the newly familiar

Snow Patrol's Eyes Open was an album that took me by surprise. As I didn't know much of the band at the time I purchase the album, a first listen threw it provided an awakening of sorts...the album provided a new yet also familiar audio soundscape: while not an entirely innovative sound it offered something fresh and full of life.

A Hundred Million Suns opens with a familiar, driving and pulsing track, "If There's a Rocket Tie Me to It." An expression of the small bits and pieces you can take with you upon a loss or an end, Gary Lightbody aptly summarizes as he sings "a fire a fire, you can only take what you can carry." Very much the feeling and reality of a relationship coming to a close.

The emotionality of Lightbody's voice, part of what sets this group apart from so many others, continues on into the album's next track, "Crack the Shutters." An ode of love and a powerful expression of how it feels when you are happy to spend nothingness with a person, Lightbody shines as he sings the opening portion of the chorus...once again where the driving and pulsating Snow Patrol signature kicks in.

As is clear from the opening tracks, the album is in many ways a natural progression and continuation of previous work. Importantly, the result is not stale. It's fresh and welcome and this is because it's not just the same formula repeated over and over again. Similar driving rhythms and subject matter are intertwined with new sounds, new lyrics, a slightly altered presentation of Lightbody's vocals, and an overall package that is different yet comforting. It's a truly impressive feat to make what really is new and different seem so familiar.

"Take Back the City" provides Lightbody's vocals in an ever so slightly different manner and provides a song that you will want to rock out to and just sing along with. Somewhat of an opposite is the slowed down "Set Down Your Glass" with its quiet, relaxing sound and pace...you again are treated to feeling Lightbody can put into his lyrics.

The album closes with the 3 part "The Lightning Strike"...at a little more than 16 minutes long it's really 3 different songs in one...each displaying the different directions the band is capable of going in with its sound. Not a bad way to close it out.