However, the album is still very very good. There are strains of Arcade Fire, Radiohead, Keane and U2; U2 (early 80s U2) being the most predominant influence. There’s less keyboard this time, some neat guitar riffs, awesome stadium choruses and even a bongo drum. Lyrically, it isn’t too different from the usual sappy ambiguous stuff but still far superior to X&Y (Fix You anyone?). A little more political, a little more pedestrian, still very affecting. My favorite tracks as of now are Lost!, Yes/Chinese Sleep Chant, Life in Technicolor and the overplayed Viva La Vida.

Thanks to Brian Eno, this is a shiny packaged-for-the-masses product but it’s still art nonetheless. This is an album that 20 years down the line will be as fondly remembered as The Joshua Tree is today. Or not.