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The New Music Revue: “Viva La Vida”…Coldplay…Ole!!!
Huh, I don’t really know how to start this one. So everybody here knows who Coldplay is, right? Fairly big alt-pop band with arena-sized choruses, love, Fair Trade, falsettos…got Brian Eno to come in and produce their latest? Cool. So I can get right into it and say that Viva La Vida is the most accomplished album of their career. I mean that in pretty much every way: every song has its own color, the runtime is perfect, and the band has never sounded tighter or more inspired. It’s also the closest they’ve come to making a complete statement, rather than just stringing a bunch of romantic, isolated and vaguely political songs together and calling it an album. What is that statement you ask? Well, look at the title. Martin christened the first song of the band’s debut with the chorus “We live in a beautiful world.” Viva La Vida is his way of opening up that world and exposing its beauty. Yeah there’s death, yeah there’s heartache, yeah there’re…despots and lynch mobs…but all of this pales in comparison to the vibrancy of life itself. Is that a bunch of flowery bullshit? Well, that’s for you to decide. I’m willing to suspend disbelief for forty-five minutes.
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The Warlord Speaks: Biggest Rapper Alive??
So I finally gave in to my curiosity and picked up Tha Carter III the other day, and…
Ummm…
Hey, it’s not too bad. In fact, it’s actually pretty good.
No, it’s not going to share discussion time with Nas’ Illmatic and Biggie’s Ready to Die beyond the aping of their respective album covers. But it’s far from an absolute waste of polycarbonate plastic, either. So as far as my opinion is concerned, I lay smack dab in the middle of Weezy’s plaudits and dissenters.
I really think proclaiming this guy as “Best Rapper Alive” is a big misnomer. In fact, I never understood why people use that title for him because, in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn’t make much sense. […]
New Music In Stores & Online 6/17/08: Coldplay, The Offspring, Katy Perry & More!!
Last week’s releases brought some form of salvation to an ailing record industry as it looks like Li’l Wayne is going to be able to do what Usher’s latest album couldn’t and shift in the neighborhood of a million units in it’s first week. There’s a chance that this can happen in consecutive weeks with the release that kicks of this new music roundup:
Coldplay-Viva La Vida or Death & His Other Friends: I like Coldplay enough that I’d be willing to forgive the uber-pretentious title. Now, will the music be the equal of the band’s three other well-received (and quite good) albums? The title track bodes well for the qualitative value of this album (I’ll admit that I haven’t heard “Violet Hill” yet), and it’ll be interesting to hear exactly how much like U2 Brian Eno makes the band sound. Plus, you’ve gotta give Chris Martin props for resisting possible temptation and not allowing Jay-Z or Kanye West (or Gwyneth, for that matter) to make cameo appearances on the album.
http://www.coldplay.com/index.php
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