Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends

Work began in November 2006 and was interrupted only by the last leg of the Twisted Logic Tour in early 2007. It was the first Coldplay album with no production input from Ken Nelson. The band built a studio at the Bakery after the tour, and also took acoustic guitars and basic equipment to churches and recorded in Mexico and Spain. Eno required every song to sound different. On Yes, at Eno's suggestion, Martin sang in the lowest register he had ever recorded. The violinist Davide Rossi played strings on six songs, including Viva la Vida. The cover is Eugène Delacroix's 1830 painting Liberty Leading the People, with the title painted across it. Two songs carry hidden tracks: Chinese Sleep Chant on Yes and The Escapist on Death and All His Friends.

It reached number one in 36 countries and in the UK sold 302,074 copies in three days. In the US it sold 721,207 in its first week. It was the best-selling album of 2008 and won the Grammy for Best Rock Album in 2009. Chris Willman of Entertainment Weekly gave it A-minus and called it the band's best, while Petridis in the Guardian was mixed. Billboard's Shawn Cooke, writing for its tenth anniversary, called it the last massive experimental rock album. The singles were Violet Hill and Viva la Vida in May 2008, Lovers in Japan and Lost! in November 2008, and Strawberry Swing in September 2009. A deluxe edition came in November 2008 with the Prospekt's March EP.