I don't wanna follow death and all his friends

I wrote this blog a while back on a drive from Seattle to Portland, but didn't have a chance to finish it until now. With that said, welcome to my review of Coldplay's latest drop, Viva La Vida.

To be honest, when I purchased the album, I wasn't even sure if it would be money well spent. Well, completely contrary to my beliefs, this is one of the best albums that I've recently spent money on. I am very partial to X&Y, but I will say that Viva La Vida is musically, Coldplay's strongest album. There are so many priceless jams on this album that put all the catchy riffs on previous material to shame. "42" starts off incredibly slow (and I guess some would say eerie) but crescendos into a sudden magical outburst of drums and guitar that makes you wonder if you're still listening to the same track. Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love and Viva La Vida are laced with "Insta-Hit" powder and are definitely, as we've already seen with the latter, very public-friendly.

My favorite set on this album though, is a combination of the last two tracks, "Strawberry Swing" and "Death and All His Friends". I wish I could tell you what Strawberry Swing is about, but I really have no fucking idea (yet). All I know is that it makes me want to turn up the volume, snap my fingers, tap my feet, bob my head, and bounce from side to side all at the same time. It's just one of those classic feel good songs that you can always count on. More than that though, it's the golden penultimate song to close this album with -- the best transition to go into Death And All His Friends, the perfect album closer with.

If the word epic had to be defined in a song, Death and All His Friends would be it. It does everything I think a closing track is supposed to do -- Like a good ending to a book, it ties up any loose ends, revisits some major themes, offers some sort of new insight, and of cou rse leaves room for the book to be willingly read again. The song starts off like a simple sing-a-long lullaby, kicks up at 1:29 with the piano, and explodes into sheer mayhem (in the best way possible) at 1:49 -- If there is one song that makes me seriously bust out into an I-don't-care-who's-watching-air-drum-session, this is it. And every time that session kicks in, I am picture-perfectly brought back to Coldplay's show at the Forum this past July.

Not surprisingly, they closed the entire show with this song and brought everything into ultra high hear with one of the most passionately played encores I have ever witnessed, paired with the brightest pulsing lights LA could have possibly seen that night. I'm almost inclined to say that the combination of lights, colors, and sounds moved me in almost the same way that Transatlanticism moves me when I see it live. While Transatlanticism makes me feel reminiscent of the past though, Death and All His friends makes me feel hopeful for and optimistic about the future and new beginnings.

And maybe that's what it's aimed to do. Viva La Vida is mixed in such a way that whether or not you listen to it as a gapless album, the end of Death and All His Friends closes perfectly to re-introduce the first track, Life in Technicolor. It makes it possible to listen to the album over and over again, not just because you like it, but because it never truly ends.

*Photo by Grace Chang