In 2000, I spent four days driving around Scotland by myself. It was a great, beautiful trip and after buying 'Parachutes' at a gas station (for like 25 bucks!), I must have listened to it a hundred times. I'll always ride hard for that record. I love the songs and I loved the updated Edge guitar that was all over the songs.
I think the problem with Coldplay is they moved away from (what I thought to be) their primary strength: the guitar. Every song on Parachutes had a cool guitar part to it. After that record, the focus became Chris Martin's voice and piano, and then they became Just Another Big Band. And that's a shame.