Coldplay “Parachutes” (2000)
Though the name Coldplay has gone on to be used as a shorthand by some
music fans for ‘bland’ and ‘MOR’, I do quite enjoy their first album.
It’s a concise slice of melodic rock and balladry without too many airs
and graces.
Reading up on the band’s progression to their first album it does sound
as though they were fairly single-minded and ambitious, pressing demos
and playing showcases to get the attention of labels from pretty early
on. It also sounds like the labels responded in kind, grooming the band
and having someone advise them on their musical direction (which I find a tad distasteful... sort your own shit).
The musical direction they chose is frequently dismissed as being
‘Radiohead-lite’ but again I feel like this is an unfair assessment. A
higher-pitched voice over alt-rock built on acoustic guitar and an electric
guitar with some effects doesn’t necessarily = Radiohead. As a
side-note I would say the same for Muse who get tarred with the same
brush, yet to my mind their sound owes a much larger debt to Queen than
Radiohead.
With Coldplay, the write-up in the book suggests that Jeff Buckley could
well have been an influence, and I could certainly agree with that on a
song like “Shiver” (one of my personal favourites) which builds to ascending guitar parts and desperate yet somehow unrestrained vocals.
There’s a pleasing amount of variety with the piano ballad “Trouble”,
the gentle acoustic interlude of the title track, the pulsing-along pop
of “Don’t Panic” and of course the gentle acoustic
ballad-turned-wall-of-guitar-squall that is the is the single “Yellow”
(never really one of my favourites).
All in all, a fine if possibly cynically calculated pop album. The
follow-up “Rush of Blood to the Head” was likewise still reasonably worthy.
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