Livin’ La Vida Coldplay

Sorry about the title, I couldn’t help it. I think it’s rather humorous.

To the delight/lament of music fans everywhere, Coldplay released their 4th album this week, with the Ricky Martin-inspired title, Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends.

Maybe it was just me keeping myself less exposed to it, but it seemed like there was not nearly as much hype and build-up as there was for their previous album, X&Y. I count that as a good thing. X&Y was doomed from the beginning by all the ridiculous hype and expectations. (I do think they definitely took a few steps forward on that album though.)

When they released their first single from Viva La Vida, “Violet Hill,” it was pretty obvious they were going in a different direction, much of which can be attributed to first-time Coldplay producer, Brian Eno. There was a darker tone to the music along with some added depth. And a guitar solo. I was going to be pretty excited about the album regardless, but “Violet Hill” really drove up expectations.

I listened to the entire album online a few weeks ago when the band released it for streaming, so I’ve been able to enjoy it for some time already.

And man…it is a great listen.

All right, on with the review. This will go like the post for Radiohead’s “In Rainbows.” I’ll list the title of each track and my favorite part of each song, with a blurb of thoughts for each. Then I’ll give some wrap-up thoughts on the album as a whole afterwords.

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Lost in Time

This post is a departure from my “normal” posts…whatever that is. I’m a huge fan of the show Lost. Well…I fell in love with Season 1, which was an utter masterpiece in television drama, perfectly fusing a depth of character development with a level of plot development that was pretty much incredible. And now, watching it is more of an exercise in maintaining that initial enthusiasm. It’s still a good show though.
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It’s been confirmed. The “Time-Loop Theory” for the TV show Lost is legit.

I am aware that the writers of the show have said no wacky time-travel related plots will be in the show. Well, they lied. Or made a mistake. Because this theory is too solid.

Basically (and I repeat, this is a very basic summary), what the guy who came up with the theory states is that when the Oceanic plane crashed onto the island in 2004, the entire island was stuck on a continuous time-loop of the year 1996. The island was being sent back in time every 108 minutes, which is how often “the numbers” in the Swan station had to be entered. So by crashing onto the island, everyone on the plane broke through some kind of hole in the time-space continuum and traveled back in time to 1996. (The hole was created when Desmond failed to enter the numbers in the Swann station the first time.)

That explains why Rose and Locke have their former health restored because both Locke and Rose were perfectly healthy back in 1996. That’s also why Jack’s dad is alive on the island (I think), because his body made it on the island, and his body wasn’t dead in ’96. It also explains why the outside world can’t find their way to the island. And it explains a bunch of other stuff too.

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