Album Review: Snow Patrol, The Forest Is The Path

It’s well documented that Snow Patrol have earned a PhD in doing things the hard way. And while they’re besties with elbow grease and no strangers to the occasional calamity, I think even the band’s leader Gary Lightbody would agree that when it came to crafting their eighth album, The Forest Is The Path, they out-did themselves in the seemingly insurmountable odds department.

Rocked by the departure of long serving rhythm section Jonny Quinn and Paul Wilson and reeling from an unsuccessful attempt at making a record, these NI heavyweights found themselves on the ropes.

However, another thing we’ve learned about the boys over the last three decades is that their very worst of times always produces their best music. While Hot Press has no doubt the now trio had more than their fair share of misery making their latest LP, I’m pleased to report that their first album in six years will also make their millions of fans very happy indeed.

Described by Lightbody as “the biggest sounding record we’ve ever made,” producer Fraser T. Smith, who has worked with everyone from Adele to Dave, has been credited with being their missing jigsaw piece – helping them to create an LP brimming with heart, hope and hooks.

Those qualities are all evident on 'This Is The Sound Of Your Voice’, a song of immense stadium-filling power, which finds Gary declaring: “And Belfast continues/ Never doubted it wouldn’t/ It’s climbed off the canvas more than any other city could’ve.” Amen to that!

Another track that'll be reaching out to Row Z is 'Never Really Tire', which starts off all mean 'n' moody – "Fuck your horizon!" Mr L intones darkly – before all rock 'n' roll hell lets loose.

“Standing in the middle of this swirling Möbius strip of force and energy, of positivity and light, was as exhilarating as anything I’ve experienced with Snow Patrol," is how Gary describes the song to our man Stuart Clark in an interview you'll be able to read shortly in Hot Press.

Drawing on '80s rock (‘Everything’s Here And Nothing’s Lost’) and their guitar driven early days in the '90s (‘Hold Me In The Fire’), they’ve also fortified their world famous sound with a welcome dose of dynamism (‘The Beginning’) and many tracks sound huge. Recent single ‘All’ is utterly irresistible and boasts one of the best choruses they’ve ever written - "All I know is holding you is all I ever wanna know/ But maybe I'm not brave enough to tell you so/ But I don't have the strength to watch you go" -while the moody, Bon Iver-flavoured ‘These Lies’ is buoyed by some gorgeous falsetto vocals from Gary and deserves to be a chart breaker.

"I was on the floor in the lotus position with the lights off and candles all around me – which was a pretty dramatic way to sing it!" Gary says of the latter, which is cut from the same confessional cloth as 'Run' and 'Chasing Cars'. Expect it to be mangled by TV talent show contestants worldwide.

An introspective, yet also uplifting offering, The Forest Is The Path signals another rebirth from these phoenixes and it’s full of soaring choruses and future classics.

8/10

You can order/listen to the album here.