I really wanted to like it . . .(or Death and All His Friends)

So the much-awaited new Coldplay album, Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends, released yesterday. I pre-ordered on iTunes weeks ago and was actually kind of excited about the album release. (Yes, I will buy it on CD to complete my collection, because I am *that* girl.) I really wanted to like this album, but I had my doubts. This was supposed to be a decidely harder album, the album with which the band broke free from criticism and tried new things, the album on which Chris Martin’s recognizable falsetto took a hiatus on some songs. I’m always up for bands trying something new, and I’d hate for a group to rehash the same thing musically over and over album after album.

So I wanted to like Viva La Vida. A lot. Like I used to want to like running, Diet Coke, and blueberries. I’d been warned by a trusted music-loving friend not to expect much. And when I finally listened to the album in its entirety (yes, I listen to it all from first track to last), I was left with an overwhelming feeling of . . . bleh.

Yes, it’s different. Yes, the falsetto’s not as prominent. And as the Dallas Morning News said, “the pretentiously titled Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, isn’t notably better than the group’s previous three, though it’s not for a lack of trying.” I’ve read that Coldplay wants to be bigger than U2, but I’m not sure if that’s even possible. I love you, Chris Martin, but on this album especially, the songwriting seems muddled and everywhere all at once. Cryptic even. At times as I was listening to this album, I wondered when they were going to drag out George Harrison’s sitar. That’s what it felt like, the shift in the Beatles music as they started exploring other was to express themselves musically (and spiritually). And I’m not saying it was a bad thing. (The sitar also features prevalently in my least favorite Beatles’ tune “Norwegian Wood.”) I’m left saying, “I don’t get it” over and over with Viva La Vida. I think they may have simply tried too hard to be different, on the cutting edge, and revolutionary.

I like “Violet Hill,” though I agree with critics that it tries to say so many things at once that it really doesn’t get a coherent message across. (As an aside, I thought this track was called “Violent Hill” for the longest time.) I think the title track is great—rock/pop and symphony in all its glory. But I miss songs and melodies like “Clocks,” “The Scientist,” “Trouble,” and of course, “Yellow.”

So, while I admire the band for trying something new, I don’t know what to think about the album. I wanted to like it, but as of yet, I don’t, at least not as a whole.

But I’m still a fan because I don’t give up that easily.