Fallen Empires
A near masterpiece from Irish arena rockers.
Olaf Tyaransen, 17 Nov 2011
On ‘Lifening’, one of several standout tracks on Snow Patrol’s mightily impressive sixth studio album, frontman Gary Lightbody gently croons the simple things that would make him happy: “Ireland in the World Cup/Either North or South/The Fanclub on the jukebox/The birds and, yes, the bees/This is all I ever wanted from life...”
As things turned out, the aptly named Lightbody got a lot more than he ever asked for. ‘Lifening’ is a word invented by the Bangor-born singer himself, which he defines as, “to have lightning and light thrust into your life, or to simply let them into your life.” While there was a long period of darkness – or at least wilderness – in the early years of Snow Patrol, the Irish/Scottish five-piece have had enough lightning and light thrust into their lives in recent times to power all of Vegas for, oh, at least 20 minutes.
Their rise to success started with 2003’s ‘Run’ and hasn’t really slowed since. They were chasing cars, and they caught a limousine. To date, the band – singer Lightbody, guitarist Nathan Connolly, bassist Paul Wilson, drummer Jonny Quinn and keyboardist Tom Simpson – have shifted in excess of 11 million albums and been responsible for a string of era-defining hit singles (‘Chocolate’, ‘Chasing Cars’, ‘Take Back The City’, etc.). Their records have been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, Grammys and MTV Europe Music Awards, with Final Straw landing them an Ivor Novello Award in 2005.
Of course, the multi-million euro question when you hit their level is, where to next? Bang out another soundalike album and keep the moolah rolling in? Or continue to develop artistically, experiment musically, and take chances? Of all the big bands the ‘00s threw up, the only serious stadium-sized sonic successors to U2 (from this side of the pond at least) are Coldplay, Muse and Snow Patrol. When they’re not supporting Bono & Co., the Patrol are still an arena act. But they’re only one more hit record away from that kind of stadium-sized mega-success... and probably still unsure if they even want to go there anyway.
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