Coldplay Parachutes CD

Coldplay: Guy Berryman, Jon Buckland, Will Champion, Chris Martin.
Producers: Coldplay, Ken Nelson, Chris Allison.
Recorded between November 1999 and May 2000.
PARACHUTES won the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.
Personnel: Chris Martin (vocals); Jon Buckland (guitar); Will Champion (drums); Mark Pythian (computer).
Audio Mixers: Chris Allison; Michael Brauer.
Recording information: Matrix (11/1999-05/2000); Matriz (11/1999-05/2000); Orinico (11/1999-05/2000); Orinoco (11/1999-05/2000); Parr Street (11/1999-05/2000); Part Street (11/1999-05/2000); Prinoco (11/1999-05/2000); Rockfield Studios, Monmouth, Wales (11/1999-05/2000); Studios, Rockfield (11/1999-05/2000); Wessex (11/1999-05/2000); Wessez (11/1999-05/2000).
Photographers: Sarah Lee; Tom Sheehan.
The London foursome Coldplay were early critics' darlings in their native U.K., showcasing melodic pop on a slew of EP releases and constant live shows just after the spark of the new millennium. Not as heavy as Radiohead or snobbish as Oasis, Coldplay were revealed on Parachutes as a band of young musicians still honing their sweet harmonies. Combining bits of distorted guitar riffs and swishing percussion, Parachutes was a delightful introduction and also quickly indicated the reason why this album earned Coldplay a Mercury Music Prize nomination in fall 2000. Frontman Chris Martin's lyrical wordplay is feminist in the manner of Geneva's Andrew Montgomery, but far more withered. The imagery captured on Parachutes is exquisitely dark and artistically abrasive, and the entire composition is tractable thanks to gauzy acoustics and airy percussion. Coldplay's indie rock inclinations are also obvious, especially on songs such as "Don't Panic" and "Shiver," but it's the dream pop soundscapes captured on "High Speed" and "We Never Change" that illustrate the band's dynamic passion. This basic pop was surely a refreshing effort in the face of big productions like the Spice Girls and Westlife. Parachutes deserved the accolades it received because it followed the general rule when introducing decent pop songs: keep the emotion genuine and real. And Coldplay did that without hesitation. ~ MacKenzie Wilson
In 2000, a small wave of British pop bands clearly heavily influenced by Radiohead's brand of anthemic mope rock arose, with Travis, Muse, and Coldplay at the forefront. Coldplay are the most clearly Radiohead-like, compared to the poppier Travis and the more electronic-oriented Muse, and their US debut, the 10-song PARACHUTES, should appeal to any fans of OK COMPUTER or THE BENDS who found KID A too weird for their tastes. (Coldplay even swipe a song title, "Don't Panic," from Douglas Adams, as Radiohead did with "Paranoid Android.)
The soaring yet depressing single "Shiver" is a masterpiece of swelling emotion, and the fact that the other nine tracks, even the instrumental fragment of a title track, sound like variations on its theme is more a matter of conceptual and musical unity than a lack of ideas. This album deserves the hype it got on release.Rolling Stone (10/26/00, p.111) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...Straight-ahead, melodic Brit pop that strives for 'significance' with a capial 's'....[The album] rises above its influences to become a work of real transcendence..."
Spin (1/01, p.73) - Ranked #19 in Spin's "Top 20 Albums of the Year [2000]" - "...[They] hoist their blue guitars and tug on Radiohead's cape....evoking the forgotten shoegazers like Ride....Chris Martin makes early-'90s nostalgia seem like the next frontier."
Q (10/01, p.73) - Ranked #21 in Q's "Best 50 Albums of Q's Lifetime"
Q (1/01, p.91) - Included in Q's "50 Best Albums of 2000" - "...[The] soundtrack to cheap vino-and-fag sessions..."
Alternative Press (12/00, p.94) - 4 out of 5 - "...Shimmering guitars haunt tormented tunes, dark gravel growls vie with Thom Yorke-y high notes....songs dawdle out of either a gentle whisper of sound or an awesome blurge of noise..."
NME (Magazine) (12/30/00, p.77) - Ranked #6 in NME's "Top 50 Albums Of The Year" - "...Effortlessly moving and hugely popular at the same time..."