Over the weekend, popular soft-rock combo Coldplay announced the details of their long-awaited fourth album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, due on June 17. As we were leaving the office on Friday, we were clubbed over the head, drugged, and transported via helicopter to the top-secret island (Britain) on which Chris Martin & Co. have been plotting their imminent comeback. When we regained consciousness, we found ourselves tied to a chair in a Batcave-esque underground recording studio where a Coldplay publicist, in between bouts of maniacal laughter, offered to let Vulture be the first blog in the entire blogosphere to hear a finished copy of the new record. What follows is our exclusive track-by-track preview.

 

1. "Life in Technicolor"

Like much of Coldplay's best work, "Life in Technicolor" examines the nature of romantic love through a rudimentary understanding of things taught in high-school science class. Backed by soaring strings, horns, a harp, and several dozen gospel choirs, Chris Martin compares the song's female subject to the colors of the visible spectrum. The track, whose melody borrows liberally from John Williams's "Theme From Star Wars," ends abruptly when Martin fails to recall the difference between wavelength and frequency.

 

2. "Cemeteries of London"

Following his recent collaborations with Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Swizz Beatz, Martin indulges his love for hip-hop on this bombastic club banger. Over blaring sirens and Mannie Fresh synthesizers, he raps, "The cemeteries of London, they sure ain't much fun / And if you slag off Coldplay, we'll put you in one." The album's weakest moment.

 

3. "Lost!"

This aching piano ballad chronicles the tumultuous relationship between a pair of lovers (Martin and Paltrow?) as they attempt to catch up with Lost's fourth season by watching DVDs of the first three in marathon sessions. The chorus includes the refrain: "Who are the Others and why can't they breed? / And what will become of Kate, Locke, and Sayid?" Gorgeous.

 

4. "42"

Some have speculated that the title of this upbeat track is an allusion to Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as Martin is an admitted fan of the book. Actually, it's a tribute to the 42 people who currently hold the Guinness World Record for the largest number of persons to fit in a car at once (the Moss Bay Majorettes from Jacksonville, Florida, who crammed into a Jaguar XJ6 in August of 1984). All silliness is undercut by the song's minor key and 26-minute orchestral coda. A highlight.

 

5. "Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love"

A slow R&B jam, sung in Martin's sexy, rarely used baritone, about the various ways in which he'd romance you in Japan, including karaoke, a meal at a nice sushi restaurant, and front-row tickets to a championship sumo-wrestling match. By the second verse, it becomes obvious that he's never actually been to Japan. The album's weakest moment.

 

6. "Yes"

This weepy acoustic-guitar ballad is named for the way Martin hopes the band's fans in Prescott, Wisconsin, will vote on an upcoming increase for the city's school budget. (After his campaigning for John Kerry in 2004 failed to elect the senator, he's pledged to become better involved in local politics where he feels he can make more of a difference.)

 

7. "Viva la Vida"

Though this song is named after a painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, it's actually just "Yellow" sung in Spanish. The album's weakest moment.

 

8. "Violet Hill"

This hard-rocking track is about the Violet Hill Bed and Breakfast in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Martin saw it online once and has just always really wanted to go there.

 

9. "Strawberry Swing"

According to Rolling Stone: "This is one of several potential album cuts with Afro-pop and high-life influences. Here, distortion-free finger-picked guitars which sound straight out of Mali mix with a heavy bassline and psychedelic synths. 'My Mum comes from Zimbabwe, so I spent a lot of time there,' says Martin." (This was actually funnier than anything we could come up with.)

 

10. "Death and All His Friends"

Despite its depressing-sounding title, this is actually a sweet piano ballad in which Martin pledges to love a woman until "death and all his friends" (which presumably include old age, various cancers, and an appreciation for the History Channel) turn up. It was around this point that we fell asleep.

 

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/04/vultures_exclusive_trackbytrac.html

^^oh lord...that had me for a few seconds...:laugh3::laugh3::laugh3:

i'm sorry, but i'm dying here. i'm laughing out loud in huge bursts of giggles. this is PRICELESS. oh goodness.

 

:laugh4: :laugh4: :laugh4:

:laugh3::lol: that was pretty funny somehow !! and I thought it was real too Melanie... :dozey:

 

I like how they keep telling that some songs are the album's weakest moment :lol::lol:

I thought that it was real :o

lol what he says about my fave is so... well is still my fave (well the one i'm more interested to listen), what he says about it don't make me change my idea about it. i don't mind what they were thinking about, what should matter to a fan about a song, is what the song means for his/herself, so. :)

Yellow sung in Spanish :laugh3::lol::laugh3: God bless the guy who worte that !!

OMG:laugh3::laugh3: I didn't immediately understood it's a joke... as I read that crappy rap on Cemeteries of London, I shouted: "what????"

Funny yet evil:sneaky:

OMG:laugh3::laugh3: I didn't immediately understood it's a joke... as I read that crappy rap on Cemeteries of London, I shouted: "what????"

 

HAHAHA *rofl* I exactly did the same !! :lol::lol::lol::lol:

I thought WTF !!!!!

^^Yeah don't know why it sounded reasonable at first....got to description of Lost and started to think...hmmmm:confused:

 

Its cause we are so DESPERATE for info!

when any other artists apart from Chris writes a song they will overrate it,

and when chris writes something eventhough its fine they just underrate it,

that's what is the world!

 

hmmmm...but everything is just my love what ever he has written.:kiss:

 

well again this fucking bastards started to write Martin and Paltrow again.

well whatever i don't think so....:P

Is a joke Pallavi, isn't real ;) :D

:laugh3:Oh ok!

thats awesome

LOL!!! That was a funny read. :laugh3:

Well, I can't BELIEVE I just fell for that! :laugh3:

 

I thought Life In Technicolor just sounded silly, but by the time I finished reading the description of Cemeteries Of London, I was in stitches. It had me going for about 1 minute, I have to say.

 

That just made my day, thanks :laugh1:

OMG:laugh3::laugh3: I didn't immediately understood it's a joke... as I read that crappy rap on Cemeteries of London, I shouted: "what????"

 

Same here!! LOL

i have to say that i'm still giggling hours later. i don't know why i found that so funny, but i did. oh man, that was priceless.

 

this bit is what got me the most:

"...a sweet piano ballad in which Martin pledges to love a woman until "death and all his friends" (which presumably include old age, various cancers, and an appreciation for the History Channel) turn up."

 

an appreciation for the history channel!! oh goodness. i wish i had written that. brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

 

i love how they keep saying "the album's weakest moment."

ohhhhh god. i think i need to get out more, but that pretty much made my kind of crappy day :laugh4:

Is it a fake, isn't?

It's too incredible to be real...

"The cemeteries of London, they sure ain't much fun / And if you slag off Coldplay, we'll put you in one."

 

This line cracked me up!!:laugh3:

Violet Hill Bed and Breakfast in Natchitoches, Louisiana where chris wanted to go: http://www.violethillbandb.com/

^^That's about the point where I thought to myself...hmmm maybe this is fake..:laugh3::laugh3:

Violet Hill Bed and Breakfast in Natchitoches, Louisiana where chris wanted to go: http://www.violethillbandb.com/

 

That's what the song is all about then :laugh3::laugh3::laugh3::laugh3::laugh3::laugh3: kidding.. :lol::lol:

That's what the song is all about then :laugh3::laugh3::laugh3::laugh3::laugh3::laugh3: kidding.. :lol::lol:

:P