Light up, light up

After my whining about new albums from bands in January, it worked out pretty well for me this year. Guster's new album just came out, Snow Patrol's dropped a few weeks ago, and the Long Winters' comes out in late July. The Shins' has been mentioned as August, but since Guster's went from April to June and the Long Winters' from "first quarter" to late July, I'll believe that when I see it.

Anyway, I should pick up Guster soon (though I'm weighing waiting until Putting the Days to Bed - the Long Winters LP - is released on July 25 and ordering them both from Amazon, which ought to be several dollars cheaper and I doubt the Long Winters album will be easy to find anyway), but I did already get Eyes Open, the new Snow Patrol. I've listened to it through a couple times. Early impressions:

Track 1: "You're All I Have" - The stylistic brother to Final Straw's "Spitting Games," which is one of my two favorite tracks on that album. I'm a little surprised this wasn't the first single since it's so bouncy and radio-ready. I also appreciate albums that kick into gear right from the beginning (which is how I usually start my mix CDs, as well), so Eyes Open has that over Final Straw, which starts with the marginally draggier "How to be Dead."

Track 2: "Hands Open" - When I first heard this on the radio, I wasn't a fan, but I've since come around. It's not as major-key happy as "You're All I Have," but it's still pretty rocking with a catchy chorus. I may be alone among SP fans in finding the hipster name-drop of Sufjan Stevens to be a bit tiresome, but the song isn't really any worse for it.

Track 3: "Chasing Cars" - And here we slow it down a little. Sort of. It starts off sounding sort of like a Reindeer Section song, but Lightbody ramps up the intensity in each successive chorus. By the time we get to the third, the song has built itself into a virtual anthem, before dropping out again for the last chorus repetition. It's low-key and epic all at once.

Track 4: "Shut Your Eyes" - This one keeps reminding me of Peter Gabriel for some reason. I think it's the little wobbly sound in the chorus that sounds sort of like the one in "Sledgehammer." Anyway, I love the pace of the song, and the chorus is a perfect change in tune from the repetitions of the verses. The airy backing vocals late in the song are also enjoyable. Unlike other tracks on the album, this one never picks up, but it doesn't have to.

Track 5: "It's Beginning to Get to Me" - Great, great chorus. I particularly love the "and no one knows what this fight's about" line. Other than that, nice song; the keel is perhaps a bit even but there's nothing wrong with that. Decent shift at the end into a strong coda.

Track 6: "You Could Be Happy" - The jack-in-the-box sound is interesting, if nothing else. The lyrics are perhaps a bit depressing in that Death Cab for Cutie way, but it's a pleasant enough song to listen to.

Track 7: "Make This Go On Forever" - At 5:47, it's the album's longest song, and one could accuse Lightbody of taking the title literally - except the driving chorus is so intense it's a very easy song to forgive. The sweeping power and (as usual) simple poetry of Lightbody's lyrics are a potent combination, and drew me in as had "Somewhere a Clock is Ticking," the closest song on Final Straw to this one. There is a shift at about 4:25 where the song turns back into one-guy-at-a-piano for the final minute-plus, which is a tad awkward but nothing terrible.

Track 8: "Set the Fire to the Third Bar" - Another killer chorus. I'm not sure if Martha Wainwright's guest vocal has a real point; it blows a bit hot and cold for me in terms of sound, since her voice can get a bit oddly squeaky at times, but the "lovers singing to each other" plot - at least, you could certainly interpret the style choice as having to do with such a song plot - helps the song's intensity, as does the pulsating chorus.

Track 9: "Headlights on Dark Roads" - I'm not a huge fan of the verses; this might be my least-favorite track on the album because of them. The choruses are much more enjoyable, but something about them bugs me; I think it's just the word choice, because Lightbody does have a minor tendency to use similar words a lot ("grace" and "clear" are a couple that always stick out; they're not exactly "orthodontist" and "calligraphy," but they're not "the" and "a" either). If I wanted to hear a dozen words show up in every song, I'd buy another Destroyer album. The "oo-woos" in the chorus work better in "You're All I Have," too. Still, not a terrible song at all, and when you can say that about the worst one, it's a strong album.

Track 10: "Open Your Eyes" - Second-longest track by just six seconds. With a slowly building pace and Lightbody's delivery of the chorus, it actually sounds a lot like a U2 song to me. Just before the four-minute mark, the pace builds to a sonic explosion of pounding guitars and what sounds like some strings involved as well, which then blasts through the final nearly two minutes until Lightbody reins it back in right at the end. U2 is definitely the best comparison, and it works perfectly on that level for me, the sort of song that can ramp up and rock an arena, even while retaining its soul.

Track 11: "The Finish Line" - Even lighter and airier than Final Straw's cool-down finisher, "Same," this is a nice sorbet to clear your rock palate, and proof that Lightbody can do thumping arena rockers for two-thirds of an album and still maintain his indie cred.

So, this album versus Final Straw? Honestly, I'm not totally sure. There's a lot of great stuff that I want to listen to over and over, but I don't know that it can ever resonate quite as much with me, since Final Straw was where I got on board. That's not the album's fault, though. It's an excellent album if you like anything else Snow Patrol have done, certainly, and in some respects the sound is more complex. Even if it's not Final Straw, I feel good in saying that Eyes Open easily deserves its place on the shelf.