The 14th of November saw Snow Patrol unveil their latest offering:
Fallen Empires. An album that, if anything like it's leading single, was set to
blow the listener away.
Fallen Empires opens with I'll
Never Let Go, a song that automatically shows a different side to Snow
Patrol’s music, primarily thanks to a stabbing synth line. However, lead singer
Gary Lightbody's vocals let you know exactly who this is. Soon enough, the drums
and electric guitar kick in and you settle into the music. The brief moment of
unease at the thought of something too different disappears, and you realise
just how well it all works.
With the first single from the album, Called Out In The Dark, being the second track you know Snow
Patrol mean business. The vocals in the chorus are almost haunting, but are
balanced by how upbeat the song is as a whole. A synth bass helps the verses
move along while, again, sounding perfectly in place in a Snow Patrol song.
As the album progresses the guitars and synths interchange in
prominence. This can be seen in the second single from the album, This Isn't Everything You Are – a song
that reminds me of moments in Snow Patrol history like Signal Fire, or even Run.
This song is, in a word, beautiful. The addition of the L.A. Inner City Mass
Gospel Choir helps make the chorus epic. With lyrics that can really hit home,
it puts a shiver down your spine and is the first track on the album to really
blow you away.
A third of the way through the album we see a change of tempo, with
acoustic guitar, piano and female vocals on one of the softer tracks of the
album: The Garden Rules. However,
things don't stay slow and soft for too long. The tempo picks up again for
title track Fallen Empires, which you could mistake for a Mumford And Sons
track as it starts. Before long, though, a synth line comes in again which
keeps it in tune with the rest of the album.
At the half way mark you're treated to what can only be described as one
of the most beautiful, lyricless interludes to feature on any modern album. Berlin lightens your mood, which, half
way through a Snow Patrol album, is much more than welcome.
As the album progresses, we are treated to more acoustic guitar and
piano in tracks like Lifening and New York. The latter, if up to me, would
be the next single off this album as it has the Snow Patrol stamp, with the new
recurring synth twist. In The End has 'classic Snow Patrol' written all over it, and Those Distant Bells is another acoustic track with female vocals.
For some reason these seemed to lie a little flat in comparison to the rest of
the album. They are fantastic songs, but they simply didn't have the same
beauty conveyed through the rest of the album. The Symphony doesn't hide the fact that it's a straight up pop song, and why should
it? It is the happiest track on the album and quite frankly, 6 minutes didn't
seem like long enough. This is a song that could be listened to on repeat for
hours.
Fallen Empires ends on The
President and Broken Bottles Form A
Star. The former being another heart-wrenching piece of music that could
easily bring a tear to your eye, which leads nicely into the finale of the
album: another instrumental that proves that Snow Patrol don't need vocals for
their songs to have depth.
This album is said to "redefine Snow Patrol as an altogether more
ambitious, more expansive, creative force.” This album does just that. It takes
what you would normally expect from this band and transforms it into something
new, but at the same time easily recognisable as Snow Patrol.
Snow Patrol - Fallen Empires is out now through all reputable retailers.
JL
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