, with Viva La Vida as whitewashed graffiti splashed on it. A French Revolution connection that I haven`t been able to make in the songs. The thing is Chris Martin got the idea for the title Viva La Vida from a still life by Frida Kaylo. How that painting is connected to the Delacroix painting, the wider themes of the record is undetermined.

The first song Life In Technicolor is a sorta overture to the album. I felt like I was on a rocket ship with a distant sound. I felt like I was on a ride at Six Flags Over Texas the first time I listened to whole album-the night of June 17th. Lost! Accented with handclaps. Synthesizers way up in mix. Can`t make out all the lyrics. “You might be a big fish in a small pond.” Slow 4/4 rhythm…waiting til the shine wears off…of the band. Sound is out there. Very distant, futuristic. 42 starts with just voice and piano…those who are dead are not dead, they`re just living in my head. Second section more eastern, pounding…you might be a ghost…you didn`t get to heaven but you made it close. Sounds like Here comes the warm jets…presence of Brian Eno very close…repeats opening line. Lovers In Japan very U2 big droning sound lots of synths…lovers keep on the road you`re on.

Cemeteries Of London is a sorta sea chantey with a cascading wall of sound…a paranoia trip a search for God…a pulsing churning echoing song. Singing la la la la la ehh…chantey-like. The wall of sound resounds and echoes with reverb splashing like monsoon waves at end of each measure. The Pogues have used such rhythms. Haunted vision of searching for lost souls. Strawberry Swing is an organ grinder soiree of innocence…afternoon fantasy of urban delight. No meaning (true grit) in the lyrics…whimsical. Commitment to lover. Death And All His Friends. Swept away by time and the seasons. Two songs in one. Theme comes in to break up two parts of song. Word play about countering death that spreads destruction wherever he goes. Okay, trilogy of parts. Last part back to light the love you make is equal to the love you take. Organ musak fades.

I`m having a little trouble detecting any skeleton bone in Viva La Vida. It is a bit dodgy in places. The whole project sounds like your grandstanding a shuttle lift off. Mechanical, ethereal. ET phone home! paranormal presence of Eno strong. Start to hit pay dirt on piece. Painful mode, into the piece, disguised inside the lines. My glassy eyeballs are peering out at you from your flat panel monitor where you slobski internet geeks are surfing my lines lazily.

42 has two sections. Second half really wails. Thought he was saying ghosts who are dead. You thought you might be a ghost means the downtime and possible demise of Coldplay, as I see it. Whole project has an undulating, running, grinding rhythm like a locomotion train. This reminds me of early Eno pop albums.

Death And All His Friends starts out as a lullaby/nursery rhyme, very innocent just a pastoral jingle that morphs into a Pink Floyd chant about fighting gloomy death. Then the calliope muzak riff of the beginning comes back in. Sorta like the ending to Abbey Road.

42 a raga rock rave-up “Those who are dead are just living in my head” the memory of the dead keeps them alive, in a sense. Coldplay has absorbed much of rock history-Viva La Vida is a concept album-all ten songs work in accord with one another. 42 has an upright piano and sounds very much like classic Pink Floyd. Song fragments piecemealed like Abbey Road-bits and pieces spliced together into pop-fruit cake-the suggestion of Brian Eno to break the mold. They have done just that. As I listened I found myself thinking of Gwyneth Paltrow a lot and channeling through some of her movies, like “Iron Man”, “Silvia Plath”, or . Colonel Critique here providing you with a review. I am using the measuring rods of Rock.

Throughout the record a monolithic wall of sound, spaceship rock, a volt of hurdy-gurdy blast of sound emanating from the jukebox (ipod box). Reign of Love uses acoustic guitar and is the softer part of Lovers of Japan, it`s the second portion of the song. Nuevo-art rock. From the paranormal presence of Brian Eno. More art-rock than parachutes, A Rush of Blood to the Head, or X & Y.

The skeleton bone of Viva La Vida is the carving out of a more original (authentic) bit of pop-music, & maybe whining about it a little along the way. A patchwork quilt, a string of pretty, multi-colored beads of a thousand various shapes and sizes, in the (tidily) displayed (dime store jewelry) case for all to marvel (oogle) at. A special sampling of all the experiments with Eno.

RadioHead is still the reigning Lords of Art Rock but Coldplay is currently the new cousin dolphins shining in glow of the Sun-King of Versallaises. Coldplay is a wholesome Radiohead.

“Viva La Vida” is a patchwork quilt, a spiffy slice of pop-ephemera, a jigsaw puzzle of Rock`s moments in the sun. For this I liked it. It`s not clichéd for this. It keeps ya guessin` by attempting to identify the mystery puzzle pieces of rock. There`s a bit of Pepper, a bit of The Wall, & UT`s Joshua Tree.

*(the business bit about EMI) Brian Eno plays the role of George Martin here.

Dreamy, unforced, natural, organic fluidity. More introspective, self-conscious, self-critical, narcissistic. Attempts to be more of a statement, but it`s not all that clear what is being said.

The opening number, Life In Technicolor is a sort of instrumental overture to the entire project and has a marching sweep to it, and suggests the guiding hand of Brian Eno. Cemeteries Of London is a ghostly sea chantey with a wall of sound splashing waves of echo and reverb, the lost souls of London are washing up in the soundscape.

Lovers In Japan is an amorphous tone, a bright, peppy promenade, a UT like march. The second half Reign of Love is lullaby like. Chris Martin looks inward and reflects the way that people are picking at him, that is the meaning of his words. Yes begins with an eastern riff, then Chris Martin sings against droning guitars about temptation and breaking the moldy doldrums of Coldplay. ‘So they picked me by the big toe.’ The lyrics for Yes address the issue of desire for a lady-lust. This must be the critics giving them a good lashing. Coldplay is in virtual isolation as they try to break out of their formula. Chinese Sleep is a little fragment, an ocean of guitars wailing.

Nice little intro-couplet. Reminded me of Walls and Bridges by John Lennon. On Yes Chris Martin sings in a lower register wailing against loneliness. Lyrics address the difficulty of coming up with a fresh project. Chinese Sleep is a little offering as cure for insomniacs; one is reminded of the last number on the White Album.

“Violet Hill” has a nice video single on itunes. In Salvation Army geer playing around in a mansion and fields. Reminded me of Beatles “Strawberry Fields” film with band members rotating rapidly at piano and playing marching band instruments. A lot of fun. The lyrics are illusive but refer to a need for affection in a chilly settine of Violet Hill, a street in St John`s Wood, London. A bit of a snack in the snow. A few allusions (or illusions) to the Crusades, God, and how the future is carved by idiots (fools). Use random word play is tricky, but when in the context of the images and the whole project, it makes perfect sense.

“Strawberry Swing” is my favorite on the album. Is a happy go lucky nursery rhyme that chimes like a popsicle truck ambling down the lane in some carefree suburbs of anywheresville. Death And All of His Friends starts out as an innocent little Mary Poppins positive bit of advice to escape over the rooftops a Peter Pan sort of thing. Two minutes into the piece it takes a high-tempo turn and the delightful phrase comes out “I don`t want to cycle recycled revenge-apparently some limerick thought up by Brian Eno-the lyric line in the whole album. The coda, The Escapist, repeats the opening melody-“In the end, we dream of making our escape”. Written by a friend of Brian Eno, John Hopkins. This is the main theme-escaping the stigma of brainless arena rock.

Viva La Vida will not go down in history as an innovative classic for pop-rock. The song Viva La Vida is for me their best song ever-shrewd high-pop. The songs are strung together like mardi gras beads functioning as treble clef notes on staff paper. The production is sprinkled (dappled) with glitter on glue, just as this piece is doused with glitter. Chris Martin is still chippering. I`m tapping into the inner sanctum of the album. The use of Eno`s Oblique Strategies reminds me of Philip K. Dick`s use of ‘oracles’ in The Man In The High Castle. This was really just the medicine needed to hatch a golden egg, with their record floating buoyantly at the top of Billboard charts.

First paragraph-Jiminy Cricket, Great Balls of Fire, Gee Wilikers, Viva La Vida is a proper piece of pop ephemera with planning, hooks, and production.

Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends is a very, very clever long playing record. * (first line in piece)

The cover is Eugene Delacroix`s painting, Liberty Leading the People with a bit of whitewash graffiti splashed over, and mysteriously ties together the title, Viva La Vida, the title of an exquisite still life by Frida Kahlo. How the two paintings connect together is unknown, but I do not believe it really matters. The cover doesn`t mean nothing`, that`s what it means. I can just picture Coldplay fans all around the world turning` the CD about and putting` it under a magnifying glass to glean the inner sanctum of wisdom, this is pure ballyhoo, but I too have been twisting the record cover about for secrets.!

Much of this is the obligatory tears and flapdoodle (Mark Twain`s words from Huckleberry Fin) of Chris Martin. Viva La Viva is a pleasing grab-bag of pop ephemera with Brian Eno as Virgil, the spiritual guide, & Chris Martin as Dante negotiating the perilous sandtraps of Hell, such as exist in the world of arena rock.

Coldplay brings home the bacon with a ‘Little Help From Their Friends’. This is a polite way too to say they borrow from the Xen-Masters of rock, such as The Beatles, REM, Pink Floyd, and UTU. I hear they are influenced by RadioHead, but RadioHead wears the crown of Art Rock. Coldplay sports the diadem of Arty Arena Rock. I realize there is no such genre, but there is now cuz I just invented it!

Ian Yorke from Radiohead uses falsetto just like Chris Martin, but warbles like a Martian Tibetan monk leaving his body for the Elysian Fields, Martin sounds more like Barry Manilow. Coldplay sounds more like The Archies in Jettson gear than Radiohead.

Coldplay almost soft rock. Was listening to “Parachutes” and thought the CD player was going too slow. They need to drink stronger coffee.
Viva La Vida is charged with feel-good positive ions. Pleasant album to listen to, but it`s just not that big a deal. Use the word punchy a few times!