Snow Patrol, A Hundred Million Suns (Polydor, 2008)

A decade into their career, Snow Patrol have established themselves as one of the most popular bands to emerge from Scotland. The quintet consisting of Gary Lightbody (vocals and guitar), Nathan Connolly (guitar and backing vocals), Paul Wilson (bass), Jonny Quinn (drums), and Tom Simpson (keyboards) first came to my attention with their cover of John Lennon's "Isolation" on the Instant Karma album for Amnesty International, but they were already enjoying a major commercial breakthrough with their 2006 release Eyes Open. Now they return with a new CD called A Hundred Million Suns. Like its predecessor, the new album has some good tracks and is worth a few listens, but left me thinking the band is capable of better.

A Hundred Million Suns hits its best stride with the single "Take Back the City." The song is introduced with a driving acoustic guitar, but Lightbody really strikes gold with the bridge -- "It's a mess, it's a start, it's a flawed work of art." Most of the album follows a basic formula of mid-tempo rock, with a few ballads and occasional outbursts of heavier music thrown in for variety. The group gets really ambitious, though, with the closing track "The Lightning Strike," a three-part song cycle that runs over sixteen minutes. It reflects a surprising amount of daring on the band's part, and each of the three parts is compelling enough on its own to make the whole strong, in spite of the length.

Snow Patrol seem to be making a career out of being consistently pretty good. I suppose that could be taken as a backhanded compliment, but I do like them, and I think A Hundred Million Suns is a step forward for them. I just feel that they're one ingredient short of really taking their music to the next level. I'm not sure what the missing piece is, but I hope they find it.

Overall grade: B

reviewed by Scott

"Take Back the City"

Snow Patrol, Eyes Open (A&M, 2006)

I first heard of Snow Patrol while listening to Instant Karma, the compilation of various artists performing John Lennon covers put together by Amnesty International. I had previously told a friend that I thought that Lennon's first solo album was too personal for another performer to cover a song from it and make it work. However, I wound up being extremely impressed by Snow Patrol's cover of "Isolation," the one real standout track on either CD of the compilation. Naturally, I had to find out more about Snow Patrol.

The members of Snow Patrol met at school in Glasgow, Scotland. Gary Lightbody sings and plays guitar, Nathan Connolly also plays guitar, Paul Wilson plays bass, Tom Simpson plays keyboards, and Johnny Quinn plays drums. Their fourth and most recent album Eyes Open has solidified their position as one of the biggest-selling acts in the UK, and they are starting to build a following here as well.

Eyes Open follows a similar pattern to the Vega4 album You and Others that I just reviewed. Most of the album struck me as being a bit predictable and formulaic. Snow Patrol's sound is a bit edgier on the whole than Vega4's, but the band hits its best stride when it tones things down. The moody "Shut Your Eyes" is propelled a simple yet insistently effective guitar riff that runs through most of the song. "Make This Go On Forever" begins as a somber piano ballad, but the chorus just seethes with intensity. Another strong ballad is "Set the Fire to the Third Bar," on which Lightbody duets with Martha Wainwright.

So just like with Vega4, I'm left wishing that Snow Patrol had been willing to follow their own instincts more often and spend less time sounding like a lot of anonymous bands out there right now. The talent is there to make a more consistently strong album than this.

Overall grade: B-

reviewed by Scott