In adverse times some people thrive & create unique and precious things to inspire the rest of us – and Gary Lightbody & co have used this time of pandemic crisis to create something quite special. Bringing together thousands of fans as collaborators (aka ‘The Saturday Songwriters’), this five track Snow Patrol EP was built on chords, melodies and lyric suggestions from fans via Instagram: Lightbody then recorded the songs DIY style at home.
As you’d expect from Snow Patrol, the songs are acoustic, folky and full of warmth and tenderness - with their usual indie-power ballad tone fittingly dimmed.
The current crisis is obliquely referenced but threaded throughout the songs metaphorically as distance in love and in a longing for renewed intimacy; the lyrics are therefore universally poignant, looking back to a time of lost connections but looking forward tentatively with hope, while we drink ‘panic wine’ & listen to the ‘loudest birdsong’.
Lightbody’s voice has acquired a new clarity of timbre and has a heft that powers the simple production, guitar & some banjo twanging, bolstered with the occasional uplifting choir burst. The songs become low key, subtle but quietly moving.
With track titles such as ‘Reaching Out To You’ & ‘On the Edge Of All This’, reassuring and reflecting, this is a mini-balm for troubling times to ease the soul and remind us that we are (with apologies) all in this together.
In a dark & splintered time when people have been isolated, miserable & hopeless, Snow Patrol have created a hybrid egalitarian unified beam of light. As Lightbody assures, ‘There’s another kingdom where we’ll meet again, with the fire behind us and the light ahead’.
All proceeds from sales will be donated to foodbank & anti-poverty charity The Trussell Trust. Bringing people together for solidarity and artistic endeavours, producing a little miracle of an EP in lockdown conditions and giving back to the most vulnerable; honestly, irrespective of whether this band is your cup of tea or not, could you not love Gary & the boys more?
Reviewer - Tracy Ryan
on - 12/9/20
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