After A Decade, Coldplay Music is Still About Brightness and Hope and Devotion

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After A Decade, Coldplay Music is Still About Brightness and Hope and Devotion
by Alexis Andrews - December 23, 2008

Parachute is Coldplay's first studio album

So Coldplay is once again at the top of the list for the most important prizes in the music industry. When nominations for the 51st Annual Grammy Awards were announced recently, the British alternative rock band – which had earlier this year released the fourth Coldplay album Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends - racked up nominations for some of the biggest and most coveted Grammys, including Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Rock Album.

This bit of news sort of makes me look back about a decade ago, when Coldplay first achieved worldwide fame. They were so young then! Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland were students at the University College London, performing gigs at small clubs and then later getting together with bassist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion to form the band. (And that was light years before Martin married Gwyneth Paltrow.)

In March of 1999, Coldplay began to work on what would be their debut album, the critically and commercially successful Parachutes. It is easily my favorite Coldplay release; while the music may sound sad and wistful, the lyrical themes are uplifting and happy. This ten-track Coldplay album was officially released July 2000 by the record label Parlophone, and included such hits as “Shiver,” “Yellow,” and “Trouble,” all of which earned regular radio airplay at the US and the UK. It is also on #12 on the list of UK’s biggest-selling albums of the 21st century. With Parachutes, which has now been certified seven-time platinum, the music critics began to compare Coldplay music with that of Radiohead, Verve, Jeff Buckley, and Travis. They won Best Album at the 2000 Q Awards as well as a nomination for the Technics Mercury Music Prize that same year. Parachutes also won Coldplay their first ever Grammy Award, for Best Alternative Music Album in the year 2002.

“Parachutes ultimately rises above its influences to become a work of real transcendence,” says Matt Diehl of Rolling Stone Magazine. “On songs like the unrepentantly romantic Yellow, the band creates a hypnotic slo-mo otherworld where spirit rules supreme. When frontman Chris Martin moans about skin and bones/Turning to something beautiful, he could very well be talking about his own band.”

“Yellow” has to be one of the most beautiful Coldplay songs ever. This Coldplay single was written in a Rockfield Studio shortly after the band finished recording “Shiver,” the lead single from Parachutes. It has been a decade since its official release and I am still listening to the single almost every day. It’s quintessential Coldplay music: the aching, emotional falsetto of Chris Martin; the epic acoustic guitars; the theme of unrequited love; and a cult following at MTV. But it’s not as sad as others make it out to be: explained Martin, “'Yellow refers to the mood of the band. Brightness and hope and devotion.” Ten years later, Coldplay is still as bright as ever, what with all these Grammy nominations and accolades. And fans like me remain hopeful about and dedicated to their music.

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