Fallen empires --- Snow Patrol --- 2011 (Fiction)
Okay. Deep breath. Let's give this one. Last. Try.
I have been singularly unimpressed by everything I've heard from Snow Patrol so far apart from the single “Chasing cars”, which I love, so where am I going wrong? Are they a band with only one good song I will ever like, and should I give up on trying to get into the rest of their music? It would be unlikely, though not impossible and certainly not unprecedented. But then I heard the lead-in single to their latest album, “Called out in the dark”, and I have to say I loved it, even before I knew it was from those boys who go patrolling at winter. So is this album going to be the one that finally shows me what a great band they are, or is “Called out” destined to join “Chasing cars” as being two of the only tracks I like from these guys? Let's find out.
Okay, so we're opening up with an Alan Parsons-ish synth intro to “I'll never let go”, starting slowly, then some nice bass and guitar coming in and the tempo is upping slightly, becoming a mid-pacer with some interesting effects, I think on guitar. Gary Lightbody is on form vocally as ever, and I do have to say from the off this sounds more commercial, more accessible than anything I've heard from them before, “Chasing cars” obviously excepted. Nice growly guitar cutting in there, from Nathan Connolly, and the keyboards very dancy from Tom Simpson, but not sounding out of place here. Good opener. Impressive, yes.
Next up is that single, and you've more than likely heard it by now. Chock full of hooks, great chorus and just a really catchy, commercial song, “Called out in the dark” is the song that preceded the album and let people know Snow Patrol were back, and it's a good choice. Great bass, warbling keyboards never drowning out Lightbody's clear voice. Restrained guitar, the song mostly carried on synth from Simpson, and very ably so. Both a dancefloor filler and a rocker, this could be a song that is all things to all men, as it were. Kind of hard not to like it, which is a difficult feat to accomplish, but seems like the boys have struck gold here.
“The weight of love” comes in on nice low guitar (acoustic, maybe), then bass and drums cut in, but for about a minute it's Lightbody's voice that carries the song, and even when the keyboards come in they're still just a backdrop for his powerful voice, joined by backing vocalists giving the song a little of a gospel feel. Connolly comes in with his guitar a bit more forcefully, but Edge-like he's just out there on the periphery, keeping the melody but never attemping to take it over. Very well constructed song indeed. Three for three so far. The first ballad, and second single, then comes in the form of “This isn't everything you are”, with nice piano and chingling
(what? It's a word I made up: perfectly cromulent down our way. Look it up...) guitars, impassioned vocal in the best style of Ricky Ross or Paul Heaton. Great powerful backing vocals again (is that a choir?), and a dramatic, soul-stirring ending. And then another ballad.
Piano again introduces “The garden rules”, with some nice acoustic guitar, a lookback to childhood lost, a real gem of a song with some nice female backing vocals. As this album was only released last week, it's hard to get concrete information on lineup and so on, so I can't tell you who the female backing singer is (but she's good!) or who the choir is, if there's a choir, but I'm beginning to believe that's the case. No bad tracks so far, and now we're into the title track. It opens with what sounds like banjo, but is probably just fast guitar, thumping drums coming in, a nice uptempo track after the last two ballads slowed everything down. Great bassline carrying the track too, and some pretty frenetic piano from Tom Simpson. The song always seems like it's about to break into a mad guitar solo, but that never happens. Powerful stuff, nevertheless.
“Berlin” is a short track, just over two minutes, and basically a march and a chant with musical backing, all sounding very happy and triumphant, sort of like one of those reprise-type songs you often get at the end of albums. The cleverly-titled “Life-ning” is a gentle guitar ballad with a very simple and honest lyric, and what sounds like violin or some kind of string section coming in and filling out the song, while “New York” is also a ballad, but on piano, with a real economy of melody, proving that you don't have to have banks of multi-tracked instruments and production to the nth degree to create a truly exceptional song, which this is. Earnest, powerful vocal is the vehicle the song travels on, accompanied by Simpson's simple piano lines. Beautifully simple, simply beautiful, a future classic. “In the end” kind of revisits “Called out in the dark”, with a similar melody and rhythm, and “Those distant bells” is an acoustic ballad, very much I feel in the mould of Suzanne Vega, with a little REM thrown in for good luck.
The longest track on the album, at just over six minutes, is “The Symphony”, a mid-paced song, but it comes across to me as the first weak track on the album, or maybe the first that doesn't have its own clear identity. That doesn't mean it's a bad track --- it's not --- but if there's a less-than-brilliant track on “Fallen empires”, for me, this is it. Possibly overlong, too, as it doesn't really seem to have the faintest idea where it's going or what it's about. Or maybe it's just me. It could end at the four minute mark, but it drags on for a further two minutes which, despite a pretty impassioned guitar solo from Connolly, seems to be superfluous.
“The president” is another piano ballad, with nice synth lines, a drawling, somewhat morose vocal a little at odds with the sudden introduction of upbeat drums in the background, though the juxtapositioning actually works quite well. The song itself would appear to refer to the late President Reagan, as Goodbody refers to seeing him
”There at Margaret's side” and the track ends with what sounds like recordings of Thatcher speaking, though very low.
The album closes with a short, ambitious instrumental which they call “Broken bottles form a star (Prelude)”, and it's interesting but kind of empty, more tacked on than anything else. Perhaps they thought closing with the previous track might have been too downbeat?
At any rate, it appears that finally, Snow Patrol have done it: they've converted me! This is one hell of an album. There are few, if any, bad tracks and so many of them are excellent that they really lift “Fallen empires” to the top of my repeat-listen list. I will have no problem playing this through again, end to end, several times. Perhaps I've just been unlucky in the music of theirs I've chosen to listen to, but this makes me want to go back and check out “Eyes open” at the very least. Perhaps there's hope for us yet.
TRACKLISTING
1. I'll never let go
2. Called out in the dark
3. The weight of love
4. This isn't everything you are
5. The garden rules
6. Fallen empires
7. Berlin
8. Life-ning
9. New York
10. In the end
11. Those distant bells
12. The Symphony
13. The President
14. Broken bottles form a star (Prelude)