Snow Patrol

"There are swaggering bands, bands who are in your face. And then there are bands who get hold of you somewhere else. I think it’s a heart thing, an intimacy thing. Like you know them and they know you. I think we are one of those bands." So says Snow Patrol singer and chief songwriter Gary Lightbody. And all the proof you’ll need is Snow Patrol’s new album "Eyes Open”, a collection of songs which more than makes good on the promise of it’s predecessor, 2004’s two million selling Final Straw. Recorded during a tumultuous and tempestuous 2005, "Eyes Open” is the work of a band who have scaled the heights ¬supporting U2 through Europe, appearing at Live 8 in both Hyde Park and Scotland ¬ but somehow stuck to their core values: beautiful powerful songs underscored by some of the most poignant and telling lyrics in rock. "It’s been an amazing couple of years. But when it came to writing the new album we were quite monastic. It was a question of "We’ve had our fun. None of that counts now. Don’t look back admiringly at your own footprints. It’s all lost unless this next step is truly exceptional."