Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 06/03/2011 at 9:36 AM Reviews

The Popdust Files: coldplay, every teardrop is a waterfall

After a week or two of teasing, Coldplay finally posted new single “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall” to their website this morning, also making the song available for sale on iTunes. The British arena rockers have been gone for a minute, regrouping after 2008′s Viva La Vida and the accompanying world tour, basically disappearing from the public view for the entirety of the last two years. The good news upon their return? Well, they still sound like Coldplay, and “Every Teardrop” is sure to be a radio and concert favorite for the band for a long time to come.

It’s pretty simple, actually—if you like Coldplay, you’ll like this song. (And if not, what are you doing jumping to listen to a Coldplay song the day it gets released, anyway?) It’s got that big, stadium filling drum-and-guitar sound, a fantastically evocative synth intro (which reminds of Alice Deejay’s “Better Off Alone” to our ears, but then again, so does everything) and a crowd-pleasing, hands-in-the-air lyric about the almighty power of music (“I turn the music up / I got my records on / I shut the world outside / Until the music’s gone”). It gets bigger and more anthemic as it goes for its four-minute running time, and then suddenly it’s over. It’s thrills are far from unpredictable, but after the band’s two-year absence, you might be surprised as to how welcome they are nonetheless.

Truth told, the compact swell of “Every Teardrop” doesn’t even sound so much like a comeback single as it does a concert opener, something to announce the band’s presence before delving into the real hits. But if so, we can’t wait for the rest of the gig—over a decade after their mainstream breakthrough, and with endless imitators in their wake, it’s as true now as ever that nobody does Coldplay as well as Coldplay themselves.

POPDUST SAYS:
[starreview tpl=16]