[Schneed10]

I got my hands on the album yesterday and have listened through it once so far. Viva la Vida is the best song on the album, for me. That track is so good it almost overshadows the others, but tracks 4, 5, and 6 are also very good. Each of those tracks kind of have two songs per track, it's a cool flow. Then I'm a big fan of 8, Violet Hill.

It's a good sound, as usual. They're a band with a lot of complexity to their music, so as you listen to it more and more, your ear tends to pick up a lot more of the minor nuances; I think that's why their albums tend to grow on me over time. I don't mean to knock bands like Weezer (who I like) or Panic at the Disco (who I hate; ok I guess I'm knocking them), but their music is so simply constructed and contains so few layers that you get all you're going to get from it just by listening to it once or twice.

So I think I've got to listen to Viva la Vida several more times before I pass final judgment. But preliminarily, I'll say it's not quite to the level musically that X&Y was, but it's not too far off. Very good sound from one of the best musical acts in a long time.