‘Right,’ I tell myself unconvincingly, ‘be professional about this and listen to the track without preconceptions’. Which I do. five times, just to be absolutely clear that this is yet another bland offering from Slow Patrol.
I didn’t mind ‘Set The Fire To The Third Bar’ (the one they did with Martha Wainwright a while back). That had real passion, a sense of dynamism and crescendo. What’s more, you could hardly hear Gary Lightbody’s voice.
But Snow Patrol’s new song, ‘Open Your Eyes’, is so dull that it seems to start at about mid-morning and end just after teatime. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good ballad, but these ice men too frequently patrol the predictable. It’s like having to watch a bad film that you already know the ending to. Frame by frame.
Clutching at straws, the only redeeming feature of ‘Open Your Eyes’ is that if you close your eyes and concentrate hard enough, the chorus sounds a bit like an Oasis B-side. Despite all this, they will doubtless ease into the top ten again, so what do I know?
I expressed my thoughts on this song to a friend the other day and he told me I was just jumping on the ‘trying to be uber cool’ band wagon. Well, if that’s the only transport out of Snow Patrol world, I’ll happily take it. Damn, I’ll drive! For more information you can visit: http://www.snowpatrol.com
