BenLueders.com

On June 17th 2008, hit arena rock band Coldplay released their much anticipated album “Viva La Vida or death and all his friends” and it was met with, as suspected, much anticipation.  According to the album’s wikipedia page, Viva La Vida has become the #1 best-selling album in 36 countries world-wide, and the most “paid-for
downloaded album of all time.”  Clearly Coldplay’s latest has made a huge impact on our world’s culture, but what kind of an impact has it had?  Does the album really live up to all the international hype?  What is the album’s message?  In this review I’ll attempt to answer some of those questions as well as give my take of the album.

Not being a hardcore Coldplay fan, I did not immediately buy the album upon sight.  At home I only had a few songs from their other albums, that I had gleaned off of dogpile.com after a friend’s recommendation.  All of the songs that I heard at that time, I liked, but was not especially crazy about.  I did not go and buy the acclaimed “Rush of cold blood to the head” or even the acclaimed “X&Y”.  Of course, on occasion, I could be found listening to the song “What if” because, that part when their lead singer Chris Martin sings:

...oooo-ooooh...that’s riiiight...

It’s just so cool.

Anyways, after I heard that my infallible brother Abe had pre-ordered the new Coldplay CD and was enjoying it greatly, I was immediately interested.  I have known Abe for his entire life, and have slept and worked in the same room as him for most of my life and I have never once known him to be wrong...on anything.  So, late one night, I simply drove myself to Wal Mart and purchased Viva la Vida, and put it in my car’s CD player.

First of all, the album is amazing.  Please go out and buy it before you read any further.  Listen to it all the way through and enjoy the sheer immenseness and originality of the sound, and then listen to it again with careful attention to the lyrics.  The album is much deeper and complicated then your typical hit pop song.  (See, or don’t see,”Rihanna”.)  As the alternate title title suggests, almost the entire album is dedicated to the heavy topic of death, and is full of religious and biblical imagery; this imagery really got me listening.  God is referred to directly 8 times, and references to Heaven, missionaries, and even Jerusalem are scattered throughout.

Track one, Life in Technicolor, is a two-and-a-half minute instrumental that really sets the stage for this beautiful album.  Probably the most striking part of this song is the introduction of the hammered dulcimer which makes appearances in other songs on this album as well.  (Any fellow Rich Mullins fans will see the importance there)  The instrumental flows seamlessly into the haunting “Cemeteries of London”, which is full of dark imagery consisting of witches, dark London streets, and “ghost towns in the ocean”.  One of the most interesting lines of this song comes towards the end:

I see God come in my garden, but I don’t know what he said,
For my heart, it wasn’t open...not open...

Another song that grabbed my attention was the song Yes.  Yes is a song about the complexities of temptation; both avoiding temptation and wanting to be tempted.  The chorus goes:

If you’ll only, if you’ll only say yes
Whether you will’s anybody’s guess
God, only God knows I’m trying my best
But I’m just so tired of this loneliness

This idea, both avoiding and desiring temptation, is further expounded by perhaps my favorite line of the song.  It is a line that I think all young men can agree with at different points in our life:

Yeah, we were dying of frustration
Saying “Lord lead me not into temptation”
But it’s not easy when she turns you on

By far the most popular of the songs, is the song of which the album gets it’s title: Viva La Vida.  Although that title is graphically represented on the cover by a key symbol of the French Revolution, it actually gets it’s name from an obscure painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.  The painting “Viva La Vida” (or “Long live life”) is a very different painting than “Lady Liberty Leading the People”.  I have yet to discover the correlation between the two paintings...if indeed there is any correlation to be discovered.  (If anything the paintings are oppoisites: one depicting vibrant life, and the other depicting bloody carnage and death.)

The song is about a man who used to rule the world but now “sweeps the streets that he used to own.”  As far as I can gather, the song is probably from the view of a ruler that was deposed at the time of the french revolution.  (Although some are arguing that it is about Napoleon)  Regardless, it is a song that shows how fleeting our positions of power are on earth.  This is portrayed powerfully in the lyric:

One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt, and pillars of sand

The religious imagery in this song is immense as well as confusing.  The chorus goes:

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can not explain
I know Saint Peter won’t call my name
Never an honest word
And that was when I ruled the world

While researching for this review I stumbled upon an interview with Coldplay’s lead singer Chris Martin talking about the reference to Saint Peter not calling his name.  His quote was chilling and thoughtful.


“It’s about… You’re not on the list. I was a naughty boy. It’s always fascinated me that idea of finishing your life and then being analyzed on it. And it’s that runs through most religions. That’s why people blow up buildings. Because they think they’re going to get lots of virgins. I always feel like saying, Just join a band (cackles head off). That is the most frightening thing you could possibly say to somebody. Eternal damnation. I know about this stuff because I studied it. I was into it all. I know it. It’s still mildly terrifying to me. And this is serious.”

The last chorus in the song confirms that Saint Peter will indeed call his name.

Martin continues on his reflection of eternal destinations and uncertain conclusions in the song “42”.  He starts with the weirdly shallow line:

Those who are dead are not dead
They’re just living in my head

The song soon transitions from a mournful piano reflection to an awesome instrumental interlude and then to an equally shallow second theme set to an almost country-western beat:

You thought you might be a ghost
You thought you might be a ghost
You didn’t get to heaven but you made it close
You didn’t get to heaven but you oh-oh-ooh, oh-oh-ooh

The final song is the second half of the title “Death and all his friends”.  The song has a beautiful, calming, piano intro that transitions to an epic ending with the powerful refrain:

No I don’t want to battle from the year to end
I don’t want to cycle and recycle revenge
I don’t want to follow death and all of his friends...


Yes, Coldplay, death is a terrible enemy...

...long live life.

About The Author...

Ben Lueders is from Hawaii but he lives in Nebraska now. He's married to a cute girl named Megan. He does music, graphic design, Twitter and stuff.

Favorite Links