ALBUM REVIEW: Snow Patrol – Reworked

7/10

INTERVIEW: Snow Patrol's Jonny Quinn - "There was a real fear amongst us that the band might be over." 3

To celebrate their 25th Anniversary, Snow Patrol have reworked tracks from their back catalogue and added three new ones to show us their hits spanning the decades in a new style.

Twenty-five years into a career the band have achieved one billion global track streams, five UK platinum albums, an Ivor Novello award and Grammy and Mercury Music Prize nominations, Reworked marks a period of looking back and taking stock of what has happened. Snow Patrol does not look like they are going to stop now. “After 10 years of no success, no-one – least of all us – expected us to go on to sell 17 million albums, headline festivals and play to thousands of people all over the world,” says frontman Gary Lightbody. The idea for the Reworked album took shape as the band were touring their hugely successful 2018 record Wildness.

The first track from Reworked is fan favourite Take Back the City. This version has a soft piano intro and shows the raw voices of Lightbody and the rest of the band. The song has choral like qualities now it has been stripped back to its bare bones. Acoustically this version works well and is tastefully done, the song is still recognisable and a worthy album opener.

Open Your Eyes hasn’t changed too much apart from the intro; it is different but is still recognisable. Furthermore, the reworked version takes me back to my teens as Eyes Open was the first Snow Patrol album I owned. The stripped-down version shows the capabilities of Lightbody’s voice, soft but powerful. Of the new tracks, Time Won’t Go Slowly has the slowness and simplicity to remind you of Coldplay but the essence to be recognisable as a Snow Patrol song.

The second new song Made of Something Different Now, is not a personal favourite and may take some getting used to. It is a very different sounding track from what you would expect from Snow Patrol. All the new songs step away from the acoustic setting of the reworked tracks with more polished performances that you would expect from a standard album. The track appears to be about someone having a break up saying they are ‘made of something different now I’m made of everything you couldn’t take with you’ however they then go on to say that ‘can’t leave without you’ which makes the song slightly confusing and leads me to believe it could be a dream or a memory.

Finally, the anthem that everybody belts out whether at their gig or in the car is Chasing Cars. Every band has the song they are recognised for and fans belt out time and time again – Chasing Cars is Snow Patrols belter. It is now the most played song on UK radio in the last 20 years. Originally released in 2006 it never reached number 1 but remained in the charts for 3 years. Lightbody has previously said that “it’s an emotionally open and simple song. But it is also unabashedly a love song and we don’t really have any others like it”. From the intro of this reworked version isn’t obvious that its Chasing Cars but once it gets going the ballad reignites in its new form with has as much passion as the original version. It will yet again unify an audience and get them belting out the song time and time again.

These 16 inspiring, tracks allow Snow Patrol to embrace the past. Reworked is a chance for the band to show any fan old or new their history, their legacy and give us a brief look of what is yet to come.

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Helen Russell 25 Articles
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