Coldplay - Viva La Vida Or Death & All His Friends (LP)

All Music Guide

When Coldplay sampled Kraftwerk on their third album XY, it was a signifier for the British band, telegraphing their classicist good taste while signaling how they favor the eternally hip to the truly adventurous; it was stylish windowdressing for soft arena rock. Hiring Brian Eno to produce the bulk of their fourth album Viva La Vida is another matter entirely. Eno pushes the band, not necessarily to experiment but rather to focus and refine, to not leave their comfort zone but find some tremulous discomfort within it. In his hands, this most staid of bands to shake things up, albeit politely, but such good manners are inherent in Coldplay's DNA; they remain courteous even when they experiment. With his bigbudget production, Eno has a knack for amplifying an artist's personality, as he allows bands to be just as risky as they want to be which is quite a lot in the case of U2 or James and even Paul Simon, but not quite so much with Coldplay. And yet this gentle encouragement he's alm...ost a kindly uncle giving his nephews permission to rummage through his study pays great dividends for Coldplay, as it winds up changing the specifics without altering the core. They wind up with the same selfstyled grandiosity, they've just found a more interesting way to get to the same point. Read more Less