Last week TimeOut got a sneak preview of Coldplay's new album, Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends - call it Viva for short - before its release on Monday. There's been much talk about it being Coldplay's Kid A, but never fear, it's still Coldplay and a minor revolution rather than a bloody one.These days they are more like a brand than a band, making the album one of the year's biggest releases. An example of the power Chris Martin and co wield in the music business lies in the fact that the performance of Viva is essential to the wellbeing of their record company, EMI. Here's some first impressions of what Viva sounds like to TimeOut and what the band have to say about it ...Life In TechnicolourWow. This two-minute, mostly instrumental intro, with Chris Martin's distinct, half-pained wail only adding "oh oh ohs" near the end, is so revolutionary. Actually, it's not at all and Martin agrees, labelling the riff "a good ringtone". However, what this Where The Streets Have No Name-style build-up reveals, is that the London lads do have an adventurous side and it signals their intention to do something different on album four rather than wheeling out the plodding, yet inviting and much-loved anthems of old.
"I didn't want to sing for a few minutes just so that people who didn't like us could enjoy it for a while," says Martin. "It comes out of insecurity but also confidence. It's that great dichotomy that we're very good at, which is feeling like we're the best band in the world but also feeling that we haven't done anything good yet."Cemeteries Of LondonHere they delve into the underbelly of their hometown, as if influenced by Damon Albarn's musical project The Good, the Bad, and the Queen, who also lurched and prowled the dark lanes of Londontown on their self-titled album last year. There's a flamenco, hand-clap groove running through it too, as if Martin and the chaps have been down the front, leaping around at Womad. It's still Coldplay but without the predictable structure, something the band say ambient music king and Viva producer Brian Eno (Talking Heads, U2) encouraged them to do by using everything from hypnotism to recording in churches in Barcelona."He brought life, freedom, drive, distortion, excitement, oddness, madness, sexuality, geekiness and Roxyness," says Martin.Lost!Lost! has a loping, unflinching beat with a heavy, organ-driven funereal mood. It stands out as the most beautiful moment on Viva. Although it's let down by Martin's frightful cliches like "big fish in a little pond" and "every river that you try to cross".
