Snow Patrol: A Hundred Million Suns
Review of Band’s Fifth Studio Album, Featuring Take Back The City
Nov 22, 2008
A Hundred Million Suns has been widely hyped as a marked departure for the alternative British band, Snow Patrol, not least by the band themselves. Apparently fed up with the introspective songwriting clichés that tend to follow a broken relationship, the band decided to write from the perspective of a fully functional one (mtv.com).
Strange then that the album kicks off with the dreary bewailing of a self-destructing relationship? Perhaps. But let that one slide, this is an album with much working in its favour.
Haunting Vocals and Range of Pace
Singer Gary Lightbody’s vocals are, predictably, haunting and beautiful. His voice has a smooth and velvety quality, softly husky at times, powerfully resonant at others. ‘Take Back The City’ has an exhilarating racing pulse, like the metropolis the lyrics describe, which suits Lightbody’s restrained yet intense delivery.
The high point on the album is in this and the variation of pace from track to track. ‘Lifeboats’ is brilliantly hypnotic and mellow with a relentless and magnetic rhythm that allows Lightbody’s lonely vocal to soar. ‘The Golden Floor’ has a similarly driving rhythm: a skipping, clapping, glancing alternating beat which makes a fantastic companion to the mournful acoustic lick.
Of course there are the predictable stadium pleasers present. ‘Please Just Take These Photos’ has some thrashing guitar work, comprehensive harmonised melodies and a belting chorus that will have the crowds bouncing and singing with ease. That, and ‘Take Back the City’ should ensure that the album covers all the requirements necessary to creating rousing live performances. They’re the feel good tracks too, but hang on, Snow Patrol, happy? Perhaps this album is a change of direction after all?
Seriously though, while there are some occasional similarities with U2, some of The Stereophonics’ more pacy tracks – ‘Dakota’, for example, and a distinct melodic and vocal resemblance throughout to Sufjan Stevens’ work, A Hundred Million Suns is quite obviously classic Snow Patrol: big tracks, big guitars, big vocals and that irrepressible, but beautiful mournfulness .
Tired Melodies
Still, despite its good points this is an album that is well and truly hindered by the band’s pigeon holing of themselves into their particular musical style. Lightbody’s vocals are awesome, and yet, like having too much of your favourite food, they can become tedious and repetitive. The melodies too can be a little on the dull side, or even lazy, ‘Crack the Shutters Open Wide’ being an obvious example. There is little new or original in the guitars and some tracks lean towards being quite forgettable. Even the album’s title brings to mind the more memorable title of Khaled Hosseini’s bestselling novel.
At its worst, A Hundred Million Suns smacks of being a commercial offering with one eye on the profits and the other on safe formulaic writing. There is little in this album, beyond perhaps ‘Lifeboats’ and ‘The Golden Floor’ that is creatively stretching. Part one of the three part final track ‘The Lightning Strike’ in particular, almost sounds as if the band used the dregs of a decent melody that they couldn’t fit anywhere else, and then utterly destroy it as it descends into a mind bogglingly boring and seemingly endless repetition of the same melodic strain over and over again.
An Album for the iPod Generation?
On the other hand, the iTunes generation is unlikely to sit and listen to an album from beginning to end, and perhaps that is the key real enjoyment this album. Dipping into it one track at a time is a great antidote to an overdose of Lightbody’s vocals, great as they are a teaspoon at a time. That said this is certainly an album that takes a while to grow. Listen to it a few times and its strengths become clear, so too do its weaknesses.
Overall this is a confusing offering, with flashes of brilliance tempered by an equal amount of bland tediousness, because of this it is ultimately unsatisfying. There’s no doubt that A Hundred Million Suns will make a welcome addition to Snow Patrol devotees’ collections, and many others will enjoy it too, but it’s hard to imagine the album acquiring the band legions of new fans or converting any sceptics. The word ‘meh’ springs to mind: this is Snow Patrol by numbers.
A Hundred Million Suns is available now.
Related Articles:
Readers may also be interested to read about Razorlight - Slipway Fires
Readers may also find reviews of The Killers: Day & Age and Kings of Leon: Only By The Night of interest.
 |
