In 2000, a small wave of British pop bands clearly heavily influenced by Radiohead’s brand of anthemic mope rock arose, with Travis, Muse, and Coldplay at the forefront. Coldplay are the most clearly Radiohead-like, compared to the poppier Travis and the more electronic-oriented Muse, and their US debut, the 10-song PARACHUTES, should appeal to any fans of OK COMPUTER or THE BENDS who found KID A too weird for their tastes. (Coldplay even swipe a song title, “Don’t Panic,” from Douglas Adams, as Radiohead did with “Paranoid Android.)

The soaring yet depressing single “Shiver” is a masterpiece of swelling emotion, and the fact that the other nine tracks, even the instrumental fragment of a title track, sound like variations on its theme is more a matter of conceptual and musical unity than a lack of ideas. This album deserves the hype it got on release.

Tracklisting
1. Don’t Panic
2. Shiver
3. Spies
4. Sparks
5. Yellow
6. Trouble
7. Parachutes
8. High Speed
9. We Never Change
10. Everything’s Not Lost

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (10/26/00, p.111) – 3.5 stars out of 5 – “…Straight-ahead, melodic Brit pop that strives for ’significance’ with a capial ’s’….[The album] rises above its influences to become a work of real transcendence…”

Spin (1/01, p.73) – Ranked #19 in Spin’s “Top 20 Albums of the Year [2000]” – “…[They] hoist their blue guitars and tug on Radiohead’s cape….evoking the forgotten shoegazers like Ride….Chris Martin makes early-’90s nostalgia seem like the next frontier.”

Q (10/01, p.73) – Ranked #21 in Q’s “Best 50 Albums of Q’s Lifetime”

Q (1/01, p.91) – Included in Q’s “50 Best Albums of 2000″ – “…[The] soundtrack to cheap vino-and-fag sessions…”

Alternative Press (12/00, p.94) – 4 out of 5 – “…Shimmering guitars haunt tormented tunes, dark gravel growls vie with Thom Yorke-y high notes….songs dawdle out of either a gentle whisper of sound or an awesome blurge of noise…”

NME (Magazine) (12/30/00, p.77) – Ranked #6 in NME’s “Top 50 Albums Of The Year” – “…Effortlessly moving and hugely popular at the same time…”

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Coldplay – A Rush of Blood to the Head

In 2000, Coldplay appeared seemingly out of nowhere and immediately advanced to the head of the Britpop class in the UK, while easily outdistancing the likes of Oasis and Blur in terms of US popularity. The most striking thing was that they did it with zero attitude and unassuming, melodic tunes humbly presented with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of memorability. That trend continues on the band’s second album, A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD.

There’s little stylistic alteration from PARACHUTES here, which is just fine, considering how enormously and instantly appealing that style is. While Travis, Elbow, and other entrants in the Britpop sweepstakes offer a not dissimilar sound, none can communicate with the honest immediacy and directness of Coldplay. Part of the key, apart from melodies so ridiculously catchy as to make Belle & Sebastian sound like Public Image Ltd., may be their working-class sense of all-for-one proletarianism (though not in the breast-beating Oasis manner). Even on “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face,” when Chris Martin goes so far as to offer a few boastful phrases, the ultimate sentiment that comes across is the refrain “your guess is good as mine.”

Tracklisting
1. Politik
2. In My Place
3. God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
4. Scientist, The
5. Clocks
6. Daylight
7. Green Eyes
8. Warning Sign
9. Whisper, A
10. Rush Of Blood To The Head, A
11. Amsterdam

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (12/26/02, p.103) – Included in Rolling Stone’s “50 Best Albums of 2002″

Rolling Stone (9/19/02, pp.97-8) – 4 stars out of 5 – “…A nervier, edgier, thoroughly surprising album….the band has figured out how to let loose and rock out…[it's] first-rate guitar rock with some real emotional protein on its bones.”

Spin (1/03, p.72) – Ranked #26 on Spin’s list of 2002’s “Albums of the Year” – “…Harder and darker than 2000’s sweetly naive PARACHUTES….gorgeous arena pop.”

Q (12/02, p.65) – Included in Q Magazine’s “50 Best Albums of 2002″

Q (9/02, pp.198-9) – 4 stars out of 5 – “…This is pretty much the apotheosis of post-Radiohead guitar-rock, a collection of vastly moving songs that will render stadiums as intimate as bedrooms…”

Uncut (1/03, p.97) – Ranked #67 in Uncut’s “100 Best Albums of the Year”

Uncut (9/02, p.116) – 5 stars out of 5 – “…the best British rock album since OK COMPUTER…acomplished, original and majestic…”

CMJ (9/2/02) – p.6) – “…There is a cavernous beauty to this album’s melodic depression that can’t be denied…”

Mojo (Publisher) (p.54) – Ranked #100 in Mojo’s “100 Modern Classics” — “[T]his surely ranks as the most intimate arena rock yet wrought.”

Mojo (Publisher) (1/03, p.76) – Ranked #31 in Mojo’s “Best Albums of 2002″

Mojo (Publisher) (9/02, p.94) – “…fragile love songs with a hint of the metaphysic…Coldplay still sound like they care about what they’re doing.”

NME (Magazine) (8/22/02, p.42) – 9 out of 10 – “…An album of outstanding beauty, an organic, wholesome work…”