I knew I hated Coldplay even before Snow Patrol released their sparkling third record, Final Straw, with "Run" as its anthemic centerpiece, and the British press anointed their lead singer Gary Lightbody 2004's Chris Martin. Lightbody's straightforward songs about the nuances of grown-up romance moved me more than they did Pitchfork reviewer Stephen "Doozy" Deusner, but other publications' breathless Rush of Blood comparisons made me queasy.
Thankfully, Jeepster has a new distribution deal for Snow Patrol's first two albums, which hadn't been available in the U.S. since 2001. The illicitly downloadable versions of these records-- along with those by side project The Reindeer Section-- were my introduction to Lightbody. Snow Patrol's sophomore release, When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up, somehow slipped under Pitchfork's radar at the time, but nearly all of Final Straw's defining elements were there: naked, lovelorn lyrics, simple melodies, and the occasional whorls of well-placed noise. Everything, that is, except the faintest echo of Gwyneth Paltrow's beau.
Where his band's debut, Songs for Polar Bears, tested out a broad expanse of subject material, When It's All Over finds Lightbody discovering his strength as an observer of relationships. Lightbody's narrator is ever aware of his own faults, watching helplessly as he fucks everything up-- though whether he's slept with his lover's best friend or merely stayed out late without calling, it's hard to say. In "On/Off", a subtler precursor to later gems like "Chocolate" or "How to Be Dead", Lightbody confesses, "I knew it would hurt you, but not like this." Lightbody idol Lou Barlow might add, "I know you're lying, too."
Snow Patrol's debut earned them not a few comparisons to fellow Glaswegians Belle & Sebastian, but the disc also touched upon pre-Parklife Blur ("Starfighter Pilot") and bizarro hip-hop (the unfortunate "Absolute Gravity"). On the group's second outing, only airy "Batten Down the Hatch" and pensive "Firelight"-- which features piano from then-labelmate Stuart Murdoch-- have much in common with B&S.; Elsewhere, Snow Patrol's arrangements begin to coalesce into the sound that's won them international fame, from the crunching power chords of opener "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again" to the gussied-up Sebadoh verses of shoulda-been-hit "One Night Is Not Enough".
In retrospect, When It's All Over sounds like a trial run for Final Straw. Lightbody's unsparing eye for interpersonal dynamics and his knack for a hook were already worthy of the Barlow comparisons. But the new album's soaring "bigness"-- likely influenced by Coldplay's now-ubiquitous arena-pop-- is absent. I miss it. Not much, though.
