Parachutes (Coldplay album)
Parachutes is the debut studio album by British rock band Coldplay. It was released on 10 July 2000 by Parlophone in the United Kingdom.[1] 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". The album was also supported by the Parachutes Tour, which saw the band performing 131 shows in their first world tour.
Parachutes
10 July 2000
1999–2000
- Matrix (London, England)
- Wessex (London, England)
- Parr Street (Liverpool, England)
- Rockfield (Rockfield, Wales)
- Orinoco (London, England)
41:29
- Chris Allison
- Coldplay
- Ken Nelson
The album was a commercial success and was met with positive reviews from critics. Upon release, it quickly reached number one in the United Kingdom and has since been certified 9× Platinum. In the United States, the album peaked at number 51 on the Billboard 200 and eventually was certified double platinum. It won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 2002, the British Album of the Year award at the 2001 Brit Awards, and many other accolades. Parachutes is also the 22nd-best-selling album of the 21st century in the United Kingdom. As of 2020, it has sold over 13 million copies worldwide.[2]
Recording and production[edit]
The band began production on Parachutes in late 1999, after producing & releasing The Blue Room EP with British record producer Chris Allison. Allison was asked to assist with production, and the band's musical direction, which was desired by both the band & the A&R department. Production started with the track 'High Speed', which was part of the EP and was later re-released as a part of Parachutes. Allison describes 'High Speed' as thus: 'You'll notice it is quite a bit different to the other tracks, because there are other sounds going on in it: we wanted to mix a soundscape in with the classic rock sound on that particular track. I thought 'High Speed' was a really good marriage between the classic rock sound and the new sound that was developing out of it, something that was more atmospheric'.[3] Seven tracks in all were recorded during the sessions at Orinoco studios in London, with three of them ending up on The Blue Room EP.
The band then took a lengthy break to compose more tracks for Parachutes. A few months later, it was arranged that Allison and the band meet at a rehearsal room to finally begin production on the band's debut album. "They started up playing in the rehearsal room and they really weren't together at all. And I was very honest with them, I just sort of said 'Look, this simply isn't good enough'". Allison adds, "The interesting, the most significant thing that did occur out of the fact that we didn't end up starting the album on that day of the rehearsal was that Chris Martin had not written "Yellow" by that time".[3]
A couple of months later, British record producer Ken Nelson was chosen, producing all but one song on Parachutes. He was introduced to Coldplay by his manager Pete Byrne (who gave him a copy of the band's Fierce Panda-distributed debut single in 1999). Nelson has claimed that, as soon as he heard vocalist Chris Martin's voice on the song "Bigger Stronger", he "realised that he was something special". Nelson was offered the job while Coldplay were performing in Liverpool with English indie rock band Gomez (whose debut album, Bring It On, was what he had produced at the time).[4]
Coldplay initially planned to record Parachutes in the space of two weeks. However, tours and other live performances caused the recording to spread out between September 1999 and May 2000.[5] The band began work on the album at Rockfield Studios in Wales, continuing with sessions at Liverpool's Parr Street Studios. The band worked in three studio rooms at Parr Street, mostly in the project studio which producer Ken Nelson describes as "basically a demo room". The Chris Allison-produced track "High Speed" was also included on the album, and originates from earlier sessions at Orinoco Studios in London. The album was mixed by American engineer Michael Brauer in New York. Coldplay's record label, Parlophone, had originally intended to use a mixing engineer for the tracks they picked as singles, but eventually hired Brauer to work on all songs on Parachutes[4] except the song "High Speed" which was mixed by Chris Allison.
At the Liverpool concert where he was offered the production job, Nelson had noted that Coldplay's performance was "very very uptight [...] they rushed through the set and it was quite difficult to listen to". Once in the studio Nelson and the band went through each song, learning how to play the piece live and deciding what tempo to play it at in an attempt to get the group to "calm down" ("Trouble", for example, had to be reworked to eliminate the cacophony included in its early versions).[4]
The album's cover features a photograph of a yellow globe taken with a disposable Kodak camera. The globe had been purchased from W H Smith for £10; it was featured in the music videos for "Shiver" and "Don't Panic", and also accompanied the band on their tours.[6] The album was dedicated to drummer Will Champion's mother, Sara Champion, who died of cancer in May 2000, two months before the release of Parachutes.[7]
Release and promotion[edit]
Parachutes was released on 10 July 2000 in the United Kingdom by Parlophone. In the United States, it was released on 7 November 2000 by Nettwerk.[12] The album has been made available in various formats since its release: both Parlophone and Nettwerk released it as a CD in 2000, while in the next year Parachutes enjoyed a cassette release made by newfound label Capitol Records. In China, the album's commercial release was forbidden due to "inflammatory political content", with the track "Spies" being singled out as the prime offender.[13] In 2002, Parlophone issued the album as an LP.[14] In November 2020, Coldplay released a 20th anniversary version in transparent yellow vinyl.[15]
The main version of the record contains 10 tracks, with "Everything's Not Lost", the last of them, having a hidden song called "Life Is for Living", clocking in for a total of 7:15. The Japanese version contains all main tracks, plus "Careful Where You Stand" and "For You", which were originally released as the B-sides of "Shiver", the hidden song is on the pre-gap of track 11.
Four singles were released in total: "Shiver", "Yellow", "Trouble", and "Don't Panic". The first served as lead single in the United Kingdom while "Yellow" was used in the United States. Upon the release of "Trouble", Coldplay abandoned their initial plan of releasing "Don't Panic" as the album's fourth effort, since they deemed three singles were enough for an album. Despite this, however, it was released as a single in some European regions.[16]
Commercial performance[edit]
The popularity of the songs in British clubs, pubs and sporting events led Parachutes to debut at number-one in the UK Albums Chart with 70,935 copies sold.[60] Its biggest sales period, however, was during the penultimate week of 2000, when the album sold 170,642 copies and surpassed one million total sales.[60] The record is certified 9× Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry for selling over 2,700,000 copies.[61] In July 2011, it climbed from number 184 to number 48 for a 318th charting week.[62] As of January 2018, the album remains Coldplay's third biggest in the country, behind A Rush of Blood to the Head (2.9 million) and X&Y (2.7 million).[63] In 2022 Parachutes was named as the 10th most successful debut album in UK chart history.[64]
In the United States, Parachutes debuted at number 189 on the Billboard 200 five weeks after its release.[65] It later peaked at number 51 and reached number one on the Billboard Heatseekers. Over two million copies have been shipped to the United States, leading to being certified 2× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.[66] It was also certified 3× Platinum in Australia by the Australian Recording Industry Association,[67] and 2× Platinum in Canada by the Canadian Recording Industry Association.[68] As of July 2020, Parachutes has sold 31,922 copies on cassette in UK, making it the 33rd best-selling cassette since 2000.[69]
Cited works