PARACHUTES   -   Coldplay

YEAR:  2000
LABEL:  Capitol/Parlophone
TRACK LISTING:  Don't Panic,  Shiver,  Spies,  Sparks,  Yellow,  Trouble,  Parachutes,  High Speed,  We Never Change,  Everything's Not Lost
BONUS TRACKS:  Life Is For Living  (hidden track)
IMPRESSIONS:  I don't like Coldplay anymore.  But this album is exquisitely rendered and quite rightly considered one of the best debut albums ever.  This is definitely the only Coldplay album to own as they promptly dropped the ball with their second album.  As evidenced by PARACHUTES, Chris Martin's songwriting ability went to hell after he lost his virginity!  This deceptively quiet album of intense yearning is a wonderfully powerful song cycle.  At least the first six songs are.  Less so the remainder of the album.  But oh, those first six songs!  Proving the old maxim that artists don't know squat about their own work, Chris Martin has said that Coldplay don't like this album:  "We know that's terrible music and we always try to think about what we can do next."  What they DID do next was crap.  This album shared the Penguin Award for Album of the Year with Rufus Wainwright's equally impressive sophomore effort POSES.  The apex of early 21st century music.  Shame it didn't last.
MY FAVOURITE TRACKS:  Don't Panic,  Shiver,  Spies,  Sparks,  Yellow,  Trouble
FACT SHEET:  PARACHUTES is Coldplay's first album.  It is number 12 on the list of biggest selling albums of the 21st century.  It won the Grammy for "Best Alternative Music Album" and the Brit Award for "Best British Album" and was nominated for the Mercury Prize.