'A Hundred Million Suns' by Snow Patrol

In an episode of Doctor Who a couple of years ago, the Doctor and his companions need to get close to the Master without him being aware of their presence. In order to do so, he creates a ‘perception filter’. This clever device prevented people from noticing them, even when they were being directly observed.

This album’s a bit like that. You can put it on, and try and listen to it carefully, then listen to it again afterwards, but when it’s finished, it’ll be like it was never there. ‘A Hundred Million Suns’ was Snow Patrol’s fifth album, and the third to make any commercial impression, following ‘The Final Straw’ and ‘Eyes Open’. It displays more confidence than the previous two records, but less memorable moments. And it’s difficult to say why.

Amongst the Snow Patrol standard guitar-bass-drums arrangements, there is some variety. ‘Lifeboats’ makes effective use of a swooping strings line. ‘The Golden Floor’ is an effective mix of acoustic guitar and jittering programmed drums. ‘Set Down Your Glass’ has a layered production of piano, finger picked guitar, strings and glockenspiel. But it’s not enough. The rest of the album just trudges on through a sea of mediocrity. Lead single ‘Take Back The City’ gives a burst of energy at the beginning, and ‘Disaster Button’ does the same at the end, but it’s too little too late. It’s as though they’ve distilled their essence down to the most basic and boring elements and made an album from them. If they continue in this trend, the next album may well consist of the chorus of ‘Run’ on repeat for an hour. It would be about as interesting.