Hmmm... where do the music lovers stand with Snow Patrol? Do they view their music as 'life-changing', or 'piss-annoying'? I believe them to have the capability of writing some blinding music: 'blinding' meaning the good sense and the bad. Since drinking from the goblet of radio-friendliness with Final Straw, the predecessor of Eyes Open, oppurtunities are wide open for them. Singles such as Run (one of the best songs of its year), Chocolate and How To Be Dead cemented them as indie-rock staples. The next LP, the aforementioned Eyes Open, is released 2006, and the first single (You're All That I Have) is vastly unimpressive. Chasing Cars followed: a fantastic record, but became stale due to extensive playing on all stations. The fresh new track which is now lifted, Open Your Eyes, is the 'title' track of the record... and hey, it sounds good.
A basic guitar strum is all the start of the song is - a while later a very irish-sounding vocal conjures up a well-realized melody. The guitar-and-vox duet carries on, a mild dashing of percussion is added, and first showing of the great chorus. The majority of the track continues in this simple style, but not losing its tension that something good will happen soon. And it does - in the form of cymbals and flanged electric guitars crashing up a joyous ruckuss. The explosion sounds good, and even quite moving. That's until you get into the five-trillionth bar of the fucking thing. When the section finally does end (gratefully for the listener), the final verse quietly hymns its hushed passage and Open Your Eyes completes its rites of 'Radio 1, here we come'. The track really suffers from its feel that it wants to be an epic, but simply isn't: the notion is apparent that Snow Patrol may have extended the entire electric guitar bridge just so the song tips over the five-minute mark. A shame, as the lyrics and singing are gentle and meaningful, both just on the right side of convincing.
I think it's fair to say that Snow Patrol are good songwriters, but wank about too much with grandeur and get drowned in their collective cum (a horrible metaphor, but true). Songs like these are what we want to hear; just not too much (I'm looking at you, radio).
Overall - 7/10
Get it? - It's good enough.
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