Snow Patrol - Eyes Open

For once I want to be the car crash, not always just a traffic jam. Singer Gary Lightbody is presumably talking about his band's music, desperate to be a part of something interesting, dangerous and eye-catching, rather than the bed-wet fest that is Snow Patrol. If this is what passes as "beautiful", "powerful" and "poignant" these days, then the world faces a far greater threat than bird flu or the US reich. Riffs are strummed and vocal lines carried with a fair degree of competency, but with so little soul that any self-respecting music fan would condemn this band to the wastelands that, for me, are presently occupied by the likes of Coldplay, Feeder and Korn. [Ali Maloney]