Chocolate

Clearly subscribers to the “strike while the iron is hot” school of album promotion, no sooner has the Patrol’s breakthrough hit ‘Run’ exited the British top ten than the Northern rockers are rush-releasing the follow-up single. As the title suggests, ‘Chocolate’ is a warm, anthemic number in the Coldplay/Starsailor mould, although it’s nowhere near as exciting as the Jesus And Mary Chain buzz of a prime-time Snow Patrol number like ‘Starfighter Pilot’. To paraphrase comedian David O’Doherty, Gary Lightbody and co. are here straying so close to the middle of the road, they could probably quite comfortably stick cat’s eyes down on the asphalt. No matter: that Ambassador gig on the 27th should be a cracker.