High Speed

"High Speed" is about feeling emotionally out of control, with Chris Martin expressing fears he's in a relationship that's moving too fast: Can anybody fly this thing Before my head explodes Or my head starts to ring?

This song was recorded at Orinoco Studios in London and produced by Chris Allison. It originally featured on Coldplay's second EP, The Blue Room, but it also made it to the final cut of Parachutes. Consequently, it's the only song on Parachutes not produced by Ken Nelson. Speaking to the band's biographer, Phil O'Brien, Allison revealed he could hear the potential in "High Speed" and Coldplay as a whole: "I thought 'High Speed' was a really good marriage between the classic rock sound and the new sound that was developing out of it, something that was more atmospheric."

Coldplay played this song at their first gig at The Laurel Tree in Camden, London, on January 16, 1998. The band, who were called Starfish then, also debuted an early version of Parachutes opener "Don't Panic."