Coldplay
Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friend
Taking their cultural cues from a 2007 tour and recording session in Latin America-and with a little extra help from producer and fellow Brit Brian Eno-Coldplay’s Viva la Vida provides a truly luscious follow up to 2005’s X&Y. While Chris Martin’s vocals still soar and Jonny Buckland’s guitar work continues to crunch and simmer in all the right places, the atmospherics of Viva stray far from the band’s previous efforts. Where “Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love” is a seven-minute dialogue that jumps from bouncy and piano-driven to melodic and lyrically lovelorn, “Viva la Vida” provides an ever-building crescendo of cellos, bells, and violins that sound downright spiritual. That the recordings all took place in “a bakery, a nunnery, a magic shop, and a church” come as no surprise, as Viva is equal parts delicious, devout, spectacular, and sacred.
