Albums: Snow Patrol: The Forest Is The Path

Snow Patrol: The Forest Is The Path

All; The Beginning; Everything’s Here and Nothing; Your Heart Home; This is the Sound of Your Voice; Hold Me in the Fire; Years That Fall; Never Really Tire; These Lies; What if Nothing Breaks; Talking About Hope; The Forest is the Path
Polydor

Snow Patrol return with their first new album in six years—the wait, it appears, has been worthwhile.

The new LP is the former quintet's eighth overall and first as a trio after the departure of long-term members, drummer Jonny Quinn and bassist Paul Wilson, though one piece that still fits is the sweeping melodies that seem destined to be performed in arenas and stadiums, such is their grandiose style.

The comparisons to Coldplay and to a certain aspect of Kodaline are present, though bringing in producer Fraser T. Smith has added a commercial edge to their sound, which is epic and brims with emotion and hope for the future.

Band leader Gary Lightbody can still come up with great songs, as evidenced by the opening track, All. The mood takes an optimistic turn on The Beginning, where Lightbody sings that “there is nothing here for me in these past lives; there is only what I wasn’t yet.”

Yes, the more upbeat songs like Hold Me In The Fire contrast with the downbeat ones like This Is The Sound of Your Voice, Lies, and What If Nothing Breaks.

Closing with the album title track, the song is reminiscent of an eighties power ballad, which continues in the Snow Patrol tradition of writing of love and lost on an album that has definitely been worth the wait.