Snow Patrol Are Probably Not All That Concerned About Critics Anymore

Our look at the closing lines of reviews of the week’s biggest new music continues with a spin through writeups of Snow Patrol’s A Hundred Million Suns, which arrives in U.S. stores today:

• “And after expertly delivering what’s expected, Snow Patrol ask for one minor indulgence: The final track, a 16-minute suite called ‘The Lightning Strike,’ links three distinctly darker, more textured songs into one dramatic whole. It’s not a radical departure–there’s no Kid A in their future–but rather an engaging sidestep for a band that does triumphantly normal better than almost anyone.” [Spin]

• “Meanwhile, on the Belfast tribute and first single, ‘Take Back the City,’ Lightbody sings, ‘All these years later and it’s killing me / Your broken records in words’ and ‘It’s a mess, it’s a start / It’s a flawed work of art,’ before concluding ‘I love this city tonight / I love this city always.’ I feel the same way about Snow Patrol: The band’s a flawed work of art, but I’ll love it always. At least until Lightbody names his first kid Orange.” [Washington Post]

• “Whether or not this album contains a hit as massive as ‘Chasing Cars,’ it’s a confident, balanced work of mass art with only extremely minor flaws. A record built for dusks and dawns in wide open spaces, wherever they may be found.” [PopMatters]

• “There’s still the grand self-absorption they share with Coldplay, but it’s somehow more bearable here, even if one does at times feel a touch embarrassed at intruding upon another’s emotional turmoil.” [The Independent]