The Beat Surrender

Eyes Open is one of the most eagerly awaited albums of this year, certainly amongst the coffee table brigade who like nothing more than to find a pleasant and inoffensive band to impress their business friends with at social gatherings…think Keane, Coldplay, Thirteen Senses and anytime soon The Feeling.

Now you and I know that Snow Patrol have been around a lot longer than Final Straw which brought them to the UK’s mainstream attention. The first two albums were cult hits rather than commercial, so I’m trying to think of that band when I review this album, rather than going down the obvious route of saying they’ve sold out or shot for the stadium rock stars on this long player.

I don’t know if this album will sell as many as the last as I can’t hear a Run on Eyes Open, but for me this is their most complete album to date, certainly the most consistent of their four album career so far. Sure a couple of the tracks don’t hit the right spot for me such as the twinkling guitar ballad of Chasing Cars and It’s Beginning To Get To Me which comes across as filler.

When Snow Patrol are good though they can be really good, the best track on here for me is the duet with Martha Wainwright, Set The Fire To The Third Bar is a haunting track with both vocals complimenting each other perfectly. The single You’re All I Have is a decent knockabout guitar pop track as is Shut Your Eyes. Make This Go On Forever could be a potential single with its sweeping chorus and pleading piano ballad opening, it’s possibly the nearest descendent to Run on here. Hands Open is a heavy riffing track that see’s you nodding your head along involuntarily and You Could Be Happy is as nice on record as the title suggests.

The album closes with The Finish Line which sounds like a hymn, it’s also one of the strongest tracks on the album and closes things off nicely. You then get three ‘bonus’ tracks which I’ve never understood being put onto CDs. The tracks are either part of the album or they aren’t and they were either good enough to feature or not…please make your mind up don’t kid us that this is some kind of bonus. They interfere with the flow of the album and what should have been a great finish to the album is left feeling strange as its suddenly the fourth to last track rather than last.

Continue