Yesterday we showed you Coldplay’s video for “Violet Hill.” Not content with just one clip for the Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends single, the Brits have turned in an alternative take directed by Mat Whitecross that one-ups the original’s dusty Italian backdrop, magnifying lenses, and violet hills and skies with a dancing George W. Bush and some unexpected pogoing from Karl Rove. Even though the political commentary’s as obvious and light as the song, it’s entertaining.
We found ourselves laughing more than a couple times, mostly because of George’s moves, but also when Tony Blair shows us how to properly wield that axe. Does Castro’s face plant count as dancing? Maybe.
Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends is out 6/17 via Parlophone in the UK and Capitol in the US.
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this generation ain’t about shit.
“let me guess this about war, bush, aids, or any other bullshit that can be easy remedied, lame” random coke-out hipster.
god when is jesus coming on that rocketship.
what in the world are you blathering on about?
geez, abstract yourself from it, than I would suggest you exam it. Then wonder why it is SO cliche to talk about it. But blah blah blah, whine whine whine, rape rape rape.
geez, abstract yourself from it, than I would suggest you exam it. Then wonder why it is SO cliche to talk about it. But blah blah blah, whine whine whine, rape rape rape.
Thats Karl Rove pogoing not Dick. Don’t get me excited like that.
Ah, you’re right. Those old politicos all look the same? Or maybe just wishful thinking on our part. Fixed.
political figures dancing + coldplay= gold!
This is the stupidest shit I’ve ever seen. Even more pathetic than Green Day’s “American Idiot”. How do bands become relevant again? Easy! Become political. Everyone loves a band that says “fuck Bush”. Right? Right. ….Right!?!?!
We all know the American Government is fucked up, and this video is hamhanded and cliche.
Hamhanded is a great vocabulary word, and for the first sixty seconds I would have agreed.. The longer I watched it, however, it was clear that this is not just a clumsy Bush bash. Everybody gets a fair share of clown time throughout. You can’t blame Coldplay for accepting a video to their website that has such a good sense of rhythm and humor. Far too many music videos seem to disregard the actual song content… especially considering how arbitrary their official video is:what’s up with hammer time anyway?
2:55 when the girl’s boob nearly pops out.
evan hit the nail on the head. either that or the environment. but seriously, radiohead already took that one.
does anyone know where i can get some obama underwear?
meh. i don’t care what you guys say, for a retarded concept, that was a surprisingly well executed little video. and it actually did a service to the song. at least compared to their last video. who thought it was a good idea to give chris martin a magnifying glass, anyway?
I wouldn’t make fun of tony blair’s guitar wielding here if i were coldplay, he can probably play a better solo than the one here.
at first this sounded like a bad idea, but thanks to some really good editing and good clips this turned out much better than I thought it would be. I like the video, almost think they could have released this, with maybe a few more shots from the other video mixed in, and made a hybrid final product. because this is nothing if not entertaining.
Haha, this is actually really cool.
Makes me like the song about 200% more.
Man I love this. Nothing better than seeing politicans make asses of themselves more often than usual.
cool.
I am glad coldplay did this themselves. it was gonna get released on youtube for someone’s 8th grade civics project anyways.
I feel bad. On one hand coldplay has been the one big commercial band I’ve always appreciated and defended but on the other hand I think this vid is just another take on a tired string of videos, documentaries etc. of ripping on the bush administration. give me more backwards videos CP
Let me amend my post by saying it is tired in its use of bush dancing or trying to relate to whatever group he is speaking to. All presidents have moments where they looked like an idiot.
For the love of God. We get it. Can bands please stop trying to be revolutionaries? They all seem to suck at it.
Tell us to stop pushing this shit in our faces…we are not dumb we know what’s going on. Make us a music video telling us how to fix it…a video that advocates anything more than simply “vote obama! we’ll be fine!”
The problem is that all of this social/political commentary stuff has been done before, so now it seems like a copycat procedure. Whether or not bands intend to do these sorts of things for financial gain or for genuine political commentary is irrelevant, because at the end of the day Gwyneth and Martin walk back to their million dollar life. I can’t listen to the beneficiary’s of capitalist injustice whine about this stuff anymore. As far as I’m concerned they are the problem as much as anyone.
Actually, I think the more fundamental problem is that Coldplay’s music is rubbish. It’s douche music. Music for douches. That’s the problem here.
However, your argument is also rubbish. By your logic, only the suffering disenfranchised should be permitted to address issues relating to their own plight. Only one problem with that: these people don’t have many chances to record pop records — too busy with all the suffering and being trodden open. Privileged people are obliged to speak up for those who can’t speak up for themselves. And if you really think the douchebag vocalist from Coldplay is “the problem as much as anyone”, then you’re either not paying attention or blindly rocking the good old fallacy of equivocation.
It is a stretch to characterize this video as a serious political statement, let alone an attempt at being “revolutionary” because….(gasp) it’s funny!
Is it really that difficult to enjoy the humor here, in a somewhat detached sense? Sure, shit is fucked up, and in this age of mass media we are bludgeoned with commentary and punditry but if you can’t at least giggle at how the clips are synced up to the music, you’re taking yourself too seriously.
@joey headset: chris martin’s lyrics are shite (they keep me up all night, up all night) but dismissing coldplay as music for douches is lame. being too cool to like coldplay is so 2005, and if you can’t recognize the artistry of crafting pretty, arena-sized pop gems, then you’re either not paying attention of deafly rocking some difficult weird-for-the-sake-of-being-weird hipster music.
“…not paying attention OR deafly rocking some….” (not “of”)
This reminds me of the Radiohead video for “The National Anthem”.
Coldplay’s is well done though, they’re not trying to be political, they simply OK’d a video made using clips of politicians. The OFFICIAL video has nothing to do with politics