Snow Patrol: "A Hundred Million Suns"

About a year ago, Snow Patrol made it big in the US with their slow-progressing love song, Chasing Cars, and to be honest I got very tired of it after just a few listens. It wasn't an interesting song at all, just a simple pop melody that could do well on the radio, and really sounded nothing like the rest of their album. But in the past month-ish, I'd started listening to their last two albums (Eyes Open and Final Straw) a LOT. Probably once or twice a day each, from start to finish (I get sooort of obsessive when I like an album).

So, I was pretty excited to hear they had a new album coming out about a week ago (I never pay attention to music news, so I get the shit surprised out of me when I go on Wikipedia and look at bands' pages and see "new album to be released NEXT WEEK!". It happens a LOT XD) entitled A Hundred Million Suns. Upon first listen, I honestly thought it was a completely horrible album. Everything sounded very samey, and in some parts I thought their vocalist, Gary Lightbody, had turned into a robot over the past two years.

However, I gave it another chance and I guess AHMS is just one of those growers, instead of an "OMG-I-want-to-make-love-to-this-album-after-one-listen" album, because now it's clear that this is a great album from a great band. What elevates Snow Patrol above most other bands nowadays, in my eyes, is that instead of simply going with the success of their huge, boring, elephant of a hit single (otherwise known as a Coldplay X&Y) and making an album full of huge, repetitive songs that rely purely on hooks, they decided to go in the opposite direction with this album. This is clearly not "Chasing Cars II", and there's not a single song on the album that sounds much like it at all.

It opens with "If There's A Rocket Tie Me To It", which is a good, pounding rock tune that isn't very memorable but does a good job at introducing the mood of the album, though it definitely doesn't match "You're All That I Have" off of Eyes Open. The other ten songs on the album all clearly sound like Snow Patrol, but they have a more experimental feel than most of the bands' previous material. Whether it's the distant vocals on "Lifeboats", crashing drums keeping the beat, handclaps providing a rhythm on "The Golden Floor", or guitars that drift in and out of the soundscape, this album feels distinctly seperate from Snow Patrol's past work. 

The album does have some glimpses of the catchy hooks of the past however, most clearly on its lead single, "Take Back the City", which sounds different from most of the rock out on the airwaves at the moment and should help give Snow Patrol a more accurate identity in the US. "Crack the Shutters" also has the same catchiness, but it manages to keep its ballad-ish lyrics pushing forward with a very up-front beat in the chorus. 

If there's any point where this album lacks, it's in the second half, where three or four moderate tempo songs sort of seem to blend together. But the biggest surprise comes in the form of a bonus/hidden track called "The Lightning Strike", which is a three part epic-song made to be sort of like a sonic journey through a thunderstorm. Lasting over 16 minutes long, it's by far the longest, most creative tune ever to come from this band, and it's a very interesting listen, if you happen to have 16 minutes free ;-)

So, what do I think of A Hundred Million Suns? Well, it's definitely different than Snow Patrol's older albums, but in a good way. They're starting to take a step towards where they should be; an inventive guitar band, instead of a catchy pop-rock band. AHMS is by no means a super revolutionary album, just a step in the right direction. If I had to rate it, I'd say it deserves something like a 8/10