Sound Bites: Coldplay's 'Parachutes' 25 Years On
- Andrew Jamison
- Oct 7
- 6 min read
Updated: Oct 13
25 Years On
It’s now just over 25 years since Coldplay’s debut album Parachutes was released. It was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize that year, but lost out to Badly Drawn Boy’s Hour of Bewilderbest (a fantastic album and worthy winner, and I’d argue more sustained and diverse in its concept and musicianship - in fact I’ve written about the first track, The Shining here). However, as we can all see, this did nothing to hamper the success of Coldplay who, as I write this, have just completed a 10 show run at Wembley, selling 13 million tickets as part of their Music of the Spheres tour.
'Bedwetters’ Music'?
While Badly Drawn Boy cannot lay claim to the same stratospheric rise as Coldplay – not many can – and as a band who were once described by the former head of Creation Records, Alan McGee as, ‘bedwetters’ music. Jeff Bucklet-lite…’ the success of their music seems to have been in their ability to appeal on some level to a wider audience. While we can see the interventions of a range of producers throughout the career of Coldplay, in a career that seems to have tilted increasingly towards anthemic stadium rock, the album which interests me most, for a number of reasons, is their first, Parachutes, written when they were students in London. There is an authenticity and innocence to this album which seems to have been something they’ve struggled to regain throughout their career, despite it being a hugely successful, prolific and lucrative one. This can be said of many bands e.g. how many people just want Radiohead to make another OK Computer? But I think it’s particularly stark for Coldplay who seem to have been particularly led down a pop, stadium path in comparison to some other artists. But, who could blame them with stadium tours being the most effective way for musicians to survive these days. But, it’s what they’ve lost since Parachutes which interests me, or rather forgotten about what gave them such an authentic sound. In this article I’m going to go through the tracks and explore the qualities of them.
Me and Coldplay
On a personal level, I was just getting into the stride of listening to music and engaging with new music, particularly guitar led indie rock, when this album came out. And as someone who fancied themselves as an autodidact guitarist, the catchy easy-to-learn riffs appealed to me. I even went to see them play live in the early 2000s at what was then called the Odyssey Arena in Belfast. You could see then that they were adapting to the stadium thing with aplomb. It’s hard to believe this album is 25 years old already.
The Beginning of a Big Band
Everyone remembers the bedwetter remark from McGee in his piece for The Guardian, but many people have neglected to read his full article which sweeps through the shortlist for the Mercury Prize that year, and ends on his most insightful and prescient remark which resonates today and takes aim at wider issues in the world of music: “But record companies are only interested in taking the character out of bands. Individualism is on the wane, corporate globalisation is on the up, and that's what the Mercury nominees reflect.” While McGee might not have been a fan, Parachutes represents a moment before Coldplay were gobbled up by the music industry, when they were most themselves, and the music is all the better for it. By extension, the album represents the uncorrupted promise of a band, it’s a sound full of passion and hope, and the album is worth listening to because of that, whether you wet the bed or not.
Coldplay got on the climate change bandwagon early with this one. The best choice to open the album? Hmmm. If this was being produced today for a streaming audience you feel like the record company would have made them start with either Shiver or Yellow, undoubtedly. But there’s something refreshing about the album warming up, excuse the pun, with this one. The chorus comes with trademark Jonny Buckland echoey, delayed, reverberated plucking. There are lovely moments in this though such as the piano interlude after the first verse. It’s a well balanced, mellow opener.
This is a bit more like it. There’s a bit more of an edge to this track that comes with the distorted guitar and I feel like more, rockier tracks like this might have benefited the album, as it does tend towards the mellow, but the more energetic mood suits Martin’s frontman persona. Buckland is a steady lead guitarist who has come up with some simple yet memorable riffs in his time and this is definitely one of them. This one brings much needed energy and tempo to the album.
The band did have some prescient moments with the album and this song is one, which seems to be about anxiety about surveillance in the modern world, very much strikes a note today. Who are the spies and why are they coming out of the water? Well, that’s song lyrics for you, isn’t it? Whoever they were the song builds to an unexpected, rousing, dare I say angry crescendo. Guy Berryman comes into his own with the bassline here which adds to an underlying sense of malevolence which fits with the theme.
This is one of my favourites on the album. It’s mellow gold. There was a great scene of them playing this song in the middle of one of their stadium sets in Denver recently. Naval gazey? Hmm... maybe a tad, but it’s a gentle little gem of a song and shows the real stripped-back quality of the band and Martin’s song writing.
I remember first watching the video for this of Martin walking along a beach at my mate’s house. He’d just got Sky TV so we watched all the music channels and this one was almost playing constantly across the networks. The best song on the album? Probably. It’s got the riff, the nonsensical yet highly memorable pop lyrics, and solid beat driving it on. It’s Coldplay at their uplifting best - a strand of their music they would go on to mine over the next 25 years.
Right, get the maudlin-o-meter out because this one registers high. It’s not one of my favourite kinds of Coldplay songs but I realise it appeals to many. I think the band are at their best when going for a more uplifting, upbeat, rocky sound. But, it’s a testament to Martin’s ability to spin a riff at the piano - I’ll give them that. If you don’t really like Coldplay this song is definitely one to include in the case for your defence.
Like 'Life is for Living' this is a little ditty which the band have snuck on. There’s not much to say about it as it’s so short. What does it add? I wonder. Maybe a way of transitioning from Trouble to High Speed.
This is another example of Coldplay trying to tackle issues of the day namely the high speed of 21st century life. You get the feeling they’re trying to be a bit more experimental with this one. It seems like a different band to the one who wrote Yellow. It’s quite a slow track and Jonny Buckland has been allowed full access to his guitar pedals in this one, but unfortunately not even his pedals can save this rather ploddy number. Not their best.
The first four fifths of this track might break your maudlin-o-meter, but there’s a little twist where the register changes later in the song where they take the song somewhere more unexpected and uplifting, followed by an unaccompanied bit by Martin that rescues a song that otherwise would be just too downbeat.
This is one of the standout tracks on the album that doesn’t get the credit it deserves. We can hear in it the buds of a stadium rock band who know how to write an anthem. Again Martin’s bluesy influenced piano playing adds another dimension to the album. Buckland also comes to the rescue with one of his trademark jabby guitar riffs. The song really takes off with the ‘singing out, aw aw aw yeahs’ reminiscent of The Beatles’ Hey Jude. A great track to end on and a sign of what’s to come from the band.
A little sneaky bonus track that starts playing after a delayed pause, it’s a nice little ditty which brings in strings later on and builds to a nice chorus with the ‘aw yeah’s. A decent, memorable outro.
Andrew Jamison is a poet and teacher, and you can read more of his blog here, or subscribe here for full access. You can also browse his poetry books and buy signed, first editions here.
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