Chris Martin 'sex and death'

Chris Martin says Coldplay's new album is full of "sex and death".

The 31-year-old frontman admits the band's fourth LP 'Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends' deals with dark themes, but also has a lighter side.

He said: "If you listen to the record there are loads of things in there. There's sex and death, and love and fear and travel and girls and illness. It's all in there."

Chris revealed the band were eager to take a different approach after their third album 'X and Y'.

He added to NME magazine: "We thought, 'We can't possibly get any bigger, let's just get better.' We're actually a bit scared because we've taken the safety off this time around. It's not like we've got any songs on this record where we think, 'Oh, it's OK because we know the big songs are there'.

We had some of those, but we took them off. We decided it was time to push what the band can do forward."

'Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends' is due to hit shelves worldwide next month.