Coldplay released their fourth album 'Viva La Vida '(or death and all his friends) on 11th June 2008. The album was a huge success, both critically and commercially, winning best rock album Grammy in 2009 as well as a nomination for album of the year and being the best selling album album of 2008. However, the success did not stop there as by 2011 the album had sold more than 10 million copies.
Viva La Vida is the Spanish for "Live The Life" or "Long Live Life." This refers to many themes of love, death and life that run throughout the album. This also links to the front cover of the digipak, which is very conventional featuring the title of the digipak and an image which gives identity with the album, featuring the artwork from Eugene Delecroix's 1830 "Liberty Leading The People." The historic painting depicts the french revolution of July and a Lady leading the revolution holding a gun in her left hand and the French flag aloft in her right. She is the personification of freedom and liberty, leading the people over the fallen bodies. These themes of liberty and freedom are also explored in the songs of the album. The front cover does not contain the name or image of any of the group. This is conventional for a 'Super Band' such as Coldplay with a huge fan base to not need to create an image for new fans because that image is already heavily engraved with their brand.
The back of the album is also very conventional for a digipak with a simple song list, branding and necessary other things such as bar-code. The font and colours used for the text are formal and contain themes of royalty and wealth due to the gold colouring. This links to the front because in more modern times an archaic painting would be something owned by a higher class person and accompanied by gold in framing or decoration. The black background helps to continue the formal theme which is used because Coldplay have a very wide audience for their music and therefore need to tailor their digipak, and by avoiding bright colours and keeping to a more neutral theme they can appeal to all ages and genders.
The inside cover features four action shots of the band members in black and white. This is used to represent the band in an artistic style that represents their melodic style within the genre. The right inside cover features a very similar style to the back with the plain flat black background and the gold text featuring the artist name and album name.
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