Snow Patrol - New York

If anything, Snow Patrol's pertaining success story has to be celebrated. Where so many of their formative era have dropped off into that ghastly musical limbo of the unknown, Snow Patrol - while perhaps not always casting themselves as the Hollywood-scale rock maestros they were when they were soundtracking the likes of Spiderman - have settled themselves into a very attractive corner of the market. But their most recent studio effort - Fallen Empires - felt like more than that; it felt like a band still eager to prove themselves in so many ways. It was a band with a resonance and ability that was very much still burning in its prime - and New York, for all that it eschews the more radio-friendly mould we know Snow Patrol can do so well, is properly impressive.

New York sees Snow Patrol at their most moody and introspective and takes an almost tortuously long time to get going - but when it does, oh my is it worth the wait. Touching on the bands roots, it ranges from minimal acoustic strokes, beautifully poetic lyrics, to rousing stadium-splitting blasts of horn. It's an anthem of achievement, an affirmation of life, a calling on everything that Snow Patrol's existence has always been building towards. And just like the album itself, New York states plainly, 'We're Snow Patrol, we're still here, and we're still relevant.'

New York is released on the 30th April.

Snow Patrol - In The End

In many ways, In The End is a kind of meeting point between all the various sounds and incarnations Snow Patrol have manifested themselves as over the years. In particular, it acts as the halfway house between the previous two singles from their ace Fallen Empires album.

While the LP as a whole came across as a remarkably consistent body of work, standout singles seemed few and far between, so to a degree, In The End, with the resonance of its biblical-referencing key refrain 'we put these childish things away' always seemed like one of the more obvious choices.

While the track's opening is pretty standard Snow Patrol fare, the latter choruses resound with shimmery guitar chords and a real crystalline beauty - a more elegant form of the band, the production gleams with glacial beauty that recalls synth-rockers Delphic. Perhaps that, then, is where the band's future lies...

In The End lacks the sheer power and hook-quality of past Snow Patrol singles, but it more than makes up for it in terms of the new directions it pushes in. The middle-eight alone is the sound of a band still very much in their prime, still operating in the upper echelons of British rock.

In The End is released on the 13th February.

Snow Patrol - This Isn't Everything You Are

After the out and out synth-pop loveliness that was Snow Patrol's sublime Called Out In The Dark, you might have been inclined to think all of their new album Fallen Empires would be of the same vein.

You'd be wrong, new single This Isn't Everything You Are sees the band back to usual business, penning massive, string laced, soaring rock ballads. As far as things go, this one's pretty decent. It's no Chasing Cars though, but then, what is?

The good thing about Snow Patrol is that compared to their contemporaries, they're still banging out high quality tracks like this - their staying power is somewhat remarkable, and it's the steadfast power, weight and meaty guitar crunch of tracks like this that prove they have every right to still be around.

This Isn't Everything You Are is released on the 13th November.

Snow Patrol - Fallen Empires (Live Radio 1 session)

Snow Patrol are in my good books right now. First they deliver the dreamy pop glory of new single Called Out In The Dark, showcasing more of their cool new synth-pop direction (the video's brilliant too - always refreshing to see a band with a good sense of humour).

And now they've gone and done a frankly brilliant live version of Fallen Empires, the title track from their new album.

Full of spidery, whisp-like guitar and a throbbing bassline, the track is as darkly menacing as it is a real statement of the band's more artistic side.

As Radio 1's Zane Lowe put it when he played this live version on his show last night, Snow Patrol can be at times a very easy target for criticism - but then they come out with something like this, a song that shows they're still every bit the adventurous, exciting rock band.

Sonically, Fallen Empires is every bit the sound of a band in the prime of their careers - it feels lean and trimmed of any of the fatty production excesses many bands of Snow Patrol's age would be revelling in these days.

Keep up the good work Gary & Co. - Fallen Empires is available to download from iTunes here.

Watch the band play Fallen Empires live HERE.