Parachutes Kansas

Parachutes

Coldplay

Capitol Records, 2000

REVIEW BY: Melanie Love

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 12/23/2005

It's rare for an up-and-coming band to get it right on their first try. Amazingly enough, Coldplay did. And then they proceeded to beat it straight into the ground by using the same formula for each of their albums that followed.

But what sounds tired and rehashed on later offerings from the British quartet manages to get away on the shiny, newness factor that surrounded their 2000 debut, Parachutes.

The album starts off strong with the plaintive, uplifting "Don't Panic," in which the band sets the tone for the rest of the album with lyrics like "We live in a beautiful world" juxtaposed with the previous lines of doubt and depression. Coldplay continue to toe that same line throughout the remaining 40 or so minutes of the album, but somehow succeed in never sounding too trite in the cliched sentiments of their lyrics.

The band follows along the same sentiments of indecision with their lovelorn first single, "Shiver," in which they interject their own brand of optimism into the hopelessness of unrequited love. Though they falter a bit on the simplistic, meandering "Sparks," they make up for it with the strength of the tracks that bookend it, the mysterious, brooding "Spies" and, of course, "Yellow," which shot onto the charts when it was released in June of 2000.