A record-label man doubles as an usher, herding a small, lightly shuffling group of music journalists into a listening room. “Sit anywhere,” he says, motioning to nicely stuffed chairs. “You can sit in the back too,” he says, “because we blew out the rear speakers at the last session.”
Coldplay, the band whose colourful hit rhymes with mellow, is now rupturing woofers? While I picture straws breaking camels' backs, the lights go down and the album – with the two-minded title Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends – arrives with the rising swirl of Life in Technicolor, which mixes a strumming acoustic guitar and arpeggiated Baba O'Riley synthesizers. The effect is similar to the instrumental start to U2's Joshua Tree, co-produced by same Brian Eno who co-produced this album.
Eno's influence on the new Coldplay is profound. And by “new Coldplay,” I mean “different Coldplay.” The elegant ballads, airy crooning and life-affirming choruses of the past are not abandoned as much underplayed.
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