Final Straw

Final Straw Artist: Snow Patrol
Label: Interscope Records
Category: Music


Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Format: Hybrid SACD
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 602498663233
EAN: 0602498663233
ASIN: B00024IPCY


Release Date: 2004-08-24

Final Straw


Related Categories:

General General
Categories | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Indie Rock Indie Rock
Categories | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Twee Pop Twee Pop
Categories | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
General General
Categories | Rock | Styles | Music
Pop Rock Pop Rock
Categories | Pop | Styles | Music

Tracks:

  1. How to Be Dead
  2. Wow
  3. Gleaming Auction
  4. Whatever's Left
  5. Spitting Games
  6. Chocolate
  7. Run
  8. Grazed Knees
  9. Ways & Means
  10. Tiny Little Fractures
  11. Somewhere a Clock Is Ticking
  12. Same

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  1. Hopes and Fears
  2. Brothers in Arms
  3. When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Not quite the final straw.......2005-02-23

After several solid albums in the UK, Snow Patrol gets some US attention with their breakout album, "Final Straw." Their melancholy rock'n'roll has a sort of chilly, late-autumn sound and a lot of songs about falling-out with lovers, but avoids being the cliched, whiny album about The End of the Band Leader's Relationship.

"Run" serves as the most polished, radio-oriented song -- smooth and vaguely Coldplayish -- but songs like "Run" and "Spitting Games" take a different tack: More rough indie-rock with some wicked basslines and a solid rhythm. The most musically rich song is "Ways and Means," a magnificent, slow-grinding song that includes violins, synths and cymbals.

Snow Patrol don't really forge any new paths into the world of rock music. Most of their songs are rooted in gritty indie-rock bands, as well as some classics like Pink Floyd. But they do have a solid, engaging style, in the form of a "message": Gary Lightbody seems to be asking his lovers to please, please, PLEASE understand him.

The songs almost border on dance music sometimes -- some strings, barely-restrained chugging guitars, solid basslines and the occasional lovely roll of electronic sound serve to contrast the melancholy tone. It seems a little weird to have such musically upbeat instrumentation while singing about being drenched in the rain. But it saves "Final Straw" from being yet another mopey pop album about The End of the Relationship.

Gary Lightbody's vocals sometimes get buried under the drums; they are best highlighted in songs like "Run," where the sound is lower-key. They do need serious help with some of the songwriting. "My heart is bursting in your perfect eyes/ As blue as oceans and as pure as skies." While these songs have an earnestly sweet quality, it can't be denied that the writing is pretty banal.

Music Album:

  1. Relayer ~ Youngsbower
  2. Excerpts From a Love Circus ~ Lisa Germano
  3. Women & Songs 7 ~ Various Artists
  4. Orphan ~ Darwin's Waiting Room
  5. The Best of Demented Are Go ~ Demented Are Go
  6. Jeremy Toback ~ Jeremy Toback
  7. Greatest Hits ~ The Spencer Davis Group
  8. Live ~ Bachman-Turner Overdrive
  9. Wings Over America ~ Wings
  10. The Big Bubble: Pt. 4 of the Mole Trilogy ~ The Residents

Music Album

Music Album

Music CD

Steamin With the Miles Davis Quintet (20 Bit Mastering) ~ Miles Davis Quintet

Live At The Bottom Line

Noonday Cafe

Dial & Oatts ~ Garry Dial & Dick Oatts

Lil Darlin' ~ George Benson

Conversando Con el Fueye ~ Ciriaco Ortiz

Polkas con Mariachi ~ Various Artists

Best Harvest ~ Tomoyo Harada

Uns Dias: Ao Vivo ~ Os Paralamas do Sucesso

Fuse of Love ~ Mai Kuraki