Parachutes is the debut studio album by the Britishrock bandColdplay. It was released on 10 July 2000 byParlophone in the United Kingdom and on 7 November 2000 byNettwerk in the United States.[2]Ken Nelson and the band co-produced all songs except "High Speed", which was produced byChris Allison alone.Parachutes spawned four singles: "Shiver", "Yellow", "Trouble" and "Don't Panic", the latter being limited to Europe. "Sparks" gained notability in the 2020s after going viral on video platformTikTok.[3] In support of the album, Coldplay embarked on theParachutes Tour (2000–2001).
The band began production onParachutes in late 1999, after producing and releasingThe Blue Room EP with British record producerChris 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 ofParachutes. 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'.[5] Seven tracks in all were recorded during the sessions at Orinoco studios in London, with three of them ending up onThe Blue Room EP.
The band then took a lengthy break to compose more tracks forParachutes. 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 thatChris Martin had not written "Yellow" by that time".[5]
A couple of months later, British record producerKen Nelson was chosen, producing all but one song onParachutes. He was introduced to Coldplay by his manager Pete Byrne (who gave him a copy of the band'sFierce Panda-distributeddebut 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 Englishindie rock bandGomez (whose debut album,Bring It On, was what he had produced at the time).[6]
Coldplay initially planned to recordParachutes in the space of two weeks. However, tours and other live performances caused the recording to spread out between November 1999 and May 2000.[7] The band began work on the album atRockfield Studios in Wales, continuing with sessions atLiverpool'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 wasmixed by American engineerMichael 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 onParachutes[6] except the song "High Speed" which was mixed byChris 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 thecacophony included in its early versions).[6]
The album's cover features a photograph of a yellowglobe taken with a disposableKodak camera. The globe had been purchased fromW 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.[8] The album was dedicated to drummerWill Champion's mother,Sara Champion, who died of cancer in May 2000, two months before the release ofParachutes.[9]
Champion has explained that Nelson's production style was liberating and allowed the band to feel at ease during the recording ofParachutes (many songs from the album often featured slow tempos). The ensuing album was "a record's worth of moody and atmospheric tunes". As a nod to the moods created by the album, Champion has compared the song lyrics to the 1972 song "Perfect Day" by American rock singer-songwriterLou Reed, stating that the "lyrics are beautiful and they're really, really happy, but the music is really, really sad. It's that kind of thing, where you can create [differing] moods through the music and lyrics".[10]
Parachutes was recognised to have analternative rock,[11]indie rock,[12] andpost-Britpop,[13] with some stylistic comparisons being made to contemporaries such asRadiohead andTravis. In fact, a few critics have suggested that the album's commercial success was due in part to a portion of Radiohead's audience being alienated by the band's experimental and more electronic-influencedKid A album.[11]
Parachutes was first released on 10 July 2000 byParlophone in the United Kingdom, which was part ofEMI.[14] For international marketing, the company followed a process where artists were picked by eitherVirgin,Manhattan orCapitol in the United States, not having their albums issued otherwise.[15] All three labels rejected Coldplay, driving them to sign withNettwerk.[16] The record was made available on 7 November 2000 and radio stations were served to "Yellow" in January 2001.[16] Capitol took over distribution six months later.[15]
The album was blocked from release in China due to "inflammatory political content".[17] Government officials singled out "Spies" as the prime offender.[17] In 2020, Coldplay released a 20th anniversary edition ofParachutes in transparent yellow vinyl.[18] Its main version has 10 tracks, with "Everything's Not Lost" being accompanied by a hidden segment called "Life Is for Living".
Japanese pressings include the songs "Careful Where You Stand" and "For You", which were originally released as the B-sides of "Shiver". The hidden portion is located at the pre-gap of track 11.[citation needed] Four singles were released in total: "Shiver", "Yellow", "Trouble" and "Don't Panic". Upon the release of "Trouble", Coldplay abandoned their initial plan of releasing "Don't Panic", since they deemed three singles were enough for an album. However, a number of CDs were made available in select European countries.[19]
Parachutes was released to generally favorable reviews from music critics.[31] AtMetacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 72, based on 20 reviews.[20] In a contemporary review of the album, Michael Hubbard ofmusicOMH called it "an album of remarkable depth, especially when one considers the youthful ages of the band members".[32] Siobhan Grogan ofNME stated that "all told, it's incredible this is a debut album" and concluded that "accomplished, yet subtle, it works perfectly as a whole in a way all the production skills in the world couldn't replicate".[25]Melody Maker hailedParachutes as a "masterpiece" and "a defining musical statement of 2000", while James Oldham ofUncut felt that the album "more than justifies the plaudits heaped upon [the band] by the weekly music press".[30]The Guardian described the album as "one of the year's most uplifting albums", adding that it features "elegant songs, classic guitars and gorgeous singing".[33]
While noting thatParachutes "brings nothing new to the table" and that its "musical reference points are immediately recognizable and difficult to overlook",Billboard stated that the band "seems talented enough to transcend this early identity crisis".[34] Matt Diehl ofRolling Stone opined that the album "ultimately rises above its influences to become a work of real transcendence".[28] In a retrospective write-up, MacKenzie Wilson ofAllMusic commented thatParachutes introduced the band as "young musicians still honing their sweet harmonies", adding that the album "deserved the accolades it received because it followed the general rule when introducing decent pop songs: keep the emotion genuine and real".[21]
In a less-enthusiastic review,Pitchfork called the album "harmless and pretty... [but] nothing else".[26] Barry Walters, writing inThe Village Voice, similarly writes that "there's little onParachutes that demands attention or punctures the pensive spell, and, unlikeTravis's, Coldplay's hooks are slight".[35] In his Consumer Guide column forThe Village Voice,Robert Christgau selected "Yellow" and "Don't Panic" as "choice cuts",[36] indicating good songs on "an album that isn't worth your time or money".[37] Setareh Yousefi ofStylus Magazine felt that "the finer moments ofParachutes are blended with some boring sappy songs", with Martin's "powerful voice" ultimately being "in many ways wasted on songs that are alright but not bewildering".[38]
The popularity of the songs in British clubs, pubs and sporting events ledParachutes to debut at number-one in theUK Albums Chart with 70,935 copies sold.[66] 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.[66] The record is certified 9× Platinum by theBritish Phonographic Industry for selling over 2,700,000 copies.[67] In July 2011, it climbed from number 184 to number 48 for a 318th charting week.[68] As of January 2018, the album remains Coldplay's third biggest in the country, behindA Rush of Blood to the Head (2.9 million) andX&Y (2.7 million).[69] In 2022 Parachutes was named as the 10th most successful debut album in UK chart history.[70]
In the United States,Parachutes debuted at number 189 on theBillboard 200 five weeks after its release.[71] It later peaked at number 51 and reached number one on theBillboard Heatseekers. Over two million copies have been shipped to the United States, leading to being certified 2× Platinum by theRecording Industry Association of America.[72] It was also certified 4× Platinum in Australia by theAustralian Recording Industry Association,[73] and 2× Platinum in Canada by theCanadian Recording Industry Association.[74] As of July 2020,Parachutes has sold 31,922 copies on cassette in UK, making it the 33rd best-selling cassette since 2000.[75]
Coldplay still perform songs fromParachutes during their concerts, most notably "Yellow".
With over 2.7 million units sold in the United Kingdom,Parachutes is the 22nd best-selling album of the 21st century and 45th of all time in the country.[76] British trade paperMusic Week praised it as one of the most impressive debut records ever, spawning hit singles "Shiver", "Trouble" and "Yellow". The latter was included onRock and Roll Hall of Fame'sSongs That Shaped Rock and Roll exhibit for being among the most successful and important recordings in music.[77][78] In 2010,Parachutes was included on the1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die book.[79] In 2013,NME ranked it at number 272 on their "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.[80]
Jon O' Brien fromthe Recording Academy labeled it as Coldplay's most influential album to date, impacting on the work of artists such asThe Fray,Snow Patrol andOneRepublic.[81] In a 25th anniversary review forConsequence, Paolo Ragusa wrote that the album "became quietly influential" in the evolution of alternative rock in the 2000s, providing a "a much softer version of masculinity than what was popular and encouraged at the time".[82] He discussed the newfound popularity of "Sparks" as well, declaring that it "reveals a demand for the kind of unguarded intimacy thatParachutes offered; not to mention that in the 2020s, that dreamy-but-confessional style of alternative rock has found a resurgence via acts likePhoebe Bridgers,Sam Fender andHozier".[82]
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
^"All Time Greatest Albums".WXPN 88.5 FM (Enter search parameter "Coldplay"). 8 December 2021.Archived from the original on 8 December 2021. Retrieved21 April 2024.
^ab"Kvöddu Klakann Sáttir" [Bid Farewell to the Ice Peacefully].Morgunblaðið (in Icelandic). 24 August 2001. Archived fromthe original on 27 November 2024. Retrieved18 May 2025.
^"Coldplay Kler Norsk Kulde" [Coldplay Suit the Norwegian Cold].Adresseavisen (in Norwegian). 15 July 2002.Archived from the original on 8 June 2025. Retrieved12 June 2025.
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