Coldplay More Upbeat on New CD

British rockers rushing to finish "Parachutes" follow-up

Coldplay are putting the finishing touches the follow-up to their breakthrough debut, Parachutes. Currently working in George Martin's Air Studios in London, the group is once again using the production skills of Ken Nelson. The album is scheduled for released in June, but bass player Guy Berryman isn't sure that will allow the band enough time to complete it.

"It's panic stations at the moment because we've got a deadline we're trying to meet," Berryman says. "And I don't think we're going to meet it. We've got a lot of pressure on us. We're trying our best, but if we think we haven't done it justice, then we're going to have to spend longer. Whenever we deliver it, it will mean it's finished. I'd hate to rush the end of the record, rush the mixes because we have to get it in on time."The album's lead single -- tentatively titled "In My Place" -- is scheduled to hit radio in two weeks. Like the rest of the new album, it combines the same recipe of shimmering guitars and emotional outpourings that garnered Coldplay heavy radio and video rotation with their past singles "Yellow" and "Trouble."

"It sounds like Coldplay," Berryman says of the album as whole. "You'll recognize it as being us, but it's more energetic and upbeat, more confident. We've grown as people and musicians and we're quite confident we're going to deliver a record that meets all our fans' expectations. I think we've come up with a good follow-up."

The group's success hasn't had much of an effect on the songwriting process, according to Berryman, who points out eighty-five of the new album was written while on tour. "I don't think we've been influenced massively by our success and by our travels," he says. "The lyrics [singer Chris Martin] writes are more basic than that, more basic, emotional ideas rather than life experiences. There's probably a few lines in there which reflect what's happened in the last year or so, but it's hard to say."

LILY MOAYERI

(April 10, 2002)