This article was originally published on beingtheremag.com, an independent music and film magazine that ran from 2004 to 2007. It is presented here as part of the Being There Magazine archive.
By Adam Anklewicz | Being There Magazine, July/August 2006
Label: Polydor
If you ever thought that Snow Patrol should sound like Coldplay, then this album is for you. Eyes Open is a straight-ahead brit-rock album, and takes Snow Patrol in a new direction from anything they had done before.
While you will hear elements of the indie pop from When It’s Over We Still Have To Clear Up and the commercial rock of Final Straw , Snow Patrol aren’t creating anything exciting on Eyes Open , and most importantly, there’s nothing catchy on the record, which is what they usually do best. Songs like “Ask Me How I Am” or “Run” are hard to get out of your head, and great examples of what Gary Lightbody and company can accomplish. None of the songs on Eyes Open fall into the category except one.
“It’s Beginning To Get To Me” is the poppy guitar rock that Snow Patrol fans are used to. It has the catchy melody and it is easy to sing along, but fails to carry the album. The highlight of the album is “Set Fire To The Third Bar.” Martha Wainwright joins Snow Patrol and provides great harmonies to Lightbody’s voice. The song isn’t great, but the performance redeems it. With these two songs Snow Patrol fail to inspire much confidence in their current direction and the mediocrity of the remaining nine songs is just a let down.
Fortunately, Snow Patrol’s former label Jeepster has re-released their first two albums, When It’s Over We Still Have To Clear Up and Songs For Polarbears with plenty of bonus tracks. These records will be able to fill any void left by the inadequacy of Eyes Open .