My Coldplay.com - A Coldplay Blog

I’m really enjoying Coldplay’s new CD Viva La Vida (or Death and All His Friends).  Studio-wise, I think it’s one of the best CD’s I’ve listened to and it really evidences itself when the songs (Viva La Vida and Violet Hill) come on the radio and I really remember and sing along.

Coldplay has deliberately written songs that they want crowds to sing along to…. “belt it to the rafters” or something like that.  However, many of the songs contain strings and tracks that aren’t really replicable on stage!  A good example is Viva La Vida, which is driven by a pulsing string track rhythm.  There are no drum kit sounds, so they instead pull out the tympany and church bell out for the song during their performances (as seen live on videos on youtube).  But it’s a bit unbelievable when Chris Martin and the guitarist Jonny Buckland play their keyboards for a short while before leaving them for the mic or the electric guitar, and the strings play on.  Obviously they have a running string track in the background.

I don’t know about you, but when I go to a performance, I want to see an original performance, for the most part.  I don’t want to see a guy up there singing to a track.  That’s karaoke.  Of course there will be some things that you will track sometimes, like a basic drum synth or netherworldly sounds, but I’m not big on using the sounds that are a main component of the song.  It’s kind of like using a track for the bass sounds instead of Guy Berryman (the bassist).

What do you think?  It kind of lessens the performance in my book.

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