Katie and I debated whether or not putting Viva la Vida and Prospekt's March together as #1 was cheating. Being you can purchase the two together on Amazon.com for $14.99 or $12.99 on iTunes, I say fair game.
Regardless, Viva la Vida would have won the #1 spot without Prospekt's March; it is, as they say, the icing on the cake - and what a delicious cake it is. Beginning with the vivid "Life in Technicolor" and its gradual build and ending with the tranquil acoustic version of "Lovers in Japan", Viva la Vida is a spellbinding album from start to finish with some of the band's best music to date.
Vocalist/pianist/guitarist Chris Martin, lead guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, and drummer/multi-instrumentalist Will Champion formed in London, England in 1998. In 10 short years they've released four studio albums and sold over 40 million. There are many bands out there that "sound like Coldplay" (I've heard the following artists likened to Coldplay in one conversation or another: Keane, Radiohead, Oasis, Snow Patrol, David Gray) - some would argue Coldplay gleaned their sound from bands like U2 and Radiohead. What makes Coldplay special though (which every fan knows already) is there ability to transform sound and music into something extraordinary, as evidenced in their latest album Viva la Vida. Never content with recreating previous successes or previous albums, every Coldplay album possesses its own unique sound and yet they are all distinctly Coldplay.
Compared to previous albums, Viva la Vida is probably their most sonically diverse (making it extra special); from the electronic "Life in Technicolor" to the string-dominant "Viva la Vida" to the breezy "Strawberry Swing", Viva la Vida is full of interesting and unexpected melodies. Like the multi-part songs "Yes", "42" and "Death and All His Friends" (each is like several songs combined into one). One technique Coldplay uses to make their music interesting is instrumentation. Coldplay melodies and their chord progressions are generally pretty simple, but their ability to layer different instruments and riffs on top of one another is spectacular. Without Prospekt's March, Viva la Vida is a little short on tracks (12 tracks including 2 repeats), but not length (a little over 53 minutes by my calculations). With Prospekt's March, Viva la Vida is a sweeping 20 tracks long (1 hour and 20 minutes), a musical tour de force and our choice for Top Album of 2008!
Happy New Year from everyone at Kharmonious*!
*Everyone = Katie and Kyle. We're the only ones, but it sounds official, doesn't it?
1 comment:
Nice post, Kyle! by the way, do you happen to know anything about Coldplay being sued by another artist b/c "Viva la Vida" sounded quite a bit like a song he had written previously? Ryan mentioned that he heard something about that on the radio recently.
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