"A tepid effort" NY Daily News review of VLVODAHF

[Mimixxx]

A tepid effort by Coldplay

 

 

Coldplay has it hard. Other bands issue albums and all we expect from them is a striking beat, a beguiling melody, an interesting turn of phrase or, at most, a winning combination of the three.

 

Coldplay puts out a CD and we expect it to tower over every other album that came out since ... well, the last Coldplay album.

 

That's the burden of being the biggest-selling serious-minded rock band to come along in a decade. Then again, the band's members have to assume part of the blame for the God-like expectations. From the start, they pursued the role of rock seers, in both sound and demeanor. And, with their previous CD, 2005's "X&Y," they seemed to achieve it, at least in sales and public perception.

Inevitably, that means the group's fourth CD, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends," out today, carries the expectation of an even more mind-blowing achievement. Not only does "Viva" have to reaffirm Coldplay's position as, essentially, this decade's U2, it has to equal that band at a parallel moment in its career - its peaks of innovation in the late '80s. It doesn't ease the challenge that this time Coldplay chose as one of its producers Bono and Company's old ally Eno.

 

Unfortunately, not only does "Viva" fall short of the admittedly high U2 bar, it stumbles over a lower one as well. Make no mistake. The CD has real things to recommend it, including meticulous soundscapes, a broadened palette of genre sources and one killer single (the title track and erstwhile Apple ad).

But no other song equals that cut in melodic flair or rhythmic oomph. And when you strip away the fine, tricky filigrees - and those added genre sources - Coldplay's basic songs, and Chris Martin's vocals, sound just like those of any other work from the group. That has become a greater problem with time, since that basic sound has been ripped off, or paralleled, by so many other bands, reducing it to near cliché.

 

The good news is, Coldplay doesn't sound like they're forcing it when they bring in sounds drawn from Arabia, Japan and Africa. The Persian santur that provides one of the album's first riffs fits right into the twinkle of their sound. Other new instruments offer striking hooks, even if those come to define the songs more than the melodies do. Also, there's a sumptuousness to the recording itself. Both Eno and co-producer Markus Dravs know how to make sounds sweep you away.

 

Better, the band's playing has genuine verve, and I bet in concert, buoyed by the crowd's enthusiasm, some of these songs will connect in the anthemic way they're meant to. But listening hard to them at home shows that beneath the clever arrangements and sterling sound effects, Coldplay's basic songs rest on the same old tics and moans.

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/2008/06/17/2008-06-17_a_tepid_effort_by_coldplay.html

[elena20]

holy shit thats bad.......first really bad review?:cry::angry::cry:

[Mimixxx]

Another really bad review :(

 

 

By a lot of counts, Coldplay has everything a band could ever want. It sells records aplenty. It tours the world's largest arenas. It has a fan base the size of which most bands could only fantasize. It's brought home a Grammy, and made it to the Mercury Prize's shortlist in 2005. Heck, front man Chris Martin is even married to hot-assed actress Gwyneth Paltrow. Coldplay has everything.

Well, everything but the undivided critical respect from the rock'n'roll hardliners, you know, the critics in the really cool publications, the folks who spend all their disposable income buying records, going to concerts and hanging out in clubs talking about music, the bloggers. For all of Colplay's successes, scoring any cred where it counts -- outside of Middle America and the soccer moms who flock to its adult-contemporary sounds -- has never been one of them.

 

Well, that's about to change, Coldplay declares with Viva la Vida Or Death and All His Friends. Teaming with uber-producer Brian Eno (Talking Heads, David Bowie) just to provide a bit of hipster insurance, Coldplay wades into a semi-experimental album designed from the bottom up to prove to everyone who matters that once and for all, Coldplay is the real deal.

 

It sounds like a band reaching much, much farther than its means can support.

 

Trumped up and bloated from beginning to end, Viva la Vida takes all the ham-fisted sophistry of its last album, 2005's X&Y (review) (Capitol) and dresses it up in all manner of Big, Important, Meaningful extras. Wade through the sea of Big, Important, Meaningful extras -- crap like zither, bongos and even hints of distinctly Eno-influenced ambience pop up - and Coldplay's still just a band peddling arena-rock choruses, minor-key piano stretches and a love for the U2 blueprint like it's been forever. Change? Coldplay only changes if you're confused by its smoke and mirrors.

 

It throws a lot of smoke and mirrors, ditching its guitar-pop and piano arrangements in favor of created-in-the-studio layers. "Lost!" gets stuck in a sea of atmospheric production, with booming, echoing rhythms dominating an otherwise sparse organ melody; despite that Martin's histrionic, over-emotive Bono-clone delivery just sounds more in debt to U2. "Strawberry Swing," mixes droning organ tones with electronics and sleepy, though incessant drumming, but it's just as saccharine and self-indulgent as anything on X&Y. It just does it in a slightly less conventional way. "42" goes even farther into Coldplay's heart of darkness, pulling in string arrangements, slowly unfolding arrangements and epic balladry. It's the kind of thing that might bring a lump to your throat -- if it didn't sound custom-made to soundtrack the denouement of a self-important romantic comedy. "Death and All His Friends" and "Viva la Vida" the album's two sort-of title tracks, steer back into more traditional Coldplay territory, mixing guitar-pop and pianos with equal measure. Oddly, they're the most appealing of the bunch.

 

Coldplay might go on to sell half a billion copies of Viva la Vida. The band members might achieve total consciousness while on tour for it. The act could even become god-like figures in a third-world country. Viva la Vida would still be a flop: For an album so blatantly designed to win over the hearts of rock's jaded tastemakers

 

http://www.aversion.com/bands/reviews.cfm?review=3632&artist=Coldplay&title=Viva%20la%20Vida%20Or%20Death%20and%20All%20His%20Friends

[karen13v]

ouch - I really love the album but somehow with all this criticism I can almost see them go back to their ROBTTH and Parachutes sound for the 5th album. They try something different and just get attacked for it. /sigh

[Glossal Fragster]

i dont mean to be stupid...but what does tepid mean? lol by the looks of the review maybe boring or bland or shomething?

[berrywoman]

Rolling Stone gave it 3 1/2 stars out if 5. :/ but look at the source of the article Mimi posted..... the Daily News???? They aren't much of an authority on music... not even 'news'!!!

 

 

Thanks for the post Mimms!! :kiss:

[Saffire]

Yep that's right, tepid means "lukewarm".

 

Not only does "Viva" have to reaffirm Coldplay's position as, essentially, this decade's U2, it has to equal that band at a parallel moment in its career - its peaks of innovation in the late '80s. It doesn't ease the challenge that this time Coldplay chose as one of its producers Bono and Company's old ally Eno.

 

Here's the problem with these reviewers. Coldplay don't have to do anything other than make music that sounds good.

 

They don't have to cure cancer.

 

They don't have to give you an orgasm.

 

They don't have to "beat" any other band.

 

They don't have to send a man to Mars.

 

They don't have to rebalance your 401K retirement plan.

 

They just have to write good music that's pleasant to the ear.

 

On top of all this, the reviewers tend to think of Eno as a tool of U2. Eno is a man. He can choose who he wants to work with. Just because he worked with U2 a while back doesn't make him their pet.

[RedGirl76]

The first review "A tepid effort" seems a weird one. The criticism doesn't seem to match the rating - two stars out of five is really bad but the actually review isn't that scathing.

 

Didn't bother reading the second one - as soon as they mentioned Paltrow, you know they have a hidden agenda. What does it matter who Chris is married to? Certainly doesn't seem fair that Will, Guy & Jonny have to work harder to impress critics just because their bandmate married an Oscar winner

[dmmcgr09]

in a way i kind of agree... don't get me wrong I love the album because i love coldplay- but strip away alot of the eno noise and viva la vida isnt really all that diff from x&y

 

but i do also think they did the right thing- had they not gone the eno route they would have been crit. for making the same album... now they did something quasi different and theyre getting crit.

 

next album should be mostly acoustic in my opinion

[berrywoman]

in a way i kind of agree... don't get me wrong I love the album because i love coldplay- but strip away alot of the eno noise and viva la vida isnt really all that diff from x&y

 

but i do also think they did the right thing- had they not gone the eno route they would have been crit. for making the same album... now they did something quasi different and theyre getting crit.

 

next album should be mostly acoustic in my opinion

 

Eno doesn't do much for the direction of the album... he just knows where to put things.... thats what producers do..... Coldplay is evolving.... its inevitable... all great bands do. Eno just showed them how great they can be.... X&Y was lyrically weak as well as production.... the sound was "eh" to say the least...... Nothing beats Parachutes and AROBTTH.... with the exception of maybe 3 songs on X&Y..... the b-sides however to X&Y were ace, those should have made the album lol :kiss:

[Bonus_mosher]

the reason they get bad reviews is because the reviewers are expecting much more than they get, so they give it negative points for not living up to their expectations, whereas if you forget about all the hooplah, and just listen to it for what it is, you can see it's a great great album. I mean X&Y got better reviews, but was it a better album???

 

well in my opinion no. but it was pretty close.

[footyfan10]

i really dont get what is up with all these reviewers...what the hell are they really looking for??

 

i mean this is a great fucking album, regardless of band, but somehow everyone acts like coldplay is the second coming and that theyre not living up to expectations.

 

i think movies being reviewed is a pretty good idea, because for the most part, a shit movie is a shit movie

 

music however is a much more personal experience. i don't think reviewing music makes much sense at all, and i would say that even if every reviewer said this was the best album ever. i mean, music is a bloody sound that strikes your interest...it doesnt have to be deconstructed into something it is not.

 

if you like something, like it. fuck the reviews, even if theyre good.

[RedGirl76]

i think movies being reviewed is a pretty good idea, because for the most part, a shit movie is a shit movie

if you like something, like it. fuck the reviews, even if theyre good.

 

 

That's an interesting point - if I read tonnes of bad reviews for a movie, it puts me off going to see it, but music reviews never have the same impact. I think music is such a personal thing, no two people hear the same thing.

 

A regular criticism of the album has been Chris Martin's "weak" lyrics - but my favourite track is Strawberry Swing: i love the bit at the end where he sings "the sky could be blue, could be grey," etc. Really simple, but beautiful to my ears. To my boyfriend, it's the weakest track on the album, but not because of the lyrics but because he says "It doesn't sound like Coldplay"