Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends

The fourth studio album of Coldplay, released June 2008, and debuting at number 1 on the US Billboard 200. In fact, it made it to number 1 in twenty three separate countries, on its way to selling 11 million copies worldwide. This was helped by the huge smash hit singles “Viva La Vida,” “Lovers In Japan,” and “Lost.”

In Spanish, the phrase translates to “Long Live Life,” and the theme of the record settles closely to this statement. The lyrics trace lead singer Chris Martin’s journey across the globe, both through love and his physical footprint. “Lovers In Japan,” “Chinese Sleep Chant” and “Cemeteries of London” all make use of geographic locations, while the opening track “Life in Technicolor” is basically a blueprint for the ensuing songs and albums in Coldplay’s career.

Legend Brian Eno was on hand for the production, and all of the songs were written by the Coldplay members. A “tour edition DVD” was released alongisde the record, which included videos for all five singles.

Coldplay weren’t coy on the meanings behind each track, providing MTV with a track-by-track break down of the record. In a CBC interview Chris says:

The sound of this record to me is the sound of Guy, Will and Jonny taking back the glory. Which makes me very happy. We reached the stage where we thought we can’t get much bigger so we had to get better. Quality over quantity, we need to practise a bit and improve.

The title of the album is, interestingly enough, inspired by an artwork of the same name by Frida Kahlo, whom Chris Martin adores. The painting of watermelons was discovered by the band in Mexico in early 2007, and found great admiration by the group.