The Ephemeric

Apparently one Coldplay album this year is not enough for us. Viva La Vida was a very good album too by the way, a vast improvement on the mediocrity that was X&Y. But even so I don't think anyone really expected they would release any more music this year, even a small half-album such as this, but credit to them.

I think it is a better idea to release music in small chunks rather than one big album every three years, it's too long to wait and then when it comes it's harder to appreciate all those new songs at once, I hope it's something that catches on, though I'm sure I'll be eating my words in a minute if this EP turns out to be crap, so without further ado here is my review of Prospekt's March.



Well I won't have to eat my words because it's pretty good. In fact I think a number of these songs are better than some of the weaker numbers on Viva La Vida, and I can't help but feel they should have put some of these on there.

Starting of with Rainy Day, this is a very nice song, vintage Coldplay, but it suffers from being, frankly, too similar to the song Viva La Vida and perhaps isn't the fresh sound we'd hope for from the first song on the album.

The title track Prospekt's March/Poppy fields is something pretty special. A somber and melodic tune full of emotion that yields to the second of Poppy fields, and does so, in my opinion, much more effectively than any of the two part songs in the proper album. This is certainly one of the key songs from this release.

Glass of Water is... decent, it builds up to a pretty satisfying conclusion, though much of it feels a bit throw-away compared to some of the other songs. It is still better than a number of the lesser viva la vida songs.

Life In Technicolor II is a song that had given me very high hopes, being billed as life in technicolor, one of the best songs in the viva la vida album, except fully fleshed out to a full length song with vocals. Sadly only half of that is true. This song basically turns out to be the same bit of music on repeat with vocals laid on top. Mind you that's not a terrible thing, it's a great piece of music, probably the best that Coldplay have written in terms of pure musical excellence.

Lost+ is a re-release of the song Lost, which I never much cared for, except with the rap stylings of Jay-z on top... which actually makes it a bit better, this works much better as a rap song than as a pop song and adds another kind of dimension to the music, good call on this one.

Lovers in Japan was one of the better songs from Viva La Vida, and so this Osaka Sun Mix is very welcome here. It is definitey the definitive mix, and skips out the rather redundant 'reign of love' segment attached to the end of it on the album release.

Postcards from Far Away is a song I can see a lot of fans not liking, but it's something I wish I would see the band do more often. Stop relying on electronics and pop synthesizers and return to the old coldplay style with real guitars and pianos, as they have done here A very pretty piece of music for sure, but not something that's going to be setting the charts alight any time soon.

The finale Now My Feet Won't Touch the Ground is a rather interesting new song from Coldplay, one of the most sparing in terms of instrumental depth which leaves the album ending on somewhat of a flat note, even if it is by no means a bad song it still seems a bit of an anti-climax.

So in closing, this is a welcome addition to my music library, brief though it is, but while these are pretty decent songs, I can't help but feel most of these are good enough to have replaced the filler on the viva la vida album, but perhaps not much better. There's nothing here that you'll remember ten years from now, but if these songs had replaced some of the dross from the big album then that really would have been one hell of an album, but alas.

Stay tuned for my next big album review, The Killers- Day and Age, i've not heard all the songs yet but it sounds like a scorcher.

Verdict: