Album Review on Coldplay's new album "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends"

Here is my album review, track by track, of the new Coldplay album.

Track 1- Life in Technicolor- I know this first track is just instrumental, but this track got me pumped when I first heard it last night. I felt like it was setting the atmosphere, in a way, for the rest of the CD. If you have ever been to a concert you probably understand what I'm talking about. Usually before a band takes the stage they might have music or a beat of some sort that you can hear faintly in the background the band takes the stage and joins in with the music as it grows louder and louder until the band exsplosively or gracefully plunges into the first verse of the song. Long explanation I know, but I feel it was neccessary.

Track 2- Cemetaries of London- Already you can tell that Coldplay is using a type of different sound when this song begins. Love the "la la la la la yey" part and the clap noise in the background. Interesting lyrics, CD sounds good so far.

Track 3- Lost!-Wow, this is a different sound. Is that a hip hop beat I hear? That it is. The start of this song doesn't sound like a Coldplay song at all. Love the lyrics on this one though. I call a Jay-Z remix in the near future.

Track 4- 42- This whole song seems very experimental, which I feel is something you wouldn't have heard or seen in the previous albums. This song starts out slow and soft than half way through the whole tempo and sound of the song changes and sounds like something you would hear from Radiohead and than changes into something you might hear from Tegan and Sara, yeah that Tegan and Sara...this is definitly a Brian Eno produced album.

Track 5- Lovers in Japan- The intro just plain makes me happy. Has a U2 type sound but also a very unique sound to it as well. Like alot of songs on this cd the song has a piano, but it doesnt sound like your normal Coldplay piano. The song stops half way in and switches tempo and sound. The piano on this part is just so peaceful.

Track 6- Yes- I love the sound effects they have in the back ground.Chris's voice is sooo low. I mean this really doesn't sound like a Coldplay song. I love the Asian sounding strings in this one mixed with a southern rock sound. Once again this song stops half way through, changes sound and tempo...and your left with a great exit out of this song that sounds more like Yo La Tango then Coldplay, as my good friend John put it.

Track 7-Viva La Vida- If you didn't already know, this song is about Napolean. I love the lyrics as they are presented from what would be Napolean's perspective, looking back on his life. This song is awesome, end of story.

Track 8- Violet Hill- This song also seems to have some political, historical significance. Very rocky sounding.

Track 9- Strawberry Swing- This song has a very folkie sound to it. This might be an early canidate for my favorite song on the album. This is another one of those "make you wanna dance" songs.

Track 10- Death and All His Friends- This one reminds me of the Arcade Fire a little. Southern Rock sound to it once it gets goin, then regresses into atmospheric sounding stuff. Song ends with the same intro music we heard at the begining of the album, but this time we have vocals. Love the ending of this song, makes me want to listen to the album again, go to sleep, or go do something bold.

Track 11- Lost?- This is another version of track 6. Just as good if not better.

Overall Impression: I actually didn't really know what to expect from this album. We have all heard the "this is going to be Colplay's rockier cd" before as we did before with "X&Y" and before this album. After hearing the early releases I had hope that this was really going to be a different Coldplay. After listening through the album for the first time I actually was blown away how seriously the band took the idea of experimenting with new sounds and I though in doing so they walked away with an extremely good album. You hear some of the influences the band has been talking about have influenceing their new album the past year or so such as the Arcade Fire in this new album. I think this album will change the way people look at Coldplay and will strengthen the bands chances of being a "world renown band" for years to come. I warn you, this is not the Coldplay you are accustomed to, but give it a try and I believe at least over time you come to really enjoy this album.

...Napoleon in rags and the language that he used.

The new Coldplay album comes out at 12:01am Tuesday!
If Violet Hill and Viva la Vida are any indication of whats to come, the emotions of anticipation and excitement in which I wait for the album will be truly warrented ones.

Album review later this week.

Get in the Hole!

I have a confession to make. The past two days Brendan, John, and I have watched multiple hours of the PGA's US Open. Honestly, none of us were avid watchers of golf before this weekend but we were drawn in to the action(if you can call it that) in a hurry. On Saturday Tiger Woods was doing terrible, than he hits shots from the sidewalk, the side of a hill, and like a 60 ft putt to take the lead at the end of the day. On Sunday he starts off terrible again and than hits a shot from the ruff and another long put to face a playoff on Monday, it was crazy. But probably the most entertaining part of this whole thing was how whenever Tiger Woods hits these shots the crowd in the background goes straight stupid! Folks jumping up and down with their hands in the air in utter jubilation, even though they've seen Tiger do this stuff like a zillion time its still the same reaction. Even more entertaining though is that consistantly after every putt he takes, right as the ball moves away from his putter, there is always the guy that yells "Get in the hole!" , the phrase delivered in such a way that one may suspect the man's very life balances on whether or not the ball falls in the hole. Its absolutely breathtaking, yet halarious at the same time. Frankly, I suggest you all should try watching some golf, I could almost guaruntee that its a stress reliever.

Jordan Trip Part II: "Ah ah ah...."

The 2nd half of our trip consisted of a whole lot of productive hanging out. We studied Arabic and than hung out at the University of Jordan. Our days would consist of hours of basketball in the U of J gym (the competition was actually very strong), pool at the pool hall,and chillin' with our local store owners ( for the guys) The girls days on the other hand would consist of walking on campus and literally being swarmed by girls wanting to talk about...what girls talk about I guess. We also did alot of work handing food out to Palestinian refugees living in different parts of town. The latter project was one of the most impactful ones. We were invited into homes, met families, and heard some pretty amazing stories. We were also impacted by a trip to an orphanage we took. Here are some more pictures documenting our journey.


This night was alot of fun. Us with our friends Rita and Leen.


The girls and one of their many entourage's


Kelsey giving rides at the orphanage.


With the Angel kids


Guy with grill cheese... Jordanian style

Jordan Trip Part I: "They just don't give those Phd.'s away"

At the begining of our journey to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan we did some site seeing, visiting the Baptismal site, the Dead Sea, Mt. Nebo, and Petra. We were also blessed to have our friend Robert E. Wallace traveling with us. An expert in biblical history, Wallace's commentary on the land we traveled through made the experience extra special. It was crazy walking around such places were biblical events took place. Here is the begining installment of my photo journal.


First stop.


Shelby getting baptised in the Jordan River.


Me standing behind the Plains of Moab.


The Team at the Dead Sea. Quick fact, the Dead Sea is over 100 times more salty than the Pacific Ocean,thus reflecting in the bouyancy we humans have when swimming in it. You can literally be in 20ft of water and be standing straight up and not sink. Its incrediable!


The view from Mt. Nebo. This is where Moses was shown the promised land by God in Numbers 27.


Petra. This is the area where the Edomites come from. Also the inspiration of notorious rap song "Shawerma"


More Petra dwellings.


Kelsey and Shelby on camels.


Thank you Mr. Wallace. You will be missed.

THIS WEEK: SPECIAL PHOTO DIARY OF MY TRIP TO JORDAN

Hold your horses though. We are still waiting on the photo's.

Food: The New Oil Crisis

This past week I have been doing research on the growing food crisis in Haiti While researching I stumbled across this artilce below written by Anwar Iqbal and found it very interesting ,and probably being more frank, alarming.

Food crisis may lead to wars, riots

By Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON, April 13: The world is moving towards a food crisis that may lead to wars and riots, warn financial experts meeting at the World Bank headquarters in Washington.

“People are dying because of their reaction to the situation,” said Jacques Diouf, director-general of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation.

The UN agency also warned that this food crisis was not going to end quickly. The World Bank agreed and predicted that prices would remain above 2004 levels through to 2015.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick noted that people living in the developed world struggled with the high cost of fuel to run their cars, while poor people in developing nations struggled to feed themselves.

“In many developing countries, the poor spend up to 75 per cent of their income on food. When prices of basic foods rise, it hits hard,” he said.

The price of wheat had risen 120 per cent over the past year, Mr Zoellick added. Over the past three years, food prices overall have risen 83 per cent, the World Bank estimates.

The crisis of surging food prices could mean “seven lost years” in the fight against worldwide poverty, he said.

IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn also issued a dire warning about the food crisis and its economic and political impact.

“Food prices, if they go on like they are doing today ... the consequences will be terrible,” he said, adding that if they continued, “hundreds of thousands of people will be starving”.

“As we know, learning from the past, those kind of questions sometimes end in war,” he said.

Leading financial experts from around the world warned that food riots and shortages were breaking out in many regions as food shortages threatened millions of people, sparking protests around the globe.

They pointed out that so far there had been deadly riots in a number of countries.

Last week one person was killed in two days of rioting in Egypt, while violence wracked Haiti, where demonstrations over rising food prices led to looting and clashes with police.

In Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, the prime minister was ousted on Saturday night after more than a week of violent protests over rocketing food and fuel prices.

The mounting food crisis has moved to the top of the agenda of this weekend’s spring meetings in Washington of the 185-nation World Bank and its twin institution, the International Monetary Fund.

To meet this crisis, Mr Zoellick called for a “new deal on global Food policy.”

For the “immediate crisis,” he urged governments to fill the $500 million food gap identified by the UN’s World Food Programme.

Under the new deal, the World Bank will nearly double agricultural lending to Sub-Saharan Africa over the next year to $800 million to substantially increase crop productivity.

In addition, the International Finance Corporation – the World Bank Group’s arm for private sector development – will boost its agribusiness investments.

Mr Zoellick also proposed that sovereign wealth funds around the world allocate $30 billion –one per cent of their $3 trillion assets – to investments for African “growth, development, and opportunity”.

He noted that rising food prices are also contributing to malnutrition, one of the “forgotten” Millennium Development Goals.

“This is not just about meals foregone today or about increasing social unrest. This is about lost learning potential for children and adults in the future, stunted intellectual and physical growth. Even more, we estimate that the effect of this food crisis on poverty reduction worldwide is in the order of seven lost years. So we need to address this not just as an immediate emergency but also in the medium term for development.