"Parachutes, Music, and Monet"

Electric Lights Everywhere is John Paul Roney's blog. This is a featured blog. You can read more of his writing at johnpaulroney.blogspot.com.

I had heard Coldplay's Yellow, thought it was a decent pop song, put it on a mix tape for my high school girlfriend, slow danced to it in my living room on our three month anniversary (or some other trivial high school relationship anniversary) and had moved on. It was when I was walking in Baraboo's Farm and Fleet (not Fleet Farm, posers) when Trouble came on the Muzak that was playing in the background. I knew right there by the tire department, next to a massive duct tape display that my life was never going to be the same. That second will be burned into my head forever, because it was when I realized that there was a band making music that had never been made before and suddenly it was mine. I bought Parachutes a few days later and listened to it ad nauseum in my black Toyota Tacoma through the tape adapter.

Today the girlfriend is gone, the Tacoma is gone, and the duct tape is no longer on sale, but Parachutes makes me feel the same way every time I listen to it.

On top of being fearlessly dedicated to the groove and dangerously patient, the album's empty spaces were equally as important as the spaces in which instruments were being played. It reminded me of some of Monet's most masterful paintings that had almost twice the amount of blank canvas as painted area, yet still seemed to be brimming with life.

From beginning to end Parachutes escorts you through a fictitious world from imaginary coast to imaginary coast. It made me realize that if your art isn't bringing people to a world they have never experienced before you are treading in a world of imitation, and you are bound to be forgotten.