“Trouble” by Coldplay

"Trouble" was the third single from Parachutes, Coldplay's 2000 debut, and it's the quiet one that hurts the most. The whole arrangement leans on Chris Martin's acoustic piano, a slow, hesitant figure that sounds like someone thinking out loud, and the rest of the band tiptoes around it: Jonny Buckland's electric guitar shimmering at the edges, Guy Berryman's bass low and patient, Will Champion keeping the drums and percussion to a hush, with Buckland and Champion joining in on backing vocals.

All four wrote it, Martin handled the words, and the band produced it with Ken Nelson, who also engineered; Michael Brauer mixed. There's nothing flashy here, just a fragile, rain-streaked ballad that trusts the melody to do the work.

It went to number 10 on the UK Singles Chart, the band's second top 10 there, and though it never charted in the States, the music press rated it nearly as big a success as "Yellow". Europe and America each got their own video. A Norway-only spin-off, the Trouble – Norwegian Live EP, followed in February 2001 with five tracks taped at Rockefeller Music Hall in Oslo, the band's first live release.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.