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Snow PatrolFinal Straw Polydor/UMG What I'm about to say may seem a little strange and certainly a little unlikely but after a couple of weeks I've finally put my finger on my only real complaint with this album: it has too many hooks. It's exhausting. It has proven that my basic litmus test of 'can and do I enjoy singing along' can soak the paper right through till it's a soggy melodic mess. Not that this album is messy; just over-lush and little intense. But as I said, it's my only real complaint. This is Snow Patrol's third album, though perhaps frontman Gary Lightbody's solo project Reindeer Section's 'Son Of Evil Reindeer' ought to count. 'Son Of Evil Reindeer' was where I first came across Lightbody's often deeply emotional lyrics: "And when you broke my heart / you broke it into shards of glass." Cheery, to be sure. The lyrics on 'Final Straw' display Lightbody's knack of capturing an emotional moment and exploring it from a number of angles. The opening How To Be Dead is one of those relationship conversations with an incongruous bright melody while the first single Spitting Games laments the rules of attraction. Chocolate is short and poppy with a great guitar riff and driving snare drum while Run is a slow, sometimes-dirgey-sometimes-bright (think Coldplay) but definitely a strange choice for a single at a run time of almost six minutes. The less melodic (though hardly bereft of melody) Wow is catchy distorted guitar driven power pop single-in-waiting. Exhaustion aside, 'Final Straw' is a well-paced and accessible album that will continue to enjoy high rotation on my stereo.  |
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