Website: Snow Patrol
The Inside Pulse:
Snow Patrol, band #3,495 to come from England and vaguely sound like Coldplay. What reason is there to care? Well, there’s a line in “Hands Open” that almost legitimizes these guys – “Put Sufjan Stevens on/we’ll play your favorite song” – They referenced the pitchform performer of the year! They’ve got indie cred! They’ve got at least one CD in their collection that I totally respect! Oh, and their album isn’t that bad, either, even if getting out of Coldplay’s shadow is a completely futile experiment and should probably be left to people who play like Sufjan instead of those who simply mention people like him in their hits.
Positives:
Snow Patrol does the same sort of nice soft-rock that Coldplay does, and they do it well. They can’t pull off the quasi-epic falsetto kind of thing, so instead they focus on chorus hooks and rolling thunder-style guitars, and I think they’re better for it.
Negatives:
There really aren’t any holes in the plot, here. It’s a definite improvement over Final Straw, has plenty of radio-ready singles, and your girlfriend will like it. The only thing that would really be considered a weakness is that there’s nothing about them that makes them necessary. There’s no ground here that Coldplay hasn’t tread, and if you’re not a fan of that ground, you won’t enjoy this.
Cross-breed:
Coldplay mixed with U2 mixed with Bon Jovi. They’re better than this mix, but nothing else really comes to mind.
Reason To Buy:
You dig where modern rock is right now and you’d like to revel in some good brit pop for a while.
