‘Final Straw’ by Snow Patrol

As it was with most people, ‘Final Straw’ was the first real exposure I had to Snow Patrol, barring regular mentions in the music press. I can’t even claim I found the album earlier than the world at large – I too heard ‘Run’ and decided to buy the album off the back of its success.

In fairness, though, sometimes the time is just right for a band. I still haven’t heard either of the albums which preceded this one, and perhaps I never will, but ‘Final Straw’ had to be a success – it’s too good not to be one.

There’s nothing earth-shatteringly original across the album as a whole, just a solid collection of songs with enough quirks to keep things interesting. Most of these quirks would be gradually ironed out over the next two albums, to the detriment of the band as a whole, but this album is full of them – the programming in ‘How To Be Dead’, the break in ‘Gleaming Auction’, the end of ‘Spitting Games’, the vocal interplay in ‘Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking’. ‘Same’ brings the album to a close in suitably low-key anthemic style. And sitting in the middle of the album is ‘Run’, the track that made everything afterwards possible. It’s a little blunted by familiarity now, but it’s a great song, far better than ‘Chasing Cars’ would go on to be.

I’d love to know how this album fits into the story. Every Snow Patrol album from this point has depicted a gradual slide into mediocrity, so I’d like to know whether the first two albums are brilliant, or whether this is a genuine peak. Perhaps one day I’ll find out.

‘Eyes Open’ by Snow Patrol

The phrase ‘difficult second album’ is widely recognised in the world of music. It refers to the problems a band can have when they’re attempting to follow up a successful first album, usually in a shorter space of time, and usually with a considerably higher degree of pressure. ‘Eyes Open’ is the fourth album by Snow Patrol, but as their first two albums failed to be noticed by more or less anyone, it feels like a second album, and it carries with it all the associated baggage.

It’s a very confident record from start to finish, and generally, the songs themselves are good, but somewhere along the way, some of the individual sparkle still on display for ‘Final Straw’ has started to vanish. ‘You’re All I Have’ opens the record in fairly standard and familiar form, ‘Hands Open’ is louder but less worthwhile. The third track, ‘Chasing Cars’ is the albums focal point – a huge hit single, and a genuine anthem, but one that’s never quite rung true for me. I’ve never really worked out way, as it’s obviously a good song, but it just feels a little too much like it was written to order, designed to be this album’s ‘Run’. That said, I’m not sure why it would matter, even if that were true. Track four, ‘Shut Your Eyes’, has always been my preference, as it doesn’t seem to have any such agenda. It’s a straightforward song, but with enough twists – notably the choral section at the end – to give it a lift were necessary. ‘It’s Beginning To Get To Me’, in contrast, has no such twists. Like track one, it’s a decent enough song, but the sort of song you imagine Gary Lightbody could write in his sleep. In the middle of the album are three songs – ‘You Could Be Happy’, ‘Make This Go On For Ever’ and ‘Set The Fire To The Third Bar’ which, between them, give the album its soul. The first and last of these three are the albums quietest moments, the first backed predominantly by glockenspiel, and the last given focus by Martha Wainright’s guest vocals. The middle is louder, and almost relentless by the end, but without the empty bluster that Snow Patrol’s noisier tracks have a tendency to suffer from – track nine, ‘Headlights On Dark Roads’, being an obvious example. The album ends well. ‘Open Your Eyes’ starts quietly and builds up to suitable ending climax, and ‘The Finish Line’ acts as a gentle epilogue to a record that, to all intents and purposes, has finished.

Overall, this album is a triumph for the band, but it’s a triumph that carries with it warning signs for the future. There is a clear progression between this album and its follow up, and not in a good way. ‘A Hundred Million Suns’ would ignore all the good things about this album, and instead, amplify all its weaker points. Time will tell whether this would be an irreversible slide.

'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.