Album A Day: Snow Patrol – A Hundred Million Suns

In any other year that didn’t feature Coldplay hitting a grand slam in Viva La Vida and Keane…well, Keane being Diet Coldplay (yep, I went there), Snow Patrol would be inescapable. A Hundred Million Suns is a huge, grandiose record that would dwarf even Bono. The opening atmospheric sounds of “If There’s A Rocket Tie Me To It” set up, if nothing else, where Snow Patrol’s goals are for this record. Make no mistake; Snow Patrol want their sound to touch everything from their hometown of Glasgow to the farthest reaches of the farthest galaxies. Even in its smallest, most subtle moments, there’s a feeling of something greater, as if one were looking down at Gary Lightbody from a distant star.

And then there are the songs themselves. “Take Back The City” is a bouncy, shout-a-long tribute to the band’s home in Glasgow, Scotland. “Lifeboats” is a subdued, alluring song, the kind of thing that would get sung by the audience in concert. On the other side, “Disaster Button” is a first-rate party song, the closest thing to a true rock song Snow Patrol has done in three albums, while the tribal drums and electronics of “The Golden Floor” and “Engines” are reminiscent of another group of UK-born hitmakers (rhymes with Schmadiohead). Finally, the 16-minute apocalyptic closer “The Lightning Strike” is a glorious final statement that captures your attention and staples it to the wall for the entire length of the song.

Of course, Snow Patrol is not as innovative as Radiohead, nor do they craft the kind of genius, iTunes-commercial ready pop songs that made Coldplay the biggest band on Earth in 2008. But it’s hard to fault them too much. They have no desire to be smug about what they do, and rather than accept the fact that they’ll never be bigger than they were two years ago (when “Chasing Cars” was inescapable) and half-ass it, they set the bar higher than they know they can hit, so if they fall short, their sound is still bigger than anything they’ve ever made. It’s not as flashy or trendy to listen to, but A Hundred Million Suns is nothing short of a tremendous accomplishment for Snow Patrol.

Snow Patrol – Take Back The City [iTunes]
Snow Patrol – Lifeboats [iTunes]

==TJ==

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