Coldplay — Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends

At the beginning of their career, detractors said Coldplay were unoriginal and sounded too much like Radiohead. They've long since become their own men, but Viva La Vida's major problem is that Coldplay still seem concerned with sounding like bands cooler than themselves. The guitar riff on opening instrumental "Life In Technicolor" could have come off The Cure's Disintegration, while the little violin frills at the beginning of the seven-minute "Yes" sound like they were cut and pasted from The Velvet Underground's "Venus In Furs." From there, the track moves into a My Bloody Valentine-esque reverb-drenched, falsetto-filled romp. Douglas Adams would have you believe that the answer to everything in life is 42, but for Coldplay "42" is a track which sounds ridiculously like Radiohead. That said, there are some truly great songs here, like "Viva La Vida" and "Violet Hill." It's just really too bad there aren't more like them, because while they sound triumphant and truly say something, most of the other songs on Viva La Vida just sound confused.