Snow Patrol 'Open Your Eyes'

Chart Peak: 26

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Snow Patrol's album Eyes Open has gone 5 times platinum since its release isn May 2006. 'Open Your Eyes' is the 4th single to come from the album... The band are looking forward to playing a plethora of big festivals over the summer, including headline spots at T In The Park, Oxygen and V Festival.

It's not often that I can claim any kind of bragging rights, but I would like it to be put on the record that I was buying Snow Patrol records in the 20th century. I even saw them live (introduced by Ricky Gervais of all people) back when they only had one album's worth of material to play. And then suddenly, after about five years of my thinking them one of the most underrated bands in the country, they suddenly got big. And yet for me they were still a bit underappreciated, having apparently passed from obscure cult act to mainstream fixture it wasn't cool to like without passing "Go" (though doubtless they did collect £200). You might expect me to disown the later major-label stuff, but no, I bought Eyes Open the week it came out and though it was never more than my fourth favourite of their albums it has some great moments, including possibly my favourite track of their entire career, 'Set The Fire To The Third Bar'.

Having got the special edition album with the bonus DVD (not really worth the extra money, in truth) I can cite Gary Lightbody's sleevenote as proof of their intent to make this present track "an ever-building, rolling landscape", featuring more than forty performers between the choir, the string orchestra and the original band members. The idea was apparently to build up tension on a single chord for four minutes and then resolve it in the final two... the only trouble is, it doesn't work. Lightbody has a very pretty voice and the early part of the song is nice enough to listen to: in fact it's far too nice and the tension just doesn't build so there's nothing to release at the end. Over this length of time, it sounds as bland to me as all their music does to some people. I wasn't enthused about this as a single at the time and I haven't really changed my mind.

What's possibly most interesting about this inclusion is what it shows us about the direction Now! albums had to look in the download era. The single had peaked in February so it's unlikely that this it was expected to become a bigger chart hit: it seems to be here because, despite my reservations, it was a big airplay hit from a massive album and clearly was genuinely popular.

Also appearing on: Now 57, 64, 65, 67, 71, 74
Available on: Eyes Open