Review Summary: More of the same.
With
Eyes Open, Snow Patrol more or less broke. While the record was an irritating mess of maudlin alternative rock and hook-free powerpop, there were a few radio-primed singles sprinkled among the ether, chief of which being “Chasing Cars”. More derivative of a Coldplay track than guitar-based powerpop, of which the band had impressed critics like Pitchfork Media with and had built a career on, “Chasing Cars” was admittedly a genius track to break Snow Patrol into the mainstream. Gary Lightbody’s (wtf Lightbody?) vocals were emotional and genuine, the chorus was huge and catchy, and the production was immaculate enough to render the song perfect for conquering adult-contemporary radio. That track, by itself, made Snow Patrol big. And if
A Hundred Million Suns, the band’s fifth album, is anywhere near better than
Eyes Open, then Snow Patrol has the opportunity to be huge..
Unfortunately,
A Hundred Million Suns is simply more of the same. Snow Patrol has now more or less completely abandoned their guitar-pop, indie rock sound for good, preferring to craft huge alt-rock ballads that are so clean and non-threatening that you could practically eat off them. This isn’t always a bad thing: the production here is very, very tidy, and every track bubbles with a multitude of instruments, including synths, bells, and violins. But the fact that nearly every single song here follows the same exact structure--sparse verse, the build-up into a more instrumentally dense chorus, back down into a slightly less sparse verse, huge chorus, end, rinse, repeat--makes
A Hundred Million Suns seem a little homogeneous. Seriously, it’s extremely frustrating hearing so many bland songs that are so obviously similar in a row. You feel as if you know the band can do better, but are too lazy, or too Scottish (just kidding Scottish people), to actually work and reach their potential.
Sure, there’s the rare standout to be found in the heap. “Engines”, of course, doesn’t do anything to differentiate itself structurally, but is one of the few songs here that are actually catchy (most tracks feature unforgivably boring and forgettable hooks), and static-y synths and the rare power chord make the track seem slightly more interesting musically than others here. “Disaster Button”, which is probably the second-most memorable thing found on
A Hundred Million Suns, is the one place where Snow Patrol simply just rock it out. You can almost see guitarist Nathan Connolly jumping in excitement that he gets to play some power chords. Lightbody, whose vocals are bland and unremarkable throughout, actually sings with some excitement and venom here, especially when he spits “you’re such a ***ing mess” with as much fury as he probably can. Not to mention that “Disaster Button” features a simply infectious hook, as well as an impressive swell of feedback and synths to close the track off. If Polymer was smart, they’d choose this impressive track as
A Hundred Million Suns’s lead single.
But what had me most intrigued for this album, and what had me thinking that Snow Patrol was attempting something different and actually interesting before listening to
A Hundred Million Suns, was the final track. “The Lightning Strike” stretches to an astonishing sixteen minutes, and it’s probably the most surprising thing I’ve heard all year. Hell, beforehand, I’d be surprised if Snow Patrol ever wrote a track as long as eight minutes. “Lightning Strike” doesn’t disappoint either: containing an obvious post-rock influence in its structure of massive build-ups and its obnoxious use of every single instrument known to man (violins, synths, mandolins, glitch-y synths, tape loops, distorted guitars, and beautiful piano lines are all found here), the song more or less saves the album from being a complete disaster. The track is basically three separate verses from different songs strung together “Jesus of Suburbia”-style, but the sheer scope of the song and the emotion that the usually zombified Lightbody parlays throughout makes it all work out rather nicely. It’s a fine ending to a mediocre album.
You might have noticed that the only tracks I had anything good to say about were the last three on the album. Well, it’s true:
A Hundred Million Suns is incredibly top-heavy with crap: unforgivable, unremarkable crap. Trust me in that the first two-thirds of this album are so “business-as-usual” that it doesn’t deserve any in-depth analyzing at all, and are definitely not worth a listen. All those songs feature bland vocals, bland instrumentation, and bland yet smugly immaculate production. Not to mention, it’s pretty boneheaded to throw your best three songs in the back of the record. With
A Hundred Million Suns, Snow Patrol will shift units. But they sure as hell won’t be huge.
