Parachutes

Lore & Background

The lore of 'Parachutes' is built around the emotional journey of its songs, each track acting as a vignette of vulnerability and resilience. The album's title evokes the idea of a gentle landing after a turbulent emotional freefall, with lyrics often referencing light, gravity, and the act of letting go. The band has described the album as a collection of songs about being lost and found, with the parachute symbolizing both a lifeline and the delicate nature of trust.

Reader's Guide

The earliest evidence of an intentional parachute dates back to the Renaissance period. The oldest parachute design appears in a manuscript from the 1470s attributed to Francesco di Giorgio Martini, showing a free-hanging man clutching a crossbar frame attached to a conical canopy. Shortly after, a more sophisticated parachute was sketched by Leonardo da Vinci in his Codex Atlanticus dated to c. 1485. The Croatian polymath Faust Vrančić examined da Vinci's parachute sketch and kept the square frame but replaced the canopy with a bulging sail-like piece of cloth.

A now-famous depiction of a parachute that he dubbed Homo Volans appeared in his book on mechanics, Machinae Novae, published in 1615 or 1616. The modern parachute was invented in the late 18th century by Louis-Sébastien Lenormand in France, who made the first recorded public jump in 1783. Lenormand also sketched his device beforehand and coined the word 'parachute' in 1785. In 1797, André Garnerin made the first descent of a frameless parachute covered in silk.

In 1907 Charles Broadwick demonstrated two key advances: he folded his parachute into a backpack, and the parachute was pulled from the pack by a static line attached to the balloon. In 1911, Russian Gleb Kotelnikov invented the first knapsack parachute.

Did You Know?

• The album's title was inspired by a line in the song 'We Never Change', reflecting the theme of seeking a soft landing in a chaotic world.
• The cover art features a spinning globe, symbolizing the album's universal themes of connection and displacement.
• The track 'Yellow' was famously written in a single night and became the band's breakthrough single, capturing the album's essence of earnest longing.
• The album was recorded in just a few weeks at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool, giving it a raw, intimate feel.
• The band initially considered naming the album 'The Blue Room' before settling on 'Parachutes'.