Music Review
(Universal Music Group)
By Philip Ellefson
"I'll Never Let Go" opens Snow Patrol's new album, "Fallen Empires," with a creative departure from the band's safe, standard pop-rock. It blends dense synthesizers with a blues-inspired dissonance. With its dark choral arrangements in the chorus, the album creates a fascinating and conflicted atmosphere.
Unfortunately, the next three songs regress into Snow Patrol's unremarkable sound and non-descript lyrics from past albums.
On "Called Out in the Dark," the album's first single, frontman Gary Lightbody sings, "We are listening and we're not blind / This is your life, this is your time." Similarly weak, vague lyrics run throughout the album.
The songs on "Fallen Empires" rarely deviate from a standard verse-chorus form and most have subdued beginnings and endings. Although this arrangement works on some songs, like the laid-back "Those Distant Bells," it mostly fails to be interesting.
However, the album is not without its strong points. The title track returns to the minor, bluesy tone established in the first song, and its stark vocals form an engaging tension. Two short instrumental songs, "Berlin" and "Broken Bottles Form a Star (Prelude)," have a playful, celebratory tone that adds a new dimension to a mostly mediocre album.
Although Snow Patrol begin to break out of their mold on "Fallen Empires," they mostly stick to their typical sound.
