pre-viva album post.

first, it helps to go here, and double click the 30-second playable clip of this song.
incredible that in 30 seconds, you can hear themes of life and death, glory and triumph and defeat and past heroes. add to that the grandiose nature of the music. a thumping beat with monumental orchestrated strings in the background, and then church bells? how majestic.

we're finally one week away from a new coldplay album. not having heard new coldplay in three years, it will be comforting to put on headphones and take in a whole album. there is something so interesting about coldplay that i've never been able to pin down. they've seemed to nail the thing, the idea for me where the lyrics that are being sung or the music that is being played is just too good, it's so grand and it's almost too big for anyone to handle. coldplay's ideas are just so big. i guess i'm talking about ideas mainly in a musical sense, and when their music soars, as it does on every album they've released yet, their lyrics are amplified so much. i can't wait to see what happens on this new album. i love how their sound has changed a lot but kept the same feeling of grand. even on parachutes, which had loads of pretty simple acoustic-based tunes, the music just felt big. coldplay's nailed this kind of anthemic music better than anyone in our generation and just from that 30-second clip of viva la vida, it's exciting to know they're still doing it.

violet hill was the first song i'd heard off this new album (i'm unsure whether it's called just viva la vida or viva la vida or death and all his friends. i'm gonna stick with the former for now) and it had a familiar feel to it. a bit of crunch, similar to X&Y, and a killer hook, reminiscent of just coldplay in general. they are the master of good hooks. when the band goes from the verse to the chorus in the tune warning sign and chris sings "and the truth is...i miss you", it's a perfect moment in modern pop music. such a good hook. and then the piano outro in violet hill just kills me. leave it to coldplay to leave the best part of the song, a beautiful piano part, for the last 40 seconds of a song. what a tease they are.

there really can't be any way coldplay could go wrong with this new album. they have a pretty big fan base, basically including every person on earth, and as much as the average american music listener is a cynical s.o.b., no one can win him over as well as coldplay can. their anthemic (soft) rock has been luring in fans for years and this album will surely be no different story. awesome music by an awesome band makes for awesome record sales. simple enough.

-jon