Parachutes is the debut studio album by the British rock band Coldplay. It was released on 10 July 2000 by Parlophone in the United Kingdom. The album was produced by the band and British record producer Ken Nelson, except for one track, "High Speed", which was produced by Chris Allison. Parachutes spawned the singles "Shiver", "Yellow", "Trouble" and "Don't Panic", with the latter being a limited release in Europe. "Sparks" gained notability during the 2020s after going viral on video platform TikTok as well. The album was also supported by the Parachutes Tour, which saw the band performing 131 shows Read more on Last.fm.
Today, after some eleven years on the Billboard charts, Coldplay is both marginalized and polarized by a divided media. There’s food for thought on both sides of the argument. The fact that they did little to change their own sound until the experimental Viva La Vida lost them points with initial fans. On the same token, many saw that album as an arty stretch that didn’t play to the groups strengths.
My position in all of this, as a music lover and critic by hobby, has been the same since I first listened to them. Parachutes was a terrific, epic British rock album. Being their first, it had the signature sound that carried over years later into A Sudden Rush, X0, and, in places, Viva. The difference is that Parachutes had a workman like quality to it, really good songs played and recorded really well. That was its strength. It wasn’t groundbreaking in a Radiohead kind of way. It was simply a tightly arranged set of emotionally driven tunes that produced rave reviews and broad smiles. To this day, I think its their crowning statement….before the soccer moms and the arenas and blah, blah blah.