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Every few years, a new act is randomly selected as a go-to critical punching bag: Who can forget the great “Coldplay Cold Shoulder” of 2004, or the “Belle & Sebastards” backlash of 2002? Anybody? Well, according to the Guardian, the U.K. press has selected a new scorn subject, and of all the middling Brit bands from which to choose, they’ve gone with the most middlingest of all: Snow Patrol.
Why Snow Patrol and not The Feeling, Orson, Keane, Athlete or, heck, Razorlight? Snow Patrol have sold loads of records in the past year, but so have Razorlight and The Feeling. They’re all over the telly, but so are Keane and Athlete. They make big, soppy, intangible stadium anthems but so do all the other bands listed above (and others who I’ve probably forgotten. Oh yes, Coldplay).
Here is my theory. Snow Patrol are disliked for two reasons. First, because for many years they were the definition of indie obscurity. Gary Lightbody was better known as an organizer of obscure-o compilations than a singer. Now they shift millions of units and get adulation in the US; it’s the classic case of sell-out.
Second, although you might want to hate their tunes, they stick in your ruddy head. I’ve got someone whining “if I just stay heeeere” in my head as I write.
Actually, we suspect that the Snow Patrol pile-on has less to do with the group’s ubiquity, and more to do with its sheer weeniness: One mid-tempo hospital-drama theme is all well and good, but when you’re cranking out dirge after dirge, with no end in sight, your legacy is doomed to be restricted to yearbook quotes and eulogies. That said, they’re still better than Razorlight.
Why does everybody hate Snow Patrol? [Guardian Music Blog]
They’re all over the telly, but so are Keane and Athlete
I pity the UK.
In the UK, they overhype a new guitar band every other week. Snow Patrol were no exception. What happens is that once one of those bands breaks even moderately in the states, the journos their turn on them. It happened with Travis and Keane. By the way, those “dirges” you complained about are HUGE over there! Especially around festival season.
If Starsailor or Turin Breaks would have gone gold here, the same shit would have happened that happened to Snow Patrol over there.
Let us bow our heads in memory of Terris.
Who’s Snow Patrol?
“they’re still better than Razorlight”
True dat.
Everytime I hear / read the name Snow Patrol, I think of Taylor Hicks saying it like “soul patrol,” and it makes me chuckle.
“Snoooooooooow Patrol!!! SNOW PATROL!”
The instant anyone seriously uses the word “sell-out,” the rest of their point becomes sound without meaning. It’s like listening to Charlie Brown’s mom.
“Green Day was great, back before they WAH-WAH WAH WAAAAH.”
I am not ashamed to admit this: I absolutely adore Snow Patrol. Several tracks from their last album are near the top of my Play Count list in iTunes. I’m a sucker for “big, soppy, intangible stadium anthems.”
Coldplay is the Velvet Underground compared to Keane. Comparing Keane to Snow Patrol is like trying to have matter occupy the same physical space.
That castrato dude from Geneva squeegeed my windshield, not long ago. And I live in OHIO.
I see the argument being offered here, but honestly I feel Snow Patrol slid down a gradual slippery slope, rather than falling off an indie-to-schlock cliff.
I think back to “Spitting Games” on their ‘03 album, which was basically a major-label version of an indie-pop sound. It was shiny and sheeny, but it wasn’t anthemic, exactly. So one album later, they come up with the big hit, and it’s a lighter-waving ballad, but it still sounds like them – it just sounds like a mealier-mouthed, wussier version of their previous, less embarrassing but still wussy sound. They went from a “7″ to a “4,” not from a “10″ to a “2.”
Snow Patrol is the closest thing to indie rock on mainstream radio. Therefore, they remain my Last Great Hope for Civilization.
They’re decent. Razorlight and Keane are really bad.
@NickEddy: That castrato dude from Geneva squeegeed my windshield, not long ago.
! DETAILS.
Oh, was trying to be funny. “Tranquillizer” crushes all comers. Just a laff at last generation’s (two generations ago, maybe) big balladeers. Next target of gentle 90’s derision: Shed 7, or possibly Orlando.
@chrisb: Hear hear.
It took me a while to get into Snow Patrol’s latest record, but now I love it. Every song. Especially “Set Fire To the Third Bar”.
Suck it, haters.
PS: For whatever it’s worth, I can’t stand Coldplay.
@NickEddy: Next target of gentle 90’s derision: Shed 7, or possibly Orlando.
Don’t do that, or I’ll have to go on and on about how Passive Soul is one of the greatest records of the 90s. More Shed 7 mockery is always welcome, though.
That article was the most British thing I’ve ever read. It’s just missing a “shagging” here and a “knickers” there.
The latest record is OK, and like many I have grown tired of CHASING CARS, but FINAL STRAW is a solid record, good from front to back…perhaps the dirision can move to the new favorite band of the Grey’s Anatomy set…The Fray!
@AlannaBanana: No mention of snogging though…
So basically, the gist I’m getting here, is as soon as band makes it onto my mother’s iPod, they suck?
Yep, The Fray should be next.
The 21st century equivalent of Firehouse. It’s good to know that every rose still has it’s thorn.