Pitchfork

Coldplay posted the first single from fourth album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends on their website for free download earlier today. After an embarrassing number of refreshes (for me, anyway; by now you'll probably have better luck), "Violet Hill" fades in slowly, with more than 30 seconds of gently swelling ambience before Chris Martin's voice comes in over solitary piano. "It was a long and dark December," he begins, with all the ominous portent of that cover art, or at least a Counting Crows song. The guitars that join next are more feverish and distorted than we expect from Coldplay, softened a bit by clean acoustic strums, while the drums have the bombast of the third Oasis LP. Martin rises to his familiar falsetto on the chorus, asking an age-old question: "If you love me, won't ya let me know?" At the sparse outro, it all fades back to piano and Martin's voice again, still wondering about love, if not the revolution. Liberty without her shirt on this isn't, but "Violet Hill" still represents a slight departure for the quietly grandiose English rockers.

MP3:> Coldplay: "Violet Hill"
[from Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends; due 06/16/08 in the UK on Parlophone and 06/17/08 in the U.S. on Capitol]