Music Banter - View Single Post - Bitesize: Trollheart's Daily Album Mini-Reviews

Trollheart · 07-20-2012, 05:34 AM

I'm starting to realise what people see in this band

Artiste: Snow Patrol
Nationality: British (Scottish)
Album: Final straw
Year: 2003
Label: Fiction
Genre: Rock
Tracks
How to be dead
Wow
Gleaming auction
Whatever's left
Spitting games
Chocolate
Run
Grazed knees
Ways and means
Tiny little fractures
Somewhere a clock is ticking
Same
Chronological position: Third album
Familiarity: “Songs for polar bears”, “Fallen empires”
Interesting Factoid: Da-da-da-da Homer, da-da-da-da-Homer ... er, no, can't think of one...
Impression: Getting to like this band more now
Best track(s): How to be dead, The spitting game, Run, Tiny little fractures
Worst track(s): No, not really any.
Intention: Need to listen to the other two albums now, to balance this out and make a final decision...
Comments: For some time now I've maintained a love/hate relationship with Snow Patrol. I loved Chasing cars, and unlike probably the majority of people in the world I still love it, never got tired of it. I then listened to their debut album and hated it, with a passion. Following this, I jumped in with both feet to their last album, “Fallen empires”, and absolutely loved it. So I'm confused: is “SfPB” just an aberration, write it off as it was their first effort, or is, conversely, “Fallen Empires” the exception to the rule, and the rest of their material garbage? In an effort to answer this question I've taken this, their third album, and the first to bring Snow Patrol any real commercial success, to see if it shows them crossing a line of, in my opinion, mediocrity and banality from their debut into the chart-smashing success they later enjoyed with albums like “Eyes open” and “Fallen empires”.

I must admit that it's more immediately accessible than the debut, with less effort expended on making the song titles as clever as they could --- which I believe to be one of the major pitfalls of “Songs for polar bears”: the cleverness of the titles was not mirrored in the quality of the songs --- and more used on crafting good songs, which so far I'm seeing all of these are, in particular the opener, which is very strong and seems to set the pace for the rest of the album. You can even hear an embryonic precursor to their biggest hit in Run, itself their first top ten hit; proof, if any were needed, that Snow Patrol certainly grew up and came of age on this album. I can feel the pendulum swinging over from “hate” to “love” as I listen.

07-20-2012, 05:34 AM	#27 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,996	I'm starting to realise what people see in this band Artiste: Snow Patrol Nationality: British (Scottish) Album: Final straw Year: 2003 Label: Fiction Genre: Rock Tracks How to be dead Wow Gleaming auction Whatever's left Spitting games Chocolate Run Grazed knees Ways and means Tiny little fractures Somewhere a clock is ticking Same Chronological position: Third album Familiarity: “Songs for polar bears”, “Fallen empires” Interesting Factoid: Da-da-da-da Homer, da-da-da-da-Homer ... er, no, can't think of one... Impression: Getting to like this band more now Best track(s): How to be dead, The spitting game, Run, Tiny little fractures Worst track(s): No, not really any. Intention: Need to listen to the other two albums now, to balance this out and make a final decision... Comments: For some time now I've maintained a love/hate relationship with Snow Patrol. I loved Chasing cars, and unlike probably the majority of people in the world I still love it, never got tired of it. I then listened to their debut album and hated it, with a passion. Following this, I jumped in with both feet to their last album, “Fallen empires”, and absolutely loved it. So I'm confused: is “SfPB” just an aberration, write it off as it was their first effort, or is, conversely, “Fallen Empires” the exception to the rule, and the rest of their material garbage? In an effort to answer this question I've taken this, their third album, and the first to bring Snow Patrol any real commercial success, to see if it shows them crossing a line of, in my opinion, mediocrity and banality from their debut into the chart-smashing success they later enjoyed with albums like “Eyes open” and “Fallen empires”. I must admit that it's more immediately accessible than the debut, with less effort expended on making the song titles as clever as they could --- which I believe to be one of the major pitfalls of “Songs for polar bears”: the cleverness of the titles was not mirrored in the quality of the songs --- and more used on crafting good songs, which so far I'm seeing all of these are, in particular the opener, which is very strong and seems to set the pace for the rest of the album. You can even hear an embryonic precursor to their biggest hit in Run, itself their first top ten hit; proof, if any were needed, that Snow Patrol certainly grew up and came of age on this album. I can feel the pendulum swinging over from “hate” to “love” as I listen. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 01-13-2015 at 05:27 AM.