On today's mix...
Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (2008)
Coldplay - Viva la Vida (or Death and All His Friends) (2008)

Sigur Rós and Coldplay are both bands who came to the logical end of their sound with their last albums, Takk... and X&Y respectively. Consequently, both now face the challenge, with their new material, of reinventing themselves or finally turning into the background music both have always threatened to become.

The cover to Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust says exactly what this album wishes to be: stripped down, running, free. Opener "Gobbledigook" meets the challenge head on, offering the most organic, spontaneous-sounding music the band has ever made--music so different from the Sigur Rós sound that you might worry it's not the same band at all. Track 2, "Inní mér syngur vitleysingur", is more typical of the band, though similarly bright and exciting.

But then, well... they finally turn into the background music they've always threatened to become. They stick with the stripped down sound of the first two tracks, but they're no longer running. The rest of the albums keeps the theatrics more or less at bay, but they don't make up for it with anything striking or memorable. Several tracks here bring the melody to the forefront, but for the most part, they meander far too much to jell into something exciting, and in conjunction with the stripped down sound, this makes for some pretty dull tracks. Nonetheless, "Gobbledigook" and "Inní mér syngur vitleysingur" at least keep the album worthwhile, so hopefully this is merely a misstep in their career rather than an indication of fading talent.

Viva la Vida (or Death and All His Friends), shocking to say, is actually a little more exciting. Superficially, it's all a little desperate: the overworked title, the totally inappropriate cover art, and the histrionic song title choices--only with a band as tame as Coldplay could a track like "Lost!" deserve an exclamation mark. But they are really trying here. Songs are just a little less conventional in structure, a little more focus is put on ensuring that the band itself doesn't get lost in the pretty noise, and the results thankfully don't all sound exactly the same--even if they're still not overly distinctive. Unfortunately, what will plague Coldplay here is that the album's few memorable moments can be attributed elsewhere. Aside from the plagiarized lead single, "Strawberry Swing" cops its hook from Frou Frou's "Hear Me Out", while "Yes" borrows heavily from "7/4 (Shoreline)" by Broken Social Scene. If only Coldplay had an asset as great as Feist. Nonetheless they've pulled themselves out of the blandness of X&Y, and it's a start.

Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust - 4/10
Viva la Vida (or Death and All His Friends) - 6/10