Anyone still working in EMI’s offices is probably going to have a very bad day at work today–yes, even relative to their recent job-related woes–because Coldplay’s Viva La Vida, Or Death And All His Friends, which was supposed to save the record company from debt and destruction during the third quarter of 2008, has leaked. The album, which is currently slated to hit stores on June 17, has sort of been shown to actually inspire people to pay for at least some of it; “Viva La Vida,” which is currently in an iTunes ad, is this week’s No. 1 digital single, having sold 219,000 copies last week and 515,000 digital files to date. Whether or not the beleaguered record company will try to pull a Gnarls and rush-release the album as a last-ditch effort remains to be seen. [Google]
Coldplay Album Leaks, EMI’s Bottom Line Shudders
June 5th, 2008 // 22 Comments
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For what it’s worth, it’s actually pretty good. People will buy it.
Not to open a gaping sore, but is it better than Weezer’s Red album? Oh I guess I’d better go find it somewhere and listen to it.
@loudersoft: I can’t bring myself to listen to the Weezer album. Too scary.
@brasstax: Please define the standard of ‘pretty good’ for me, a noted cynic (ie, ‘pretty good’ in general or ‘pretty good’ for a bunch of people who took any sense of fascination or interest out of three decades of vaguely arty but definitely melancholic UK rock).
You know how I know you’re gay? You’re writing about Coldplay.
Butting in to say that it’s far from the horrible piece of shit I would have predicted it to be & it’s far better than X&Y. There’s actually good songwriting here. The orchestrated parts have them entering some pretty brave and unusual territory for a band like Coldplay.
My one complaint might be that about 5:10 into the song “Yes!”, Chris Martin launches into what sounds like “House of Cards” by Radiohead sped up. Otherwise, I can get behind this.
In fact, the album leaking a couple of weeks in advance might really boost sales. It’s possible people are going to hear it and be excited about Coldplay again.
But that stupid f–ing commercial that they’ve been airing needs to go away. That doesn’t help their cause I don’t think.
That being said, I’ll probably hate it again in about half an hour. My moods change with the meds…er wind.
@brasstax: Paul, trust me … give the Weezer disc at least one listen. I guarantee you’ll like a few of the tracks.
I doubt this will hurt Coldplay’s sales all that much. A big part of their audience now are the people who buy maybe 4 or 5 CDs a year, who don’t even have the time, inclination or moderate technical know-how to illegally download mp3s. This is one of the albums those people will hear about, and buy.
A ton of market research went into the above statements, obviously.
do you guys proofread your articles after writing? reading that was falling dow a flight of stairs. also, it’s missing critical information like the actual part about the album leaking.
^
“down”
@ortholomeux: we rely on viewers like you, although we understand that you might be too tied up with the proofreading of your own comments to properly do so.
@ortholomeux: This would never happen in Team Fortress 2.
@Maura Johnston: I was going to say that!
Lots of relatively short songs on this album.
@Ned Raggett: Ned, “pretty good” as in better than I would’ve expected from Coldplay after X&Y and an extended hiatus that really offered little indication they were on a self-improvement journey. The Eno fingerprint on this album is audibly faint. Rather it seems like he was just working behind the scenes and challenging them to write more impressive songs that still sound like Coldplay without beating old ideas to death. I’m not going to get into hyperbole, but I expect this set of songs will keep offering rewards in different ways through repeat listens.
@Maura Johnston: ZING!
Whoa! And I was going to paraphrase it!
Whatta family!
I’ll take a new Coldplay record over some boring, melancholic drivel from Keane or that band who had that song about how to save lives, any day.
MMMMMMMmmm. Wonder Bread toast. No jam, no butter.
Sounds a bit like a rip from a live stream. Not the greatest quality.
Did anyone else feel like the leak was a bit lower quality (i.e. production unfinished) than expected? Is it possible this was an intentional leak of a lower quality version, with the album having the finished version?
==TJ==