Coldplay

If Vida was a prog-ish reworking of the band’s more bathetic weaknesses and a valiant attempt at reinvention from a band that has the eagerness, if maybe not all the chops, to rise above themselves, Prospekt is the belch after the meal. It tastes mostly of its predecessor and sounds like a clatter of afterthoughts. Of the eight songs here three are embellished versions of their Vida avatars, i.e. ‘Life In Technicolor ii’ (its murky mystery lost by the appearance of the previously omitted vocal track), ‘Lost+’ (featuring a verse by Jay-S, one of the handful of highlights here) and ‘Lovers In Japan (Osaka Sun Remix)’ (remix? really?). The rest is mostly a band working hard to pass off their singer’s undying penchant for vaguely spiritual schmalts as something loftier and more rocked-out (and then too, not without some bold production help from Brian Eno). The brilliant 7-beat breaks (‘Glass Of Water’), chugging guitars (‘Lovers”¦’) and tastefully assembled assorted accompaniments (the unusually heartfelt ‘Now My Feet Won’t Touch The Ground’) come too rare as Martin squanders his knack for the rousing arena lilt on wordy platitudes about half-full and half-empty glasses and ‘time is like a”¦’ clichés. In the end Prospekt is probably best-represented by the 48-second neo-classical piano solo that is ‘Postcards From Far Away’: Nothing new, just a few fussy trills and it’s over.