Coldplay: Day 17a

Coldplay's fourth album was released on June 6, 2008. The full title, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends is a bit of a mouthful. It's an interesting title because the phrase "Viva la vida" is Spanish (apparently it can be translated as either "Long live life," or "Live life" (1)), while the album cover is a famous French painting. I remember being confused about this when I was younger because I vaguely grasped that this album was referencing the French Revolution, but the "Viva la vida" did not appear to be French, based on my high school French knowledge. The phrase "Viva la vida" actually comes from a painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1). Apparently, Chris Martin found it inspirational that she would include these words in a painting despite all the hardships she endured in life. The painting on the album cover is of course, Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix (La Liberté guidant le peuple).

Liberty Leading the People, Louvre, Paris

Something interesting about this painting is it is actually not of the French Revolution as is commonly believed, but rather of a different revolution that took place in France in 1830, called the July Revolution. It might seem confusing that so many revolutions took place in France in such a short time, after all, if they overthrew the king in 1789, why did they need another revolution in 1830? A short and simplified rundown of French history 1789-1830 goes like this:

• French Revolution overthrows the "ancien régime," which was the king and aristocracy that ruled for hundreds of years (1789)
• After several years of various forms of government, Napoléon rises to power and forms the First Empire (1804). Note that Napoléon did not restore the old monarchy but rather an autocratic government based on a mix of both liberal and conservative values
• Napoléon is defeated for the second time and a constitutional monarchy is formed (1815). This constitutional monarchy restores the original line of kings to the throne but under much stricter control
• The restored monarchy begins to swing authoritarian again and the people rise up against it in the July Revolution (1830). This is the revolution depicted in the painting

The painting is very famous for its iconic imagery which invokes feelings of rebellion, glory, and solidarity with the common man. It's also well known in the art world for being a prime example of French Romanticism. The painting is thought to have influenced Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables (although this is slightly ironic since Hugo's novel depicts the failed revolution of 1832, which attempted to overthrow the newly formed government of 1830).

I've spoken much too much about the painting, but it suffices to say that Coldplay's artistic reasoning for putting this album on the cover of their album is very obvious: there's perhaps no more famous image of revolution and rebellion.

So why did Coldplay decide to make an album about revolution anyway? To someone who's been reading this blog, or to the person who's writing it, it might seem out of place with the rest of their music so far. In a previous blog post I even said that Coldplay had never really gotten political before.

Me, last post

But that actually isn't really true. It's true that Coldplay had almost never touched on politics in their songs, but outside of the music itself, Coldplay had actually been politically active for a few years already. Since around 2003, Coldplay had been advocating very strongly for a cause they believed in called Make Trade Fair. Make Trade Fair was a campaign run by a British NGO group that protested what they believed were unfair trade practices done by countries like the US and England against poor, developing countries. In 2004, Chris Martin did an interview with Mother Jones where he talked in length about Make Trade Fair and what he believed in. He said things like: 

"...you go [to Haiti] and learn how the importing and exporting of goods around the world works, and you realize it’s a huge crisis. We’ve now seen, firsthand, the problems caused by America dumping rice on Mexico, or Haiti not being allowed to export its agricultural products."

and 

"when you actually visit a place where there is immense poverty: You see the reasons why, and it makes you ******* angry."

Outside of this and other interviews they did, Coldplay also toured with the words Make Trade Fair written on their piano for a long time. 

So Coldplay was politically involved outside of their music already, which makes me think that moving to include politics in their music wasn't as big of a jump as it might seem. Slightly off topic, but something kind of interesting to me is how of-the-era this political activism was. As someone who was very young during the Bush era, it's only as I've gotten older that I've learned about the extent of left-wing hate that existed at this time towards the Bush administration and the general political order. Chris Martin himself mentions Bush twice in his interview, and although he's not specifically criticizing him, it's clear in context that Bush is one of the main objects of his distaste and anger. Smart, progressive-minded people like Chris Martin seemed to believe that people like Bush were abusing the system and what was needed was for reasonable people to get together and get the system working right. I mean, read this part of the Mother Jones interview where he MET with the head of the WTO!

Mother Jones: I know that when you met Dr. Supachai [Head of the World Trade Organization], you said, “You seem like a nice guy. Why is it so hard to get this problem sorted out?” How did he respond?

Chris Martin: He said it was going to be difficult. The great thing about the Cancun summit was, although it fell apart, it fell apart because the poorer countries are coming together and making a stand for themselves. What will come of that I don’t know, but it’s better than them just being walked over again.

This is going to sound bad, but it almost feels cute to imagine people believing that the institutions and systems we had in place were going to work. To be clear, I'm not saying that I think our institutions and systems are fundamentally broken or anything like that, but I think this sentiment that the system just needs to be reformed and the people in power can be trusted to do it is so far away from what is common today. To be fair, I think many or even most people still believe things along those lines, but our public discourse has shifted over the last 15 years to where further left and further right politicians and public figures have gained prominence. I mean, Donald Trump and the new Right hardly even believe in international cooperation and globalism anymore, let alone that an international organization like the WTO is going to solve problems. And the progressive left has turned against capitalism in many ways, so they would be far from the first to say that "better" capitalism will solve poverty. I would guess that there's still a large bloc of people in the middle that don't believe either of those things, but the zeitgeist has shifted, and it's shifted in a way that makes political activism from 20 years ago feel old.

Regardless though, Coldplay made the jump from just talking about politics, to singing about politics. In truth, they didn't even sing about it that much. The whole theme and marketing of the album: the cover, the outfits (Coldplay wore military-style jackets throughout the tour that recall 18th or 19th century revolutionaries), the music videos, was really only pulled from a few of the songs. The rest cover a variety of topics, but none of them really related to themes of revolution and rebellion.

Coldplay's Outfits During the Viva la Vida Tour

Sidenote: If you've ever heard of the Youtuber Johnny Harris, the guy on the far right (drummer Will Champion) looks exactly like him in this picture (minus the hair)

Interestingly, the Prospekt's March EP and the B-side A Spell a Rebel Yell that I wrote about last time actually have more sort of political, revolutionary content than the album itself. All this is to say that there is one more answer to the question of why did Coldplay make an album about revolution: this album was a personal revolution for them. In an MTV interview in 2008, Coldplay had this to say about their new outfits:

"We felt like we got to a point where we wanted to change a bit, and so for us, that's a bit of a revolution, I suppose. We assassinated our old selves."

This "assassination" as they put it, resulted in a new explosion of musical ideas and styles. In Viva la Vida..., Coldplay stepped firmly away from their typical melancholic, soft-rock stylings and embraced an upbeat, colorful sound with instruments and styles drawn from world music.

The album that they created with this new approach is one of their most beloved and critically acclaimed. One reviewer in 2023 called it the "perfect Coldplay album," another described it as the one album where all of Coldplay's competing elements (mass-appeal pop, sentimentality, experimentation, universality, etc.) worked in "perfect harmony." (2)(3) Still, some contemporary reviewers saw in it the same problems as all previous Coldplay works: not enough substance. One reviewer said, "Applying all his powers, Chris Martin successfully dilutes Radiohead, with--what else?--pleasant results." (4) On a positive review, Will Hermes of Rolling Stone wrote that Coldplay's desire to unite fans was both a strength and a weakness, "Sometimes, to say what needs to be said, you need to risk pissing people off." (5)

Coldplay has always been weird. As someone who grew up with the ubiquity of Coldplay, hearing a new hit of theirs on the radio every other year, it's easy to lose sight of (or never have sight of in the first place) how unique their persona is in the world of music. Chris Martin never brought masculine bravado, or overt charisma to his songs. He was never about appearing tough, or sexy. From the beginning, he wore his heart on his sleeve with vulnerable songs about pain, longing, and love sung in his signature falsetto, in a way the least "manly" way to sing. As I will discuss more in the future, as Coldplay's career moved along, they transitioned from emotional, vulnerable songs to an egalitarian,  humanist viewpoint that often focused on just being kind to everyone. All this is to say that Coldplay's weirdness has been throwing off music critics for decades now. They see vanilla, safe, boring, unchallenging. It's not that their music is universally panned, lots of their albums have received critical acclaim, but one consistent throughline has been that Coldplay is held back by their persona and choice to remain uncontroversial. "Why can't they just be like Radiohead," making political and aesthetic statements, "what does it say about us that such a boring, soulless band is popular," etc. And it's not like these critics are wrong, exactly, the world needs the Radioheads and the Kendrick Lamars, artists who make political and aesthetic statements, but I think Coldplay doesn't get enough credit for their humble reach for the universal. Coldplay has been upfront and honest about who they are from the beginning and they've been consistently blasted for it.

End of Part 1

1. Viva la Vida - Wikipedia

2. https://albumism.com/features/coldplay-viva-la-vida-or-death-and-all-his-friends-album-anniversary#google_vignette

3. Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends Turns 10

4. Robert Christgau: CG: coldplay

5. https://web.archive.org/web/20100325160051/http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/21236751/review/21256424/viva_la_vida_or_death_and_all_his_friends