Album Review: Snow Patrol - Fallen Empires

Rating 4/5

On ‘Lifening’, one of several standout tracks on Snow Patrol’s mightily impressive sixth studio album, frontman Gary Lightbody gently croons the simple things that would make him happy: “Ireland in the World Cup/Either North or South/The Fanclub on the jukebox/The birds and, yes, the bees/This is all I ever wanted from life...”

As things turned out, the aptly named Lightbody got a lot more than he ever asked for. ‘Lifening’ is a word invented by the Bangor-born singer himself, which he defines as, “to have lightning and light thrust into your life, or to simply let them into your life.” While there was a long period of darkness – or at least wilderness – in the early years of Snow Patrol, the Irish/Scottish five-piece have had enough lightning and light thrust into their lives in recent times to power all of Vegas for, oh, at least 20 minutes.

Their rise to success started with 2003’s ‘Run’ and hasn’t really slowed since. They were chasing cars, and they caught a limousine. To date, the band – singer Lightbody, guitarist Nathan Connolly, bassist Paul Wilson, drummer Jonny Quinn and keyboardist Tom Simpson – have shifted in excess of 11 million albums and been responsible for a string of era-defining hit singles (‘Chocolate’, ‘Chasing Cars’, ‘Take Back The City’, etc.). Their records have been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, Grammys and MTV Europe Music Awards, with Final Straw landing them an Ivor Novello Award in 2005.

Of course, the multi-million euro question when you hit their level is, where to next? Bang out another soundalike album and keep the moolah rolling in? Or continue to develop artistically, experiment musically, and take chances? Of all the big bands the ‘00s threw up, the only serious stadium-sized sonic successors to U2 (from this side of the pond at least) are Coldplay, Muse and Snow Patrol. When they’re not supporting Bono & Co., the Patrol are still an arena act. But they’re only one more hit record away from that kind of stadium-sized mega-success... and probably still unsure if they even want to go there anyway.

On the strength of this, they may have little choice. Produced again by Dubliner Garret ‘Jacknife’ Lee, Fallen Empires was recorded from start to finish entirely on Californian sand. In October 2010, the band headed to The Joshua Tree National Park for initial writing sessions at Rancho De La Luna Studios. Although these yielded fruit in the shape of four near-finished songs, Lightbody then fell victim to an excruciating bout of writer’s block (possibly having blown his lyrical load on the Tired Pony project), which lasted almost three months and left him reconsidering his future as a rock star. Eventually the tender ministrations of Dr. Michael Stipe got him back on track.

Ready to rock, they set up a studio and recorded at Eagles Watch, a seafront house in Santa Monica with widescreen windows and breathtaking Pacific views. The glamorous location led Lightbody to write about home (needless to say, he also writes about heart). However, he’s shifted perspective. The album is bookended by two decidedly non-autobiographical songs about homelessness – the U2-esque ‘I’ll Never Let Go’ and the moving ‘The President’ (final track ‘Broken Bottles Form A Star’ is an instrumental coda to the latter). But the real meat of this album comes with epics like ‘The Weight Of Love’, ‘The Garden Rules’ and the title-track. One of the most talented lyricists of his generation, Lightbody has the knack of often being simultaneously poetic and anthemic. Sometimes he just does one: he’s rarely sounded as vulnerably heart-bruised as he does on ‘New York’.

Musically, they’re taking their cues from LCD Soundsystem’s The Sound Of Silver, U2’s Achtung Baby! and Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs. Connolly and Wilson were obviously given plenty of room to manoeuvre and they’ve created some memorable riffs. Quinn goes all-out nuts on ‘This Isn’t Everything You Are’. Simpson’s influence is more obvious on the techno and ambient moments. All told, these are musicians playing at the very top of their game.

They had a little help. Some backing vocals were recorded by the LA Inner City Mass Gospel Choir in Compton, and Troy Van Leuwen from Queens Of The Stone Age provides additional guitars on two tracks.

While their last studio album, 2008’s A Hundred Million Suns, was more self-consciously ‘arty’ than previous offerings, it could hardly be described as a major change in direction.

Although the band had hinted in interviews that Fallen Empires – whose 14 tracks play out at just under an hour – would showcase a completely new sound, it’s still instantly recognisable as Snow Patrol. This isn’t quite their Zooropa or Kid A, but the good news is that it’s probably the best album they’ve ever made – epic, adventurous, melancholic, joyful and deep, but still somehow endearingly populist and at times positively exhilarating.

Never considered the coolest of bands, and unfairly castigated as bland in certain critical quarters, here they’re trying to be all things to all men... and somehow almost succeeding. Their detractors will continue to hate them, but it’ll be a hollow kind of hate.

Fallen Empires isn’t quite their masterpiece, but it’s never less than masterful.