Music Review

Coldplay: Viva La Vida (Universal Music)

QUALMS about Coldplay’s newest album straying too far into the experimental zone can be quashed as the band retains much of its distinct style heard in the previous albums.

The band has opted for a more atmospheric album in Viva La Vida with layers of sonic texture. Unlike X&Y which was a bit too polished, this album is a delectable treat to the ears.

Thanks goes to producer Brian Eno who helped Coldplay engineer their new sound. Eno is responsible for projecting U2 to superstardom with its album Joshua Tree 20 years ago. He’s done it again for Coldplay.

The title track opens with a strings section and a marching beat which reveals a new side of the band.

Lead single Violet Hill, currently on air, hints at venturing into a more spacious sonic landscape but holds on to that melody hook that fans love.

Cemeteries of London, a song that is as bleak as its subject, is a modern lamentation of gloom and spiritual lapse in the city. Fans will hear Coldplay’s familiar shimmering guitar works here.

Lost! might catch listeners by surprise with its organ pipes but as lead vocalist Chris Martin begins to sing, one can’t help but be mesmerised.

Highlights on the album include Strawberry Swing with its sunny disposition and Yes with a Middle Eastern-flavoured strings section.

In the age of Itunes and Mp3s, Coldplay teaches us again the joy of listening to an album from start to finish. All 10 songs on this album is a gem. Viva La Vida! — By MAX KOH



MGMT: Oracular Spectacular

(Sony BMG)

PURVEYORS of ear-bendingly twisted pop hooks, amping up melody and mood with deep growling keys and left-field curves, MGMT (previously known as The Management) is an American synthpop band based in Brooklyn, New York comprising Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden.

The self-styled 70s futurists recently released their debut album, Oracular Spectacular, experimenting with noise rock and electronica before settling on “shape-shifting psychedelic pop”.

They might look like hippies but they are credible, fascinating, boundary-pushing artistic originators; successfully combining infectious beats with sarcastic lyrics.

MGMT is anything but predictable. And it shows in the lyrics too.

“Let’s make some music, make some money, find some models for wives. I’ll move to Paris, shoot some heroin and f*** with the stars”, goes the Abba meets Velvet Underground opening track Time To Pretend. This is already one of the most-quoted lyrics of 2008. With its tweeting synths and clattering drums, it tells the oh-so-droll tale of the desire to “live fast and die young”.

Electric Feel pulls influences from early funk and electroclash, while Kids is probably its catchiest tune on the album, mixing Brit pop with synth sounds, repeating the tricks of Time to Pretend, pushing the same buttons and achieving a similar high level of electro-pop nirvana.

The Middle-Easterny 4th Dimensional Transition is just as trippy as the name implies, while Weekend Wars is pure ear candy distinguished by sweeping electro and snarky lyrics, sounding very much like a doped-up Rolling Stones track spliced with a tempo-shifting superior Scissor Sisters tune.

Of Moons, Birds & Monsters is a beautiful and autumnal-like Pink Floyd-meets-Mamas And Papas effort.

Oracular Spectacular is as playful, uplifting and involving a record as you’d hope to hear. This is a fun album to hear. — By AHMAD NAZRUL CAMALXAMAN