Length: 45:53
Released: June 12th 2008
1.) Life in Technicolor
2.) Cemeteries of London*
3.) Lost!
4.) 42*
5.) Lovers In Japan/Reign in Love
6.) Yes/Chinese Sleep Chant*
7.) Viva La Vida
8.) Violet Hill*
9.) Strawberry Swing
10.) Death & All His Friends/The Escapist
Warning: if you hunt urgals with a bow strung with human veins wearing your favorite Slayer t-shirt while drinking vodka mixed with oxblood stop reading right now.
Ignore the hype and hate. It’s the most downloaded album of its time, and yes Chris martin sounds every bit as hammy as Bono. Listen to Lovers In Japan, he’s a fuckin’ Bono-Dopple-Savethechildren-Ganger. But the tracks on this album do something few modern bands dare to do, change. For Instance: ‘42’starts as a soft Radiohead-esque twinkle before a bass beat kicks in halfway backed by a bouncy sting section. From there the track builds in energy til’ right before the end where it breaks back to the opening lines again. The other tracks follow suit, morphing from one musical idea to the next. Only three songs sound out of place on this death themed record: The danceable ‘Viva La Vida’ the flitty ‘Strawberry Swing’ and the sonic ‘Chinese Sleep Chant’. Book-Ending the disk is the instrumental ‘Life in Technicolor’ and its vocal version ‘The Escapist’ which fades out of Death & All His Friends to close out the album. Overall Chris Martin’s expanded his vocals to include lower pitches and the rest of the band has shown much promise by branching out making this cold plays most musically interesting album.
8.9/10 (11/10 excluding ‘Lost!’/ ‘Viva La Vida’/’Strawberry Swing‘)
*Notes biased enthusiasm (greatness)
