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Customer Rating:  
Summary: Just One Good song in the whole album
Comment: Viva La Vida is the only good song. All the other songs are boring and sleepy and are lacking a good melody and a good beat. The bad songs just seem like filler material. Albums that have only one good song suck. I always feel ripped off by those. Also I don't like the death theme that's in a lot of the songs on this album. Death is scary and depressing. Who wants to think about that. There's too much negativity going around in society without adding more to it. This is a rather depressing album.
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Summary: Alternative at it's best
Comment: Coldplay reminds of the Moody Blues back in the 70's but with today's technology and punk intertwined. The harmony and the instruments are artistic and refreshing. If you haven't listened to clips off this album you should.
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Summary: Love Viva La Vida
Comment: I've been a Coldplay fan since I heard Clocks for the first time. Their music is wonderful to listen to. I can close my eyes and drift away to some other place and time. I never get tired of listening to them perform, especially if I'm at the computer writing.
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Summary: I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing; Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Comment: Viva La Vida has seven Grammy nominations, and I hope they win them all, including best album. I haven't actually heard the other contenders, but I find it hard to believe that any album better than Viva La Vida could have slipped past my radar. Perhaps best selling Tha Carter III by Lil Wayne should get runner up or honorable mention, but 2008 was really Coldplay's year. They have hit their stride with their fourth album, and Brian Eno was the perfect producer for them at this juncture in time.
Some ambitious fans have posted the chords and tablature to the entire album, explaining which songs are played with a capo or whatnot, and it makes it easy and fun for me to play along with the whole record, from start to finish. I really like the way it all flows together, with a variety of keys, tempos, moods, and grooves, that all work together to form a cohesive whole. I wouldn't change the order of any of the songs, they are not just random songs, they all fit together perfectly.
The band plays as an ensemble, without much in the way of guitar solos as such, but they always craft their ensemble sound so it gives a lush carpet of support for singer Chris Martin. There is some amazing playing, but it just doesn't get in the way of songs.
I am voting Viva La Vida top album of 2008, whether or not it gets the Grammy. Viva La Vida! Long Live Life! Live Long and Prosper!
10 Records to Compare and Contrast with Viva La Vida
1. Low by David Bowie and Brian Eno (1977) .... Speed of Life, also an instrumental overture, if you will, kicks off this Bowie/Eno collaboration, just like Life in Technicolor, a Coldplay/Eno collaboration, kicks of Viva La Vida, or Death and All His Friends.
2. The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths (1986) .... Cemetry Gates, for starters, but how about I Know It's Over, Never Had No One Ever, The Boy With the Thorn in His Side, There is a Light That Never Goes Out, or Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others, to compare and contrast The Smiths with Cemeteries of London by Coldplay(?)
3. Into the Great Wide Open by Tom Petty (1991) .... The title track is somewhat similar to Lost! in that it starts in Em and then goes to a forceful statement with Major Chord cadences. Into the Great Wide Open is actually closer to Cry, Baby, Cry, by The Beatles.
4. Axis: Bold as Love by Jimi Hendrix (1967) .... One Rainy Wish is kind of like 42, in that it starts with a pensive, dreamy, minor riff, then builds up into a heavy part. Coldplay's 42 kind of has a middle where the energy ratchets up and then there is a release, where they surf the wave, like an ice cube on a skillet, riding to its own melting.
5. Disintegration by The Cure (1989) .... Lullaby has that Japanese sound, as if they are playing kotos, and that is what links it with Lovers in Japan, beneath the Osaka sun, in my mind; but this whole album by The Cure compares nicely with Viva La Vida.
6. Violator by Depeche Mode (1990) .... DM master the techno beat, but with its slow and heavy groove of Policy of Truth, or even Personal Jesus, it kind of brings to mind Coldplay's Yes!
7. Is There Love in Space? by Joe Satriani (2004) .... Joe Satriani claims Viva La Vida is a rip off of his song, If I Could Fly. Coldplay say, Joe, with all due respect, it is only a coincidence.
8. Peter Gabriel 1: Car by Peter Gabriel (1977) .... Solsbury Hill is not so much like Violet Hill, but both Peter Gabriel and Chris Martin really cover a lot of musical territory, and the songs, though diverse, weave together in a tapestry that tells a single story.
9. Around the World in a Day by Prince (1985) .... Raspberry Beret is my pick to compare and contrast with Strawberry Swing. Hah. I bet you thought I was going to compare it to Strawberry Fields, by The Beatles. But I am saving them for last. ATWIAD by the AFKAP (Artist formerly known as Prince)--in other words--Prince, is a good album to compare with Viva La Vida because it also incorporates psychedelic sound, as well as sitars, middle eastern, and world music, into its rock.
10. Abbey Road by The Beatles (1969) .... The End, a song fragment that is the culmination of a suite of shards (Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight) is very much like the end of Death and All His Friends, which also ends on a song fragment called The End:
And
In the end
We lie awake
And we dream we're making our escape
While of course, The Beatles end their The End with:
And
In the end
The love we take
Is equal to the love we make.
Customer Rating:
Summary: a letdown
Comment: I tried. I tried, i tried oh, how I tried to like this album. I own all of Coldplay's albums and was extremely excited when I first heard about this release. I listened to it maybe about 50 times from beginning to end, but it just fell flat for me. I don't get it. It seems as though Coldplay was lazy with this album. The songs are predictable and formulaic. This is an extremely poor exhibit of their talent. Better luck next time, Coldplay.
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