Blame it on their selling a zillion records—or perhaps it has to do with a singer who shows up in tabloids as much as music mags (thanks to a movie star wife, a daughter named Apple and a son named Moses). Whatever the reason, Coldplay is the most polarizing band this side of U2.


Unlike the testosterone-approved digital math of alpha-male-approved acts like Battles, Coldplay’s soaring, emotional anthems have a similar effect on many females thanks to honest vulnerability and Chris Martin’s wrenching falsetto delivery. The ladies could care less about scales and key changes. Lines like “For you I bleed myself dry,” however, are an entirely different story. Just ask Gwyneth Paltrow.

Thanks to Martin’s self-deprecating candor and a little (OK, a lot of) help from legendary producer Brian Eno, Coldplay’s latest chart-topper, “Viva La Vida” looks to be their most fully realized album yet.

When critics lined up to trash their last work, “X&Y,” Martin took it like a man. “We were bigger than we were good,” he admitted to Rolling Stone recently. “Brian Eno broke it down. He goes, ‘Your songs are too long. And you’re too repetitive, and you use the same tricks too much, and big things aren’t necessarily good things…and your lyrics aren’t good enough.’ Within 20 minutes [of working with him], we’d forgotten about any previous record sales.”

Coldplay have been dismissed by music snobs as “diet Radiohead,” but the oft-heard criticism actually points to one of the band’s strengths. Sure, you can hear echoes of the Verve, Jeff Buckley and U2 throughout “Viva,” but Coldplay have cherry-picked some of the best aspects of those artists to create a huge, arena-packing sound that’s all their own.

They’ve even picked up some new tricks, like the oceanic wash of hidden song “Chinese Sleep Chant” (tucked in behind the tune “Yes”), a crashing nod to Kevin Shields and My Bloody Valentine that's almost clairvoyantly timed to match that band’s current reunion.

As usual, it’s the hip-hop nation that’s led the way in establishing Coldplay’s cool points. Let’s not forget how Jay-Z and Kanye West have fought over Chris Martin like schoolboys, with Kanye coming at Jay on Graduation track “Big Brother” with the lyric:

“I told Jay I did a song with Coldplay / Next thing I know he got a song with Coldplay / Back of my mind I'm like, ‘Damn, no way’ / Translate Español / No way, Jose.”

“Rock ‘n’ roll is about not caring what anyone else says,” Martin defiantly told Rolling Stone. Ultimately, he can just let the music do the talking. With “Viva La Vida” being one of the most life-affirming and best singles of the year—and with a hard-earned, career-defining album to back it up—there is absolutely no reason to hate Coldplay in 2008.

See Coldplay hit the high notes when they commence the “Viva La Vida” tour at the Forum on July 14 and 15

Scott T. Sterling is Music editor for Metromix Los Angeles.