Coldplay

3 Pages 818 Words

History of Rock Music 287

Parachutes by Coldplay

Label: EMD/Capitol, (recorded 2000). Produced by Ken Nelson and Kris Allison. Selections: Don’t Panic, Shiver, Spies, Sparks, Yellow, Trouble, Parachutes, High Speed, We Never Change, Everything’s Not Lost.

Personnel: Chris Martin, vocals piano, Jon Buckland, guitar, Will Champion, drums, and Guy Berryman, bass.

Coldplay recently won a Grammy award for Parachutes for Best Alternative Album. The only thing wrong with that is that Parachutes deserved to be nominated for Best Album. All of the quartet attended the University College of London. All four had been playing instruments since their early teens and been influenced by likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Eric Clapton. With only their full-debut album and a few EPs they have already joined the ranks of England’s elite including Oasis, Verve, and Radiohead. They are drawing comparisons with Scotland’s Travis and the late Jeff Buckley, who I recently have also taken an interest to. This album also earned the band a Mercury Music Prize nomination and won three Brit Awards nominations. The album was released in the U.K. in November 2000, and was released a month later in the U.S. They have released two singles off this album and they have both had tremendous success, Yellow then followed by Trouble. Many may have first heard their first single Yellow on ABC, because in 2000 it was chosen as the theme song for their sports promotion spots. This band has enjoyed almost instant success after signing with their label in April 1999.
Parachutes is a perfect balance of sadness and elation, which they are able to switch back and forth in a heartbeat. The album begins with its shortest track (2:17) Don’t Panic, which starts with a sort of British folk-rock sound and evolves into a kind of spacey electric guitar piece with piano perfectly added in. Buckland’s Pink Floyd resembling guitar sound blends perfect...