Coldplay

Chris Martin and company return to the road in support of their latest album, Viva La Vida, their follow-up to the number one, 10-times platinum album X&Y. Critics are already commenting on the album’s “harder edge,” and even Coldplay front man Chris Martin remarked to Entertainment Weekly that “We’re slightly terrified about this record, because we’ve thrown away all our tricks. The truth is, we tried to find new ones.” And it sounds as though they succeeded — the band and famed producer Brian Eno incorporated a variety of Spanish influences on the record, experimented with acoustic instruments in churches, and knocked Martin’s usually-falsetto voice down to a lower register. In addition to the hit singles from the new album (the number-one title track and the war protest song “Violet Hill”), concertgoers can still expect to hear Coldplay’s earlier, more mellow tunes, along with faves like “Speed of Sound” and “Moses.”