Every community has its own universal icebreakers. You know, rhetorical questions or passing comments that one awkward partygoer can remark to another, silently hoping that the response will be "no hablo ingles." Nobody really cares about how good the local tomatoes are, or the finicky properties of the week's weather. However, this summer I witnessed one phenomenal addition to the icebreaker lexicon: "Have you heard the new Coldplay album?"
From "Don't Panic" off 2000's "Parachutes" to "Kingdom Come" off 2005's "X&Y," I have been a Coldplay fan. Contained in those gems are Coldplay's chronicles of the sincere passion of a good guy. On "Parachutes," we listened to the good guy pine for the girl from a distance and "X&Y" was the last logical step: the good guy ends up with the girl and lead singer, Chris Martin, presents to the world his glorious lovechild, just as Simba was presented to the animal kingdom ("AAAAH SA VEYNYA, BADA FIX YOUU"). "Viva La Vida," however, is an album out of sync with the band's central ideology. In an attempt to break out of its power ballad box, Coldplay's latest album is a disjointed, confusing, and disappointing collection of songs.
Don't get me wrong. Every band should have its opportunity to do something new. I would like nothing more than to hear a "new" Coldplay, but despite the narrative, multiple-tracked and reprised songs of "Viva la Vida," Coldplay fails to deliver. Songs like "Cemeteries of London," "Yes," and "Strawberry Swing" show that the band is moving in a new direction but that they are getting lost along the way.
The band employs a host of tricks to try and rid itself of its emotional-pop status. One of them is the oldest in the book: throw money at it. The songs of "Viva la Vida" pale in comparison to their production. World famous producer, Brian Eno, dips the listener head-first into a pool of sound such that he or she can't even hear Martin singing over the wall of synthesizers. However, when he isn't drowning, you may actually hear what he's singing.
Enter trick number two. "Viva la Vida" marks the advent of Coldplay's first set of story songs, or, music that is not about unrequited love. Instead, Martin tries to tell the listener stories of ghosts in a cemetery, medieval England and dethroned kings. However melodramatic the subject matter, the lyrics are not maudlin and are rendered quite well. The songs fail, though, because the instrumentation of these story songs is the same as that of the power-ballads. Playing music that sounds like "Square One" while singing about ghosts is disorienting. Story songs are only successful when the music and lyrics create a setting together. The only song that achieves its goal is the title track, "Viva la Vida," with its full-piece orchestra.
My hope is not lost for Coldplay. There are moments of brilliance hidden within this album. "Life in Technicolor" is a gorgeous marriage of Eno's production genius and Coldplay's knack for tugging at your heartstrings while "Viva La Vida" is one of Coldplay's best songs to date.
Though "Viva la Vida" marks a definitive change in Coldplay's sound, I will be waiting with anticipation to see how it fits in with future albums. My guess is we will look back on this album and see it as the growing pangs of our favorite guilty pleasure. But for now, I will tell Coldplay what my ex-girlfriend told me: "I love you, but I don't like you."