Viva La Coldplay or Chris and All His Fans (Namely, me and my siblings)

(Kindly ignore the colony of pimples breeding on my face, as well as my disgustingly yellowing talons, not to mention my infamously fugly eyebrows)

AISYA and AWI (her boyfriend) finally BOUGHT the NEW COLDPLAY ALBUM VIVA LA VIDA or DEATH AND ALL HIS FRIENDS a couple of days ago at ROCK CORNER in ONE UTAMA, and I am over the moon, sun and stars with happiness!!!

yippeyipeeyipeeDOOO!

I’m sure some of you are wondering ‘what’s she so happy about? Didn’t her sister download the whole album from a Justin Timberlake forum weeks ago?’

Well, yeah, KakAisya did download the album on the 6th of June from a Justin Timberlake forum. (And in case you’re also wondering ‘Umm, why Justin Timberlake?’ the answer is: it’s a long story regarding Coldplaying.com’s rules about leaking albums on their website, so the users decided to leak it on JT’s forum, instead, since Chris once mentioned that their latest album was inspired by Justin Himself. Told you it was a long story). She’s even written a two thousand word review of it here on her blog. And, yeah, I have been listening to the album over and over again since that day, to the extent that I’ve already identified what, in my opinion, are the Fillers, and the Masterpieces.

But having the original CD itself means that I can rip it all at 320kb/s Variable Bit Rate MP3 straight to my MP3 Player!!! No more having to listen to it at 128kb/s WMA *shudder*!!

[You see, ever since my cat Boon (short for Baboon) jumped onto the speakers of my Hifi and pretty much smashed it up by making it topple over, I’ve had to resort to my MP3 player if I want to listen to my music with real sound quality. I miss the speakers and Surround Sound :-( ]

Colplay mean a lot to me and my siblings. Before Coldplay, we didn’t really understand the beauty of music. Not that I’m saying we didn’t listen to music – of course we did. Just not quality music.

By the early, lollipop-sucking, front-teeth-missing age of 8, my friends and I could be found heartfully singing Spice Girls songs and proclaiming Girl Power during break time at Cheetham Community School, Manchester. We dominated the junior playground with our fabulous (or so we blissfully thought) renditions of hit singles such as ‘2 Become 1’ and ‘Mama’. And it didn’t end there; at home, my sisters and I all had our Spice Girls Alter Ego such as Pretty Spice and Witty Spice. I was Accent Spice (don’t ask – I was 8, okay?).

(From left to right: Posh Spice, Scary Spice, Baby Spice, Sporty Spice and Ginger Spice. Not in Picture: Pretty Spice, Witty Spice and Accent Spice)

When we came to Malaysia in 1998, the music scene rapidly changed in the Shurfa Clan, splitting it into two tribes. Your loyalties either lied with KakAmnah; an avid supporter of *NSYNC who thought JC Chasez was the hottest man alive, and would abruptly burst out singing ‘This I Promise You” with all its cheesy chest-thumping galore, or with KakAisya; a diehard fan of Backstreet Boys who would wax limericks regarding the beauty of Kevin Richardson into her diary, and soulfully moan the chorus (or just Kevin’s parts) of ‘Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely’. And then there was me and my devoted love to Britney Spears and her Virgin Image (remember those days? *snigger*). While KakAmnah made JC in the Sims and married him, KakAisya made Kevin and married him. Me? I just played Britney Spears (and weirdly turned her into a lesbian – a diehard fan’s unexpected glimpse into the bleak future of her idol, maybe?).

But the era of cheesy pop, manufactured bands and lyrics sprinkled with trademark phrases such as ‘baby’ and ‘promise’ and, of course, ‘love’ ended (thankfully) within the Shurfa Clan with the debut of Coldplay into our lives.

It started out unassumingly enough; I found myself humming ‘Yellow’ instead of ‘Stronger’ during the torturous hours of PJ, when my friends and I would skulk off elsewhere to not play Netball. KakAmnah stopped writing out lyrics of [insert cheesy *NSYNC song] onto her homemade bookmarks, and instead wrote Yellow. KakAisya, instead of replaying the end bit of Drowning over and over again, would spend an afternoon arguing over how Yellow and Trouble actually sounded alike.

Our allegiance to all that is Pop finally ended with The Scientist coming out on MTV. Who could forget that song, and the video of Chris walking backwards? KakAisya thought the video was amazing and tragic – I thought it was just weird and would always laugh at that bit when Chris’s hairy stomach peaks out. KakAmnah was still hooked on Yellow.

But Aisya ended up buying A Rush of Blood To The Head and playing it on the Hifi every day, so I ended up growing to love Coldplay, too. It was inevitable, of course, since the soaring vocals of Chris Martin, shimmering guitar-playing of Jon Buckland, sexy bass-playing of Guy Berryman, and rhythmic drum-bashing of Will Champion could be heard throughout the house almost every day.

What can I say? Everything about Coldplay is just perfect; the soul in Chris’s voice as he croons ‘Come on, oh my star is fading/And I see no chance of release’ in the beautiful album-ender Amsterdam (I always think Chris sounds best when he’s singing low – his falsetto in ‘Fix You’ makes me cringe), Jon’s glorious guitar strums in ‘Viva La Vida’ that make your heart beat just a little faster when it suddenly appears, Guy’s prominent bass-humping in ‘White Shadows, and, of course Will with his omnipresent drums to keep up the beat of every song.

Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends is, in my opinion, the best album yet. Coldplay’s latest fare is a combination of all three previous albums, with a dollop of Something Shiny and New. It has a bit of the quiet, down-to-earth minimalism of Parachutes and A Rush of Blood, as well as the BIG, electronic sound of X and Y.

The album opener, Life in Technicolor, begins with that electronic, shimmery solo piece, reminiscent of how Square One begins (or, more recently, Violet Hill). You expect Chris to burst out in lyrics when the shimmery piece reaches it’s climax, but instead you’re greeted with a tabla and, later joined by the twangy sound of the guitar. In fact, you don’t get to hear Chris singing at all in this song – a move that might remind you of Athlete’s album-opener, In Between 2 Sides, from their latest album, Beyond The Neighbourhood. The song is actually quite mild, but maybe that’s just because I didn’t up the volume up to maximum?

Life In Technicolor then smoothly merges into the next song, Cemeteries of London. The title sounds really gloomy, and it does begin gloomily, but don’t let that put you off. Wait for a few seconds, and then Chris starts going ‘la la la’, the sun breaks out from the clouds, and you shall smile. It’s a very upbeat song, and I love it. There’s the constant strumming of the guitars in the background that, for some reason, conjures up images of, errm, horseback-riding and cowboys? I don’t know, I’m weird.

Another song that you should keep an ear out for is 42; it’s actually made out of 3 songs. It starts off slow and melancholy, with Chris singing accompanied solely by the piano. Then he stops, and the songs takes a 180 degrees turn in which it’s the instruments’ turn to show off. Which they do, spectacularly and heavily. Kind of reminds me of Politik, actually. Then Chris starts singing again, and we’re off to the 3rd part of the song, which is upbeat and clappy and makes you smile again! Then it ends (awww :-( ) with a bit of the first part of the song.

Lovers in Japan is okay, but IMO kind of forgettable compared to the other songs in the album. Same goes with Reign of Love. They’re kind of like the Green Eyes and Warning Sign of this album. Good, but ain’t up to par with the others and wouldn’t really be able to stand alone. I think they released Lovers in Japan as a single because it was more mainstream than the rest? Unlike 42 and Cemeteries of London, it’s not necessary to focus your 100% attention to listening to Lovers in Japan to appreciate it.

Urm, Yes is good and is in the same category as, say, White Shadows, or Low. You know, the dark, mechanical type of music. You’ll notice Chris’s voice is really low here.

I LOVE Viva La Vida.

Violent -- I mean Violet -- Hill is OKAY.

Other exceptionally good songs in this album are Strawberry Swing, which caught me off guard because it’s very The Different from anything that Coldplay has produced – all happy and optimistic, and Death And All His Friends/The Escapist, which starts of slowly then builds up ala Amsterdam and is BEST GILER BABAS.

I’m getting tired here (hence why the review of each song is getting shorter and shorter), and I’ve written a lot, so why don’t you just do yourself a favour, buy the album and listen to it on high quality? Sure, there are a couple of misses among the hits, but I think Coldplay have really outdone themselves this time. You’ll be transported to a world where the sun and the moon take turns to shine on you.