VIVA LA VIDA OR DEATH AND ALL HIS FRIENDS (Parlophone, 2008)
Over the first five years of the new millennium, Coldplay went from nobodies to one of the world’s biggest rock bands. Naturally, they were expected to continue cranking out radio-friendly hits with their fourth album, but instead, they sought to separate themselves from their opening trio of albums by enlisting the left-field production talents of Brian Eno. From their flirtations with Afropop and tribal rhythms to immersive electronic ambience and patient song structures, his sonic fingerprints are all over the record.
Interestingly, Chris Martin’s vocals don’t often sit as icing on top of this sonic cake. Rather, they’re buried in among its reverbsoaked sponge, giving it an almost psych-rock flavour. Each song is allowed to rest and rise in its own time, rather than rush to that first chorus – something every pop songwriter will tell you is imperative. It makes repeat listens a rewarding experience, contrasting the fat-free, instantly engaging pop that had defined their career up until that point.
Densely layered instrumental Life InTechnicolor, co-written with forward-thinking electronic artist, Jon Hopkins, carefully foreshadows what’s to follow. Cemeteries OfLondon is equally dense but somehow finds space for Martin’s vocals to swim through its swathing textures.
Lovers In Japanfeels like watching a sunrise in slow motion. Its wall of droning guitars, skipping drums and shimmering tack piano, which coalesce for an acid-trip undercurrent, grows ever brighter as it progresses. Yes, meanwhile sounds like a precursor to the kind of psychedelic pop that Tame Impala would make a career out of just a few years later, and comes complete with a
