Track Listing

1. You're All I Have
2. Hands Open
3. Chasing Cars
4. Shut Your Eyes
5. It's Beginning to Get to Me
6. You Could Be Happy
7. Make This Go on Forever
8. Set the Fire to the Third Bar - Snow Patrol, Martha Wainwright
9. Headlights on Dark Roads
10. Open Your Eyes
11. Finish Line

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #834 in Music
• Released on: 2006-05-09
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
"There are swaggering bands, bands who are in your face. And then there are bands who get hold of you somewhere else. I think it's a heart thing, an intimacy thing. Like you know them and they know you. I think we are one of those bands." So says Snow Patrol singer and chief songwriter Gary Lightbody.

And all the proof you'll need is Snow Patrol's new album Eyes Open, a collection of songs which more than makes good on the promise of its predecessor, 2004's two million selling Final Straw.

Values: beautiful powerful songs underscored by some of the most poignant and telling lyrics in rock. Eyes Open is Snow Patrol's post card from the cliff edge. It's going to be hard to ignore these songs in 2006.

Amazon.com
Snow Patrol are frequently compared to Coldplay in the press, which seems strange as they write far better songs and do not appear to be quite so self-hating, nor as rich. Their delightfully dour little pop songs do touch on the melancholic side of things, but the lyrics are wonderfully slice-of-life descriptions. Singer/lyricist Gary Lightbody gives a shout-out to Sufjan Stevens when on the punchy "Open Your Eyes" he sings, "The anger swells in my guts." Perhaps a better comparison would be American indie-rock act Sebadoh? Regardless, this band continues to surprise. If you went to see this mixed Scottish/Irish group on tour after hearing their wistful, breakout third album Final Straw, you might have been a bit confused by the rock juggernaut confronting you. Eyes Open is their most straightforwardly rock record yet, and thanks in large part to producer Garret Lee, it's their best. If there was ever perfect music to get lost to while driving around confused about a relationship, this is it. --Mike McGonigal

Customer Reviews

Beautiful....
I bought this album on a whim because I liked Final Straw and thought I'd see what their new stuff sounded like. Initially I was a bit skeptical, but after a couple of repeated listens, I think that this actually exceeds Final Straw musically and in lyrics. This is not guitar pop or indie music...this is lush, beautiful, modern music. It's adult...complex and interesting.

There are some truly amazing tracks on this record. Some are reminiscent of (similar in style to) "Fix You" by Coldplay. My favorites include: Make This Go On Forever, Chasing Cars, You're All I Have, and Open Your Eyes.

CD REVIEW: With hands, eyes, & ears open: Snow Patrol
Indie kids added Snow Patrol to their mixes with the band's 1998 debut "Songs for Polar Bears," whose title references a previous incarnation of the group. How could you not love a Scottish indie band with chops big enough to cover "Crazy in Love" by Beyonce Knowles as a B-side?(Yes, the bootylicious singer from Destiny's Child and "Austin Powers.")

Snow Patrol relies on atmospheric, pop-tinged melodies, shimmering keyboards, and distorted guitars characteristic of the Glasgow alternative scene of the 1990s, overlaid with lead singer Gary Lightbody's floating tenor. The band's fourth disc, "Eyes Open", builds on the band's signature style.

Songs like "Make This Go On Forever", "Headlights on Dark Roads", and duet with Martha Wainwright "Set the Fire To The Third Bar" hypnotize with dark imagery and minored vocal chords. "You Could be Happy" and "Shut Your Eyes" lend a sense of acoustic purity to the album.(Both were recorded live in one session; you can hear chairs creaking, breathing, and feet tapping in both, but it just adds to the mood.)

The self-described "emotional knife-twisting" of Lightbody's lyrics is absent from the album's biggest single to date, "Chasing Cars." Like "Run", "Chasing Cars" is a deceptively simple love song filled with "garden[s] bursting into life" and "wasting time" with the one you love. "Cars" gets a lot of radio play across the FM band in Boston, from Emerson College's eclectic WERS 88.9 to Top 40-Music-In-A-Can Kiss 108.Whatever station it's played on, it's almost always followed by a moment of silence and the DJ saying "Wow, what a beautiful song."

True to form, "Eyes Open" starts with aggressive guitar riffs and builds to a rousing, uplifting finish. Repetition of a single chorus "tell me that you'll open your eyes" and increasing production layers in "Open Your Eyes" pull listeners willingly across "The Finish Line." This last track reminds us that finish lines are "good place[s] to start."

If there's any justice left in the music industry, "Eyes Open" should be a starting point for even better things from this talented quintet.

I absolutely have been waiting for this album
I have to admit I am not all that familiar with this band. I heard one of their tracks on a movie I was watching recently and dediced to buy one of their cds. Without even knowing it....this is the cd I have been waiting for. I am just tired of listening to the same type of music and this band really does offer something different. The words, music and use of some instruments you wouldn't necessarily hear on a pop/rock album make it all the more worth listening to. I do love this album and will be looking forward to discovering more music from Snow Patrol. Thanks Snow Patrol for giving us such a great cd to enjoy.