Everyday Life is, as Chris Martin has put it recently, an attempt to show that Coldplay don’t feel they’re different to any other citizen stuck on this rock; the title’s inference is not that the band are trying to empathise with people who missed their train or have a leaky roof, but an affirmation that we – everyone – have more in common than we think.
Translating that spirit of egalitarianism into musical form is one of those tasks which sounds easier than it is. A double album, Everyday Life certainly has enough space to wrap itself around the idea, but much more than good intentions are required when trying to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.
Predictably there is a shortfall between vision and reality but although there are some big statements here – Guns should wind up all the right people and Orphans is a noble attempt at humanising the effects of a savage criminal justice system – there’s still a vague whiff of cultural tourism to some of the genre hopping rest.
You could argue that for a band as big as Coldplay the risk of releasing something with as prosaic an arc as Everyday Life was one they didn’t have to take, but whilst it inevitably falls some way short of Martin’s intentions, this proof that they can shed so much skin is surely remarkable enough.
You can read the full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 