An Album Review: "Viva la Vida" by Coldplay

The objective for this assignment was to write a positive review on something that I love.  Predictably, I chose a Coldplay album. 

An Album Review: “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay

What a decade it has been for that small rock band from the south of England.  From “Yellow” to “Clocks” and “The Scientist,” Coldplay has been ruling the airwaves and our headphones.  The quartet’s fourth studio effort, “Viva La Vida,” demonstrates that this band has only gotten better with age.  The sounds, music, and overall concept of this latest release shows that a rock album can still have a single, unifying theme.  “Long live life” is the Spanish translation of “Viva La Vida” and each track contains this passion.  It proves that humans are still capable of generating something truly beautiful.

With a run time of 45 minutes, this album is intended to be listened to in one sitting and I believe that this is fairly reasonable to ask of the general public.  However, in the age of iTunes and file-sharing, the average listener rarely finds the need to buy entire albums.  With the variety of music on “Viva La Vida,” I do not feel that Coldplay is asking too much.

Opening the album is the achingly beautiful “Life in Technicolor.”  With a soft melody that rises like the sun over a mist-covered mountain, the song crescendos out of silence to a triumphant climax marked by the sound of crashing drums and a choir of voices.  The main melody is carried by zithers and keyboards, accompanied by acoustic guitar.  These instruments meld with the lush, ambient warbles created by none other than the legendary Brian Eno.  The only thing more remarkable than the array of instruments on display is the fact that this is an instrumental piece.  Quite a statement for the opening track of a rock album.

Having worked with U2, David Bowie, Talking Heads, and Ultravox (just to name a few), Brian Eno has become one of the best producers in the industry and this is worth mentioning because the production on “Viva La Vida” is top notch.  Each song has a unique sound, but a great cohesive quality is maintained.  Every single instrument present on the record sounds like it should.  The balance is superb and this is especially important when you consider the variety of sounds on this album.   

The tasteful use of exotic instruments pervades many of the tracks and each song carries its own character and personality.  The sound of tribal drums and hand-claps provides the rhythmic foundation for “Lost!,” an incredibly catchy song with references to the music of African tribes.  “Just because I’m losing, doesn’t mean I’m lost,” sings Chris Martin.  A true statement about what it means to be content in any situation.

With heavy references to the stadium rock of U2, “Lovers in Japan” features a driving beat and Chris Martin’s trademark falsetto vocals.  The piano, with a “honky-tonk” tone, is completely absorbed in Jonny Buckland’s reverb-soaked guitar tones.  The resulting texture, combined with Brian Eno’s signature ambient sound, is so rich and full. 

The two singles on this album, “Viva La Vida” and “Violet Hill,” showcase the maturity of Coldplay and their willingness to break down musical barriers.  The sounds of a full string orchestra punctuate the title track and the standard rock and roll drum set is replaced with two timpani drums and a massive bell.  But this doesn’t mean that Coldplay has forgotten their fans.  The chorus to “Viva La Vida” triumphs with “ohhs” that channel the energy of a football match (that’s soccer to American readers).  “Violet Hill,” with lyrics expressing discontent with the state of politics, contains elements of the blues and serves as Coldplay’s first anti-war protest song.  Buckland’s typical soft guitar tones are replaced with a gritty distorted sound that provides a fitting soundtrack to the anger expressed in Martin’s lyrics. 

This album has so much more to offer as well.  A piano postlude following “Cemeteries of London,” is reminiscent of Chopin or Ravel.  Hidden tracks bejewel the album and bring to mind the days when people would listen to entire albums with track-listing in hand, surprised when an unknown track would appear at the end of another.  The album comes full circle when “Life in Technicolor” is reprised as “The Escapist” (a hidden track) at the album’s closing minutes.   Coldplay, a self-proclaimed “heavy soft-rock band,” is changing the very definition of what is considered rock and roll.

What a decade it has been; what a decade indeed.  Long live Coldplay.

An Album Review: "Pink Friday" by Nicki Minaj

The objective of this assignment was to write a critical devastation of a work that "annoys or irritates me."

An Album Review: "Pink Friday" by Nicki Minaj

From incredibly dull, to annoyingly vulgar, Nicki Minaj’s Hip-Hop/Rap/Pop debut album “Pink Friday” takes listeners on a journey that is nearly too awful for words.  At times, the assault on my ears left me utterly speechless and at other times pondering “can anyone create respectable music of this style?”  Each cut on “Pink Friday” is dripping with over-produced, auto-tuned vocals that often make it very hard to distinguish the lyrics from the electronic conglomeration of drum loops and bass-heavy synthesizer.  However, what does come across is a fair amount of senseless chanting and bad poetry.

Onika Tanya Maraj, known to her fans as Nicki Minaj, was born in Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago and then moved to Queens in New York City.  Prior to her debut album, Minaj released a series of mix tapes until she was eventually discovered by Lil Wayne.  “Pink Friday” contains collaborations with arguably some of the biggest stars in Hip-Hop, Rap, and Pop, but this only serves to showcase her shortcomings.  As co-writer on all of the tracks, Minaj cannot hide her pointless, yet somehow self-righteous, lyrics behind writing partners including Marshall Mathers, will.i.am, and Natasha Bedingfield.

Mathers lends a hand on the explicit “Roman’s Revenge” and manages to outshine Minaj in every way.  His flow of lyrics seems natural and even though the content is rude and nonsensical, I can at least appreciate his natural ability for wordplay.  Minaj’s song with will.i.am, “Check It Out,” is slightly less offensive, offering a pop-coated song that once again suffers from over-production.  Will.i.am brings his typical “coolness” and “swagger” to this radio-friendly tune, but there is nothing new or interesting to be found here.  In fact, “Check It Out” uses source material from The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” and “Think (About It)” written by James Brown.  Perhaps the use of these samples is the only tasteful selection on the album. 

The onslaught continues as the record progresses through the track listing, and I find it very difficult to tell each song apart.  “Super Bass” (the music video has 124 million views on Youtube!) is currently receiving extensive airplay, but I find nothing stellar about this song over the others.  It features a simple, repetitive pop chorus with verses performed in a rap-style.  The other top-billed single, “Moment 4 Life” featuring Drake, follows the same formula.  Except this time the chorus is sung with no regard for pitch or tone.  Minaj chants “for life” over a series of electronic pulses and beats.  The production quality is quite good and the balance between computer-generated sounds and voice is okay at times, but these demands are expected to be met by the modern-day pop album.  Synthesizers drone and bottom-heavy drums propel each song to the next, and the perpetual groove leads me to believe that this music is destined never to leave the club.  And that is fine, I suppose, because people do not go to a club in order to experience enlightening or uplifting music.

Nearing the end of “Pink Friday’s” one hour run time, I found myself trying to grasp onto anything remotely resembling a musical offering and this is where I found “Last Chance.”  A fitting title for the closing track on the album and one last chance for redemption.  Once again, the co-writer overshadows the lead lady as Bedingfield lends her powerful voice to the pop-infused chorus of this average, albeit radio-friendly, rap song.   

In all, I fear that “Pink Friday” offers nothing original or exciting to the world of popular music.  If anything, Minaj’s debut feeds into the growing catalogue of formulaic, unnecessarily explicit drivel that seems to dominate popular culture.  After glancing at the Billboard charts, my fears are confirmed and I appear to be in the minority.  “I’m the best now, anybody with some money should invest now,” chants Minaj, but I have a hard time recommending that anyone invest their time, let alone money, on this record.

The Art of Listening to Music

Hello everyone!

I am taking a course this semester called "Criticism of Music" and it is taught by Pulitzer Prize winner, Tim Page.  He is a truly brilliant teacher and writer and I am really enjoying his class.

I would like to use my blog in order to share my writing with others.  Please feel free to make comments as this will only serve to improve my writing.  Technology makes everything so accessible and I would love the input of people from all over the world.

Our class assignments focus on the art of "critical listening," so these articles are written as if I am a music critic.

Please enjoy and thank you, in advance, for reading.

Alex