Coldplay

Coldplay have mastered their anthemic craft so precisely that with every peak of Chris Martin's falsetto you can hear the faintest cha-ching of dollar signs. So, for them to usher in Brian Eno to help dip their toes into new terrain is a move that deserves some props. Eno gives them room to build their grandiose crescendos, while adding in oblique bars of airy soundscapes ("Life in Technicolor"), Eastern strings ("Yes"), Renaissance strut ("Strawberry Swing") and even some Phil Collins swagger ("Violet Hill"). It's a good progression, but not as innovative as they might have been hoping for.

Coldplay's fourth release has been billed as their experimental record, as well as their
political record. And it is both, relatively speaking. Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
opens with an anthemic riff played not on guitar but on a Persian santur — a hammered
dulcimer common to the traditional music of Iraq and Iran. The album's lead single, "Violet
Hill," describes a scene in which "priests clutched onto Bibles/Hollowed out to fi... More >