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by Justin Pearsall
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Fri:11-Jul-08 |
 Coldplay are a band to be mindful of. Yes, there is the stadium rock spectacle they’ve become and the celebrity magazine fodder that Martin, Paltrow and Apple represent. But beneath this they’ve always hinted at real artistic potential. It’s this potential that has many casual observers coming back one last time to examine Viva La Vida.
I say last time because the band’s previous effort, X&Y, seemed to signal the end of this promise. Sure, it had the necessary spin – Chris Martin even dropped Kraftwerk as a reference – but the music-by-numbers piano balladry contained within seemed to be the final nail in the coffin of Coldplay becoming anything more than simply another bland stadium-filler.
So when the rhetoric was again trotted out for Viva La Vida could anyone really blame us for being sceptical? I mean, how many times can you read about a new sound without actually hearing the evidence?
Thankfully Viva La Vida delivers on its overdue pledge. While the album is still patchy, with both missteps and undeniable periods of tedium, there are moments when Coldplay sound like the band that many of us have wanted them to be. The production, song structures and sonic experimentation are purposefully geared towards more challenging terrain and Martin is, at times, among the most captivating of frontmen.
Whether this trend is continued or not is solely in the band’s hands; Coldplay will sell a truck load of albums no matter what future direction they take. But sales aren’t the final word on a band’s historical legacy, the Eagles are still the Eagles, and I have a hunch that Martin and Co. realise this.
Outside of their own ambition, Coldplay’s direction is highly important in a wider sense. In an era where commercial radio and television are afraid to take risks, a ‘rock’ band moving beyond balladry exposes the masses to music a little more abstract than the standard Hard Rock and R’ n ‘B fare. And while it seems they will never be the ultra-lite Radiohead that many hoped, if Coldplay keep dropping names like Kraftwerk and working with producers like Brian Eno, then the listening public will be that little more informed. Maybe this, in itself, is legacy enough.
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