Snow Patrol Members Prepare To Cry Themselves To Sleep On Giant, Money-Stuffed Pillows
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]
