Parachutes
Encyclopedia
Parachutes is the debut album by English alternative rock
band Coldplay
, released by the record label Parlophone
on 10 July 2000 in the United Kingdom. The album was produced by the band and British record producer Ken Nelson, excluding one track which was produced by Chris Allison. Parachutes has spawned the hit singles "Shiver", "Yellow
", "Trouble", and "Don't Panic
".
The album was generally a commercial success, and was met with positive reviews. Upon release, the album quickly reached number one in the United Kingdom, and has since been certified 7x platinum. In the United States, the album peaked at number 51 on the Billboard 200
, and has since been certified 2x platinum. It won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album
in 2002, and has earned the band various accolades since its release. Parachutes is number 12 on the list of the 20 biggest-selling albums of the 21st century in the United Kingdom, and was the winner of the Best British Album award at the 2001 Brit Awards
. As of 2011, it has sold around 8.5 million copies worldwide.
-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).
The band started working on the album in 1999 and produced an EP with British record producer Chris Allison
, but were not satisfied with the results. They wanted more control over proceedings and Nelson's philosophy of "assisting [bands] in realising their own ideas, rather than imposing his own views about how the project should sound" qualified him to replace Allison. Accordingly Nelson has stated that the album was a co-production between himself and Coldplay.
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 April–May 2000. The band began work on the album at Rockfield Studios
in Wales
, Matrix Studios, and Wessex Sound Studios
, although the majority of Parachutes tracks were recorded at Liverpool
's Parr Street Studios. The band worked in three studio rooms at Parr Street, and tracked much of the album in one of these rooms—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 Orinico 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.
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).
The album's cover features a photograph of a globe
with a disposable Kodak camera. The globe had been purchased from W H Smith
for £
10; it was featured in the music video
s for "Shiver" and "Don't Panic
", and also accompanied the band on their tours. The album was dedicated to drummer Will Champion
's mother, Dr Sara Champion, who died of cancer in 2000.
Champion has explained that Nelson's production style was liberating and allowed the band to feel at ease during the recording of Parachutes (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-songwriter Lou 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."
Parachutes was recognized to have an alternative rock
sound similar to English band Radiohead
in their The Bends
–OK Computer
era. In fact, it has been 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-influenced Kid A
album.
", "Trouble", and "Don't Panic
". "Shiver" 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 single, after they deemed three singles were enough for an album. Despite this, however, it was released as a single in some European regions.
. In the United States, it was released on 7 November 2000 by record label Nettwerk. The album has been made available on various formats since its initial release; both Parlophone and Nettwerk released it as a CD in 2000, and it was also released as a cassette
by newfound US label Capitol
in 2001. In the following year, Parlophone issued the album as an LP
.
The main version of the album contains 10 tracks; the tenth track, "Everything's Not Lost", segues to a hidden short track called "Life Is for Living", clocking in for a total of 7:15. The Japan
ese version of the album contains all main tracks, and the additional tracks "Careful Where You Stand" and "For You".
Since its wide release, Parachutes has earned the band a large array of awards. The album won Best Album at the 2000 Q
Awards, and was nominated at the 2000 Mercury Music Prize. The latter honor was instead given to Badly Drawn Boy
's The Hour of Bewilderbeast
, making Coldplay a loser of the Mercury Prize. Nevertheless for the following year, the band earned Best Alternative Music Album
at the Grammy Awards and Best British Album at the BRIT Awards
.
newspaper described the album as "one of the year's most uplifting albums", adding that it features "elegant songs, classic guitars and gorgeous singing".
The album also received generally positive reviews among international critics. A review in Billboard
magazine claims that Parachutes "brings nothing new to the table", writing that its "musical reference points are immediately recognizable and difficult to overlook". Despite this, the review adds, "Coldplay seems talented enough to transcend this early identity crisis", referring to them as a newly-introduced band in the United States. Matt Diehl of Rolling Stone
magazine said that the album "ultimately rises above its influences to become a work of real transcendence". MacKenzie Wilson of Allmusic commented that it introduces the band as "young musicians still honing their sweet harmonies", adding, "Parachutes deserved the accolades it received because it followed the general rule when introducing decent pop songs: keep the emotion genuine and real."
Pitchfork Media
was less enthusiastic and rated the album 5.3 out of 10. Spencer Owen views the album as "harmless and pretty" but "nothing else", noting that it will bring Coldplay "a windfall of cash and international popularity". The Village Voice similarly writes that "there's little on Parachutes that demands attention or punctures the pensive spell, and, unlike Travis
's, Coldplay's hooks are slight."
. It has been certified seven-time Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry
, with sales of around 2,400,000 units, to date.
In July 2011, Parachutes climbed from No. 184 back to No. 48 in the album's 318th charting week there.
Parachutes has reached number 51 on the US Billboard 200
, and has peaked at number one on the Billboard Heatseekers. Over two million copies have been shipped to the United States, leading to being certified two-time Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America
. It has also been certified three-time Platinum in Australia by the Australian Recording Industry Association
, and two-time Platinum in Canada by the Canadian Recording Industry Association
.
According to the British trade paper Music Week
, Parachutes was one of the most-impressive debut albums ever, spawning the hit singles "Shiver", "Yellow
", and "Trouble". With nearly 2.4 million units sold in the United Kingdom alone, it has placed at number 12 on the country's list of 20 biggest-selling albums of the 21st century.
The album was placed at number 25 in Channel 4
's 100 greatest albums of all time, and in 2006 at number 33 in NME
's 100 greatest British albums. Despite the album's critical and commercial success, Chris Martin said that Coldplay didn't like the album. He also commented that they look beyond Parachutes: "We know that's terrible music and we always try to think about what we can do next."
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band Coldplay
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
, released by the record label Parlophone
Parlophone
Parlophone is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone" which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. It was acquired in 1927 by the Columbia Graphophone Company which...
on 10 July 2000 in the United Kingdom. The album was produced by the band and British record producer Ken Nelson, excluding one track which was produced by Chris Allison. Parachutes has spawned the hit singles "Shiver", "Yellow
Yellow (song)
"Yellow" is a song by English alternative rock band Coldplay. The band wrote the song and co-produced it with British record producer Ken Nelson for their debut album, Parachutes...
", "Trouble", and "Don't Panic
Don't Panic (song)
"Don't Panic" is a song written and recorded by English alternative rock band Coldplay. Originally titled "Panic", the earliest known version of the song existed in 1998, performed live during the band's first gig in the same year. It had a different melody, and was included in the band's second...
".
The album was generally a commercial success, and was met with positive reviews. Upon release, the album quickly reached number one in the United Kingdom, and has since been certified 7x platinum. In the United States, the album peaked at number 51 on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
, and has since been certified 2x platinum. It won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album
Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album
The Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums in the alternative rock genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...
in 2002, and has earned the band various accolades since its release. Parachutes is number 12 on the list of the 20 biggest-selling albums of the 21st century in the United Kingdom, and was the winner of the Best British Album award at the 2001 Brit Awards
Brit Awards
The Brit Awards are the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain" or "Britannia", but subsequently became a backronym for British Record Industry Trust...
. As of 2011, it has sold around 8.5 million copies worldwide.
Recording and production
British record producer Ken Nelson produced all but one song on Parachutes. He was introduced to Coldplay by his manager Pete (who gave him a copy of the band's Fierce PandaFierce Panda Records
Fierce Panda Records is a London-based independent record label, with its first release in February 1994. It also produced a small number of releases that year by now famous artists such as Ash, The Bluetones, Baby Bird and Supergrass...
-distributed debut single
Brothers & Sisters (song)
"Brothers & Sisters" is a song by Coldplay, released as their first single in 1999 following the Safety EP, released a year earlier. It was later re-released as an EP....
in 1999). Nelson has claimed that, as soon as he heard vocalist Chris Martin
Chris Martin
Christopher Anthony John "Chris" Martin is an English song-writer, who is the lead vocalist, pianist and rhythm guitarist of the band Coldplay. He is married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow.-Early life:...
'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
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
with English indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
band Gomez
Gomez (band)
Gomez are an English indie rock band from Southport, comprising Ian Ball , Paul "Blackie" Blackburn , Tom Gray , Ben Ottewell and Olly Peacock . The band is distinguished for having three singers and four songwriters, employing traditional and electronic instruments...
(whose debut album, Bring It On, was what he had produced at the time).
The band started working on the album in 1999 and produced an EP with British record producer Chris Allison
Chris Allison
Chris Allison is a British record producer and founder/head of Sonic360 Records.He is primarily known for his work with The Wedding Present; however, he has also produced for Coldplay, The Beta Band and Plastilina Mosh....
, but were not satisfied with the results. They wanted more control over proceedings and Nelson's philosophy of "assisting [bands] in realising their own ideas, rather than imposing his own views about how the project should sound" qualified him to replace Allison. Accordingly Nelson has stated that the album was a co-production between himself and Coldplay.
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 April–May 2000. The band began work on the album at Rockfield Studios
Rockfield Studios
Rockfield Studios, near Monmouth in Wales and just outside the village of Rockfield, Monmouthshire are where many of British rock music’s most successful recordings have been made.-History:...
in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, Matrix Studios, and Wessex Sound Studios
Wessex Sound Studios
Wessex Sound Studios was a recording studio located in Highbury New Park, London, England. Many renowned popular music artists recorded there, including The Sex Pistols, King Crimson, The Clash, Theatre of Hate, XTC, The Sinceros, Queen, Talk Talk and The Rolling Stones...
, although the majority of Parachutes tracks were recorded at Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
's Parr Street Studios. The band worked in three studio rooms at Parr Street, and tracked much of the album in one of these rooms—the project studio which producer Ken Nelson describes as "basically a demo
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
room". The Chris Allison-produced track "High Speed" was also included on the album, and originates from earlier sessions at Orinico Studios in London. The album was mixed
Audio mixing (recorded music)
In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
by American engineer Michael Brauer
Michael Brauer
Michael Brauer is a New York-based mix engineer whose credits encompass a wide range of genres, and include The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Coldplay, John Mayer, Ash, My Morning Jacket, Ben Folds, Dream Theater, The New Radicals, Change, Fountains of Wayne, David Poe, Wilco, Alpha...
in New York. Coldplay's record label, Parlophone
Parlophone
Parlophone is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone" which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. It was acquired in 1927 by the Columbia Graphophone Company which...
, 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.
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).
The album's cover features a photograph of a globe
Globe
A globe is a three-dimensional scale model of Earth or other spheroid celestial body such as a planet, star, or moon...
with a disposable Kodak camera. The globe had been purchased from W H Smith
W H Smith
WHSmith plc is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. It is best known for its chain of high street, railway station, airport, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, and entertainment products...
for £
Pound (currency)
The pound is a unit of currency in some nations. The term originated in England as the value of a pound of silver.The word pound is the English translation of the Latin word libra, which was the unit of account of the Roman Empire...
10; it was featured in the music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s for "Shiver" and "Don't Panic
Don't Panic (song)
"Don't Panic" is a song written and recorded by English alternative rock band Coldplay. Originally titled "Panic", the earliest known version of the song existed in 1998, performed live during the band's first gig in the same year. It had a different melody, and was included in the band's second...
", and also accompanied the band on their tours. The album was dedicated to drummer Will Champion
Will Champion
William "Will" Champion is an English musician and the drummer of rock band Coldplay.-Early life:William Champion was born in Southampton, Hampshire, England, and was brought up in Highfield, Southampton, where his father, Timothy Champion, is a professor of archaeology...
's mother, Dr Sara Champion, who died of cancer in 2000.
Style
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
, 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."
Parachutes was recognized to have an alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
sound similar to English band Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
in their The Bends
The Bends
The Bends is the second studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released on 13 March 1995 by Parlophone. The Bends was produced by John Leckie at EMI's studios in London, and engineered by Nigel Godrich, who would go on to produce all future albums by the band...
–OK Computer
OK Computer
OK Computer is the third studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released on 16 June 1997 on Parlophone in the UK and 1 July 1997 by Capitol Records in the US. It marks a deliberate attempt by the band to move away from the introspective guitar-oriented sound of their previous...
era. In fact, it has been 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-influenced Kid A
Kid A
Kid A is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released in October 2000 by the Parlophone label. A commercial success worldwide, Kid A went platinum in its first week of release in the United Kingdom. Despite the lack of an official single or music video as publicity, Kid A...
album.
Promotion
Four singles were released from the album: "Shiver", "YellowYellow (song)
"Yellow" is a song by English alternative rock band Coldplay. The band wrote the song and co-produced it with British record producer Ken Nelson for their debut album, Parachutes...
", "Trouble", and "Don't Panic
Don't Panic (song)
"Don't Panic" is a song written and recorded by English alternative rock band Coldplay. Originally titled "Panic", the earliest known version of the song existed in 1998, performed live during the band's first gig in the same year. It had a different melody, and was included in the band's second...
". "Shiver" served as lead single
Lead single
A lead single is usually the first single released by a musician or a band before the release of its home album.During the era of the grammophone record, all music arrived in the marketplace as what is now termed a single, one potential hit song backed by an additional song of generally less...
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 single, after they deemed three singles were enough for an album. Despite this, however, it was released as a single in some European regions.
Release
Parachutes was released on 10 July 2000 in the United Kingdom via record label ParlophoneParlophone
Parlophone is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone" which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. It was acquired in 1927 by the Columbia Graphophone Company which...
. In the United States, it was released on 7 November 2000 by record label Nettwerk. The album has been made available on various formats since its initial release; both Parlophone and Nettwerk released it as a CD in 2000, and it was also released as a cassette
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
by newfound US label Capitol
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
in 2001. In the following year, Parlophone issued the album as an LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
.
The main version of the album contains 10 tracks; the tenth track, "Everything's Not Lost", segues to a hidden short track called "Life Is for Living", clocking in for a total of 7:15. The Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese version of the album contains all main tracks, and the additional tracks "Careful Where You Stand" and "For You".
Since its wide release, Parachutes has earned the band a large array of awards. The album won Best Album at the 2000 Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
Awards, and was nominated at the 2000 Mercury Music Prize. The latter honor was instead given to Badly Drawn Boy
Badly Drawn Boy
Damon Gough is an English alternative music singer/songwriter. He was born on 2 October 1969, in Dunstable, Bedfordshire. He grew up in the Breightmet area of Bolton, Lancashire, England....
's The Hour of Bewilderbeast
The Hour of Bewilderbeast
The Hour of Bewilderbeast is an album that was released by Badly Drawn Boy in 2000 . The album won the 2000 Mercury Prize. The album featured members of Alfie and Doves as backing musicians.-Copyright issues:...
, making Coldplay a loser of the Mercury Prize. Nevertheless for the following year, the band earned Best Alternative Music Album
Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album
The Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums in the alternative rock genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...
at the Grammy Awards and Best British Album at the BRIT Awards
Brit Awards
The Brit Awards are the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain" or "Britannia", but subsequently became a backronym for British Record Industry Trust...
.
Reception
Critical response
Parachutes was generally well received in Europe. Michael Hubbard of MusicOMH noted that it is an album of "remarkable depth, especially when one considers the youthful ages of the band members" while The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
newspaper described the album as "one of the year's most uplifting albums", adding that it features "elegant songs, classic guitars and gorgeous singing".
The album also received generally positive reviews among international critics. A review in Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
magazine claims that Parachutes "brings nothing new to the table", writing that its "musical reference points are immediately recognizable and difficult to overlook". Despite this, the review adds, "Coldplay seems talented enough to transcend this early identity crisis", referring to them as a newly-introduced band in the United States. Matt Diehl of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine said that the album "ultimately rises above its influences to become a work of real transcendence". MacKenzie Wilson of Allmusic commented that it introduces the band as "young musicians still honing their sweet harmonies", adding, "Parachutes deserved the accolades it received because it followed the general rule when introducing decent pop songs: keep the emotion genuine and real."
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
was less enthusiastic and rated the album 5.3 out of 10. Spencer Owen views the album as "harmless and pretty" but "nothing else", noting that it will bring Coldplay "a windfall of cash and international popularity". The Village Voice similarly writes that "there's little on Parachutes that demands attention or punctures the pensive spell, and, unlike Travis
Travis (band)
Travis are a post-Britpop band from Glasgow, Scotland, comprising Fran Healy , Dougie Payne , Andy Dunlop and Neil Primrose...
's, Coldplay's hooks are slight."
Commercial performance
Parachutes performed well in the United Kingdom. The popularity of the songs in British clubs, pubs and sporting events bolstered the album to debut at number one on the UK Albums ChartUK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
. It has been certified seven-time Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry
British Phonographic Industry
The British Phonographic Industry is the British record industry's trade association.-Structure:Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including all four "major" record companies , associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies...
, with sales of around 2,400,000 units, to date.
In July 2011, Parachutes climbed from No. 184 back to No. 48 in the album's 318th charting week there.
Parachutes has reached number 51 on the US Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
, and has peaked at number one on the Billboard Heatseekers. Over two million copies have been shipped to the United States, leading to being certified two-time Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
. It has also been certified three-time Platinum in Australia by the Australian Recording Industry Association
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...
, and two-time Platinum in Canada by the Canadian Recording Industry Association
Canadian Recording Industry Association
Music Canada is a Toronto-based, non-profit trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 to represent the interests of companies that record, artists, manufacture, production, promotion and distribution of music in Canada...
.
Certifications
| Country | Certification (sales thresholds) |
|---|---|
| Argentina Argentine Chamber of Phonograms and Videograms Producers The Argentine Chamber of Phonograms and Videograms Producers is an Argentine organization member of the IFPI, which represents the music industry in the country. It is a nonprofit organization integrated by multinational and independent record labels.... |
Platinum |
| Australia Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956... |
2× Platinum |
| Canada Canadian Recording Industry Association Music Canada is a Toronto-based, non-profit trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 to represent the interests of companies that record, artists, manufacture, production, promotion and distribution of music in Canada... |
5× Platinum |
| Europe | 2× Platinum |
| France Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... |
2x Gold |
| Germany | Gold |
| Netherlands NVPI The NVPI is the Dutch tradeassociation of the entertainment industry... |
Platinum |
| New Zealand Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
2x Platinum |
| Norway | Platinum |
| Sweden | Platinum |
| Switzerland | Gold |
| United Kingdom British Phonographic Industry The British Phonographic Industry is the British record industry's trade association.-Structure:Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including all four "major" record companies , associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies... |
7× Platinum |
| United States Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States... |
2x Platinum |
Impact and legacy
Music Week
Music Week is a trade paper for the UK record industry.Founded in 1959 as Record Retailer, it was relaunched on 18 March 1972 as Music Week . On 17 January 1981 the title was again changed, owing to the increasing importance of sell-through videos, to Music & Video Week...
, Parachutes was one of the most-impressive debut albums ever, spawning the hit singles "Shiver", "Yellow
Yellow (song)
"Yellow" is a song by English alternative rock band Coldplay. The band wrote the song and co-produced it with British record producer Ken Nelson for their debut album, Parachutes...
", and "Trouble". With nearly 2.4 million units sold in the United Kingdom alone, it has placed at number 12 on the country's list of 20 biggest-selling albums of the 21st century.
The album was placed at number 25 in Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's 100 greatest albums of all time, and in 2006 at number 33 in NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
's 100 greatest British albums. Despite the album's critical and commercial success, Chris Martin said that Coldplay didn't like the album. He also commented that they look beyond Parachutes: "We know that's terrible music and we always try to think about what we can do next."