Guys, it’s ‘Viva la Vida’. “I used to rule the world / But that was when I ruled the world”. You know how it goes. The biggest thing I remember about the track from the time of its release was the controversy in its similarity to guitarist Joe Satriani’s song ‘If I Could Fly’. And, uh, it wasn’t hard to notice how much the melody in Chris Martin’s vocal and Satriani’s guitar were near identical. The matter was settled out of court. Otherwise, this song was damn near everywhere in 2008 / 09. Just Coldplay in general seemed to own that time, I feel like along with Beyoncé. Got their own iTunes advert and stuff. ‘Viva la Vida’ was the first proper, pure pop song the band did, and I think its existence annoyed a lot of people. Coldplay were seen as uncool anyway. But now, even some fans of the band were heading for the exit. A selling out had occurred. “Parachutes to X&Y, fantastic. The band have lost their way now.” Something along those lines. They didn’t know how good they had it then. If the band were making pop like this today, I’d probably still be a fan. As it is, I stand by a firm opinion that Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends is the best piece of work by Coldplay. Their last great album. They could release a masterpiece in the next few years. They could. I’m not holding my breath.

You may notice that the video above is a little different to the official version. I’m very sure the alternate video for the song, directed by Anton Corbijn, was the first of the two I saw. I always liked it more, and it should have been the only one. It’s basically the video for Depeche Mode’s ‘Enjoy the Silence’, which Corbijn also directed, but while the protagonist remains alone at the end of that video, Chris Martin is joined by his other bandmates in a sign of solidarity. It’s nice. From an artistic point of view, I also think it suits the song much better, much more than the “band performs song with visuals reminiscent of the album cover” thing going on in the Hype Williams-directed video. And Hype Williams has done so many iconic videos too, he could have gone all out on this one. Oh, well. I haven’t really talked about the ins and outs of the music as I would usually do at this stage of a post. That’s really because it’s ‘Viva la Vida’, innit? Like, everybody knows it. You sing “I used to rule the world” and then everything else follows. The strings are probably in your head right now. Admittedly, there were a number of years where I did not listen to the track. Probably because I was turned off by how much I couldn’t get away from it. It was maybe only a few years ago when I sat down, listened to it again and changed my mind. It’s a very memorable melody throughout the whole song, it must be said. It was never as annoying as I once thought it was. Chris Martin’s best vocals are all over Viva la Vida…, you know.

The track is from the point of view of a man who was once king and now is not. He finds himself among the common people, sweeping the streets [he] used to own, and he’s just reminiscing on the days when he had all the power. That’s it. I don’t know, maybe there are meant to be some parallels between fiction and real-life, but Coldplay were still very much “on top” at the time, so… I’m at a loss. I’ve only ever been able to take it at face value. And there’s all the religious imagery in there for good measure. If you really wanted to know what’s going on, there’s always Wikipedia. I guess I could go into some parts of the music. Wouldn’t be the same otherwise. The band instruments don’t do a lot. Will Champion strikes a bell during the choruses, he really exaggerates the arm movements when you see him do it live. There’s that small guitar “solo” after the first chorus. Really, I think all the highlights of the song come in the vocals. Martin’s lead I’ve already noted. But you’ve got to like those group “Oh-oh-oh-oh-ohhhhhhh-oh” vocals that come in before the last chorus to add that soaring quality. And then there are those other harmonising vocals that close the song out and also appear underneath the “Just a puppet on a lonely string” lyric earlier, and they fade out just as the beginning of ‘Violet Hill’ sneaks right at the last second. It’s a cool transition. I did always think it was neat that the big singles from the album were in the album’s second half, bonded together in the way they were. Turns out this will be the last ever Coldplay post here. If it was to end on any post, I’m glad it’s on this. This era of the band was them at their most interesting in my eyes, and a lot of good songs came out of it. ‘Viva la Vida’ was the title track behind it all. Well, at least one of them.