Snow Patrol 'Up To Now' (Polydor) Released 09/11/09

Along with Coldplay, Snow Patrol hold claim to being possibly the most derided band ever to emerge from the UK independent circuit. Having formed initially as Shrug then Polarbear before arriving at their current moniker in the mid-1990s just as Britpop was about to take alternative guitar music into the mainstream, Snow Patrol spent the next ten years as almost perennial underachievers, sharing a label with the much higher feted Belle And Sebastian and stages with the likes of Pink Kross and Magoo. Indeed many outfits would have given up the ghost long before 2003’s breakthrough album ‘Final Straw’ unexpectedly catapulted them into the mainstream, even then taking almost a year from its release date to enter the upper echelons of the charts.

As befits many a band of their ilk, that success was largely due to the impact of one song, ‘Run’, which when all is said and done, structurally at least, wasn’t really too dissimilar to the majority of what Gary Lightbody and co. had been churning out previously, bar the earlier pre-Snow Patrol days. If anything, it could even be argued that they “happened” by accident, their first big break playing in front of thousand-plus capacity venues coming when they opened for Athlete’s hugely successful ‘Tourist’ jaunt in January of 2004.

If music were valued on persistence, Snow Patrol would get full marks every time. That’s not to say there is no artistic merit in what they’ve achieved either, but there’s no doubting that the aforementioned landmark single proved a pivotal point in the band’s career. So much so in fact, that they’ve spent the ensuing five years ever since trying to recreate ‘Run’ in various shapes and sizes across each subsequent album since. In a way, it’s probably somewhat ironic that X Factor winner Leona Lewis’ version is probably better known than the original these days, but at least Lightbody and co. can remain safe in the knowledge that every future soap opera tragedy will be soundtracked by ‘Chasing Cars’. Likewise every high budget television drama is bound to include ‘Open Your Eyes’ somewhere within its score, while ‘Spitting Games’ plays in the background over yet another Champions League goal montage.

Of course it would be unfair to simply accuse Snow Patrol of being nothing more than cynical cash-in merchants. They nurtured a formula, stuck to it, and eventually Mr Mondeo driver and his Sex And The City loving girlfriend stumbled across it and swore by it ever since.

However, at thirty songs in total, a double album of Snow Patrol featuring two recordings of ‘Run’ and ‘Chasing Cars’ not to mention possibly the worst cover version Gigwise has ever heard (step forward Zane “Jay Z” Lowe and his abominable cameo on Beyonce’s ‘Crazy In Love) is perhaps just a tad too excessive, although anyone with serious career aspirations towards climbing the managerial ladder would be well advised buying ‘Up To Now’ for their boss this Christmas.