Music Blogs

Last week an infinite limo the size of Famethrowa's ego and as black as his mind rolled up outside my Chelsea penthouse with but one instruction. "Take this man to Abbey Road immediately!" roared the driver, Sir George Martin, as if his life depended on it. In fact, this was the fantasy playing in my mind as I dawdled out of St Johns Wood tube and towards the most famous studio in the world for an appointment with Coldplay. Yes, playbacks for "Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends" took place on Thursday and these ears were there.

This being the 21st century music industry and with little to choose between rock writers and global terrorists, secrecy and security was super tight. In fact since hearing the album, three close family members have emigrated and so I can reveal little of this new opus. At the complex, after mobiles had been confiscated and metal detectors brandished, the chosen few were led into a lavish, oak-wallpapered studio space, decorated with red gerberas and framed album artwork, before free booze was thrust into our palms and we reclined in deep cushions. So far so comfortable then but what of the follow-up to 2005's "X&Y"?

Well, on the basis of one luxurious listen, "Viva La Vida" sounds like a triumph, the album to cement Coldplay's status as the band who now do U2 so much better than they can do it themselves. Before the playback, a film explains it was recorded "in a bakery, nunnery, studio and a church", Chris Martin telling us Brian Eno taught them "there were no rules, we could steal from everyone but ourselves". As the music rolls, it soon becomes clear "Violet Hill" is the most underwhelming thing here. Because elsewhere, this collaborative sonic freedom delivers a dense, detailed, rhythmically tight and busy collection that calls for peace but is up for a fight.

Atmospheric ambient intro/album outro "Life In Technicolour" gives way to full-on stadium attack, while "Lost" takes influence from Arcade Fire producer Markus Dravs for an organ-heavy "Fix You" reworking. Gossamer string eulogy "42" fuses Radiohead and John Lennon, while the driving, experimental rush of one of a handful of hidden tracks sound more like Primal Scream than Coldplay. But Famethrowa has said enough and really must dash. Sir Paul Macca just landed his Learjet outside Sainsbury's on Kilburn High Road and he's giving me a lift home...

Today's Famethrowa's

New: "We Carry On" Portishead
Old: "Zoo Station" U2