- Label
- Parlophone
- Release date
- 12th June 2008
- Genre
- Rock
- Buy this album
- Order CD
Coldplay's fourth is big, weird and beautiful but far from bland
The distressed military outfits, the ostentatious double-barrelled album title, Brian Egghead producing – it's the global-reaching hugeness of U2, the arty credibility of Radiohead and the receding hairlines of The Police in one easily accessible package.
Thankfully the truth is much more exciting and interesting. Coldplay’s fourth album is a sweeping, ambitious beast – rather like a huge painting, you have to keep stepping back to get your head around it. The mild-mannered ballads which marked out X & Y have been replaced here by giant euphoric anthems with terrible titles like Yes/Chinese Sleep Chant and Lovers In Japan/Reign Of Love, intriguing dark narratives (Cemetries Of London and Viva La Vida) and historical imagery where Chris Martin appears to have discovered new songwriting muscle with songs that skip through three different passages of sound.
It’s one of those albums that’s reminiscent of many where the artists are attempting to make epic art rather than mere rock music, from Arcade Fire to Marillion, and is in stretches too pretentious and puzzling. Worthy and bland it most certainly isn’t, but it takes a while before you start enjoying it.
More to try: U2: Joshua Tree The Who: Tommy Queen: A Night At The Opera The Police: Synchronicity
