I was wrong. And I'm glad. I thought Snow Patrol was going to become one of those bands who would die down and not be able to land a new record deal and end up having to work at Wal-mart in the electronics department, for the sole reason of promoting their has-been band by making it visible at all times to passersby. I was dead wrong.
This album is good. It's impressive. The tracks on this album tend to have more of an arc than on previous works. Before they kind of just.. existed. They were good songs, but they were just there. Now they have a defined beginning, middle, and end. They lend to the album a more structured feeling. There's a little bit more synth than on Final Straw, the band's last album. One track, "Set the Fire to the Third Bar" also features the vocal talents of Martha Wainwright.
It's not hard to tell where the inspiration for this album came from though, especially when Gary comes out and says it in the middle of his song. Hands Open features a Sufjan Stevens namedrop, claiming "Chicago" is the girls favorite song, and the rest of the tracks scream it in stlye. Two tracks feature a choir singing backup for the chorus. Sound familiar? The albums definitely got its own style, but theres nothing wrong with getting inspiration from your peers.
Theres also a similar feeling to Eyes Open. A bonus track, "Warmer Climate", feaures lots of simplified rhymes reminiscent of Final Straw's "Spitting Games". "And the musicbox You Could be Happy" reminds of "Grazed Knees". But those are just a few things nodding to the past while looking forward to a long, Wal-mart-free future.
