This is the first single off their next album, of the same name. It’s featured on the new iPod TV ad, but don’t let that put you off.
I’ve heard bits and pieces of the new album, here and there, and it sounds really promising. Nothing of their’s has come close to Parachutes for me but this might just be the first Coldplay followup to topple their debut disc off my ‘Most Played’ list.
Right now, the track is an iTunes exclusive single and is also offered with a pre-order of the album. Since market research shows that buyers respond well to getting their first listen for free, I figured I’d help Coldplay out…
A blurb on the cover:
The album gets its name from a famous Frida Kahlo painting. The phrase translates to “Long Live Life”. The painting used by the band for the cover however is Eugene Delacroix’s La Liberté guidant le peuple (trans: Liberty guiding/leading the people).
They pinched the right elements from both works. Kahlo’s watermelons wouldn’t have made the best cover and I shudder at the thought of walking into a record store and hearing, “lah-lee-ber-teh guy-dant lee-pee-pee-pee…haiyo, yao mo gao chor ar!” (Cantonese for: you have got to be kiddin’ me!)
Delacroix’s La Liberté is possibly the most iconic image associated with the July Revolution of 1830. His work though, is important because he broke with the conventions of the Academie. He and his generation of artists are studied to better understand how western art went from Poussin (disciplined and studied in technique) to Picasso (painted while drunk and best seen when high). So the dude’s important.
La Liberté is no stranger to popular culture. The young boy on the right with the two guns is said to have inspired Hugo’s Les Miserables and the painting has been referenced by the sets and promotional images of the stage-musical adaptation. The image itself has also often been pastiched or referenced by other musicians (on their covers) and by graphic artists. Usually by those who lean a little to the left.
No thoughts on the significance of the work being featured on a Coldplay album cover. I will say though that the painting has a very strong and pronounced anti-monarchist sentiment. That goes double when used by a contemporary British outfit. The lyrics do speak of a revolution but not the kind Delacroix referenced. Then there’s the Kahlo-inspired title…so I dunno…it’s a toss!
Cool song though! You can’t go wrong by referencing a revolution in popular culture today. There’re big bucks in enfranchising a disenfranchised youth. Ballots are nowhere near as a appealing as Nielsen SoundScan.