Coldplay - Parachutes (2000)

Sometimes I could give Coldplay a good kick up the backside. I mean they draw us in with 2 terrific opening tracks and as I rapidly begin to salivate the bottom falls out of the damn thing. A lot of the time you can see the idea appearing fleetingly through the fog of prog rock and it hurts to see such a good idea being swamped by over indulgent balladry. That is not to say that when the tempo slows that all is lost, erm 'Everything's Not Lost' is a tingling joy that builds over its 7 minutes plus journey. The root problem manifests itself in tracks such as 'Sparks' which has an anvil around its neck and no matter what it does it can't break free. Add in the not so heady mix of 'High Speed' and 'We Never Change' and what could have been a classic album is reduced to a promising debut. The title track is too short to render it important enough for discussion resembling a substitute entering the fray at 3 minutes into injury time.

So that gets most of the negatives out the way. Overall the positives do outweigh these niggles by a fair margin. 'Don't Panic' is as groovy as it gets and Chris Martin's voice, which is omnipresent throughout the whole album, sounds particularly sweet and vulnerable. Things continue in the ascendancy with the next track 'Shiver' with a glorious snowballing guitar riff. 'Spies' donates another twinkling guitar moment but exclude this and you wouldn't be left with much. 'Yellow' is by now a bona fida classic and needs no introduction. It is far and away Coldplay's defining moment so far. 'Trouble' is pleasing, albeit in a fleeting sort of way and is a mishmash of why the tunes on Parachutes are sometimes rewarding, sometimes slovenly.

In short when Coldplay rise above the slow numbers they are capable of creating a very interesting sound. So why does Parachutes have at least 5 songs t hat are arthritic as a lame dog. Talent is present, star quality fills the air, all they need is someone’s extended foot to the posterior and the future is theirs.

Rating: 7/10

25 FREE Downloads. eMusic for your iPod® or any MP3 player